This is a memoir by one of the few surviving Egyptian Jews to remember the golden age of his community in Egypt. It is also much more than that. Uniting the fascinating, evocative, and sorrowful story of his own family's experience of being Jewish Egyptians in the middle part of the twentieth century with meticulous academic research, author Gabriel Tamman provides unique insights that are both moving and informative. For many years, the story of the Egyptian Jews remained largely untold except within Jewish Egyptian and niche academic circles. The horrors of the European Holocaust became, and remain, the best-known narrative of twentieth-century Jewish history. However, Jewish history is complex, and the stories of the Egyptian Jews, their lives in Egypt, their sad departure, the roles that they have played subsequently in Israel and around the world, and their memories of the past, all warrant close examination. They, too, are part of the tapestry of Jewish experience. With no bitterness or rancour, Tamman's clear voice illustrates a rich history and way of life that is no more, and invites a close examination of Jewish Egyptian history, calling on Jews and Egyptians alike to come together to explore this fascinating aspect of Middle Eastern heritage, and to work to right the wrongs of the past.
