« Veélé shemot beney yisrael habayim mitsrayim et yaacov ...



SHEM & SHEMOT- Community Registers in Egypt by Yves Fedida, WCJE 5/07/2006, Haïfa

In contemporary Egypt the Jewish communities, as we know, grew dramatically from mid-19th century. Identity was initially religious, and being part of the Ottoman Empire, Egypt’s administration was based on the Ottoman “Millet” system. This system subdivided the non-Muslim population into religious groups, each enjoying a large degree of autonomy, responsible for its educational system and the individual’s civil status relating to births, marriages, divorces, deaths and various intra-communal legal affairs. The « Millet » privileges, with some amendments, outlasted both the Ottoman Empire and the English protectorate. It lived from 1922 through the monarchy, through the Republic of 1953 until January 1956. As a consequence, the communities generated archives and a comprehensive series of registers. These go back to 1830 in the case of Alexandria, earlier in the case of Cairo, and probably later for other towns. An inventory for Alexandria, where they are best preserved, exemplifies what can be found. Piecing from examples and knowledgeable sources, one can safely ascertain that there are over 255 registers & 17 directories (indexes), amounting to approximately 60 000 pages.

From this inventory, we select the content of 3 types of Registers. This will allows us to appreciate better their span and their potential.

[pic]Note register 17 for which more details will be given later. In the 3rd index here, you will note that 1/2 of the individual & family affidavit registers cover an initial period of 57years, while the 2nd 1/2 span over 20 years only. This could be normal with a growing population. However a closer look shows that 6,5% of the registers were generated over 20 months between the UN partition plan (29/11/1947) and the final armistice of 07/1949. It also shows that 12% were created in the course of the 15 months from September 1956 to December 1957. So nearly a fifth of the registers span a period of 3 years and the rest a period of 74 years. We shall see later the meaning of this.

If the Alexandria collection practically intact, we are told that others, such as those of Port Said, have totally disappeared. We also know that those of Cairo are incomplete. In both main towns pages have been torn out of existing registers. They can be found circulating amongst Judaïca merchants, mostly in Israel. A partial list of these pages has been placed on our website . However we are grateful to institutions such as the Jewish National University Library and the Yeshiva University in New York for having saved some of these documents. You can see a list of what we are aware of.

Having seen the total inventory, looked at indexes of the content of 3 types of registers, let us now open one such register. It is the Marriage Authorisations based on Celibacy Affidavits. Rabbi Prato’s Bet Din copy of N°17 1 of the General & Celibacy Affidavit registers is actually at the archives of the JNUL library in Jerusalem. Mme Mathilde Tagger, the Grand Lady of Sephardic genealogy and a good friend of the Jews from Egypt, undertook the massive work of indexing the entries.

We find in this box 237 marriage authorisations covering a period of 15 months. We also find the actual registration of 16 marriages. From these 237 entries, we can extract information on 2086 individuals. We have 505 different family names. Based on 948 individuals for whom information is complete, that is the spouses and their witnesses, we note that 60% were “Egyptian” (which might include those defined as stateless and known as “local subjects”), and that 40% held one of over 22 different other nationalities. There are 29 different countries of birth. 54 % only were born in Egypt, and of those 37% held a foreign nationality. Many familiar names appear. But beyond the wealth of extraordinary personal & genealogical details, you can see how this data can enrich our comprehension of the causes and origin of migration flows to that part of the world, at that time; that is to say social and political history. The nominative list will be available in September 2006 on the web site.

So how were these registers constituted? What do they look like? What was generated from them? They can be books where information was recorded on a line entry basis (Pinkas or Seguel), or they can be pre-printed sheets or documents (“Souras”) of Affidavits or of Marriage contracts- but not the actual Kettouba-). They were recorded either at the time of the occurrence in Alexandria, or as we see they authenticated a foreign occurrence or a later declaration, on the basis of “Certified Affidavits”. Some of these Certified Affidavits include photographs. A wealth of family stories, information, connections and emotions are imbedded in them. The information they contained was used to establish certificates (Chehadat) both for civil and / or religious authorities, both local and foreign. They could themselves be based on foreign celibacy certificates issued by foreign civil or consular authorities or by rabbinical authorities in the case of predominantly religious marriage laws.

“Pinkassim, souras, & chehadats”, were documents written in French, Italian, Hebrew or Arabic depending on the type and the period in time we look at. The circumcision, kettoubot or burial registers serve exclusively for religious purposes. The Actes de Notoriété and certificates emanating from all registers serve both for religious and civil purposes. All are useful for historical and genealogical purposes.

What is their Civil Importance to us ?

The religious status management was naturally exclusively the affair of the community. It was accepted, in Egypt also as the accredited basis for civil status purposes. Paradoxically however it became non-exclusive, yet still in force, from the time around the 1st World War. From that time births and deaths, except marriages, were also registered with the local municipality’s “Services d’Hygiène Publique”, later “Service Sanitaire”. Thus most Jews born or deceased in Egypt from the time around 1915, whatever their initial nationality may have been, are in the official Egyptian records. Yet the community records prevailed because they encompassed Jews born outside of Egypt or declarations made after the event.

We have seen earlier that many of these affidavits were issued at the time the 2nd exodus played out. This is a sure sign of their civil importance. They were used either to obtain exit visas (hence) and / or to obtain foreign passports or a laissez- passer for stateless Jews or those forced to relinquish their Egyptian nationality. They are therefore already known to the Egyptian authorities, but remain the basic yet unavailable document for those Jews outside Egypt.

It is interesting to compare how the same events of life & death, were differently related & certified.

Location of tomb versus statement

of religious status

after death.

But if you were not an Egyptian national, both religious registration and simultaneous civil registration did not exclude further registration at a foreign consulate. However as we can see foreign National Archives could be incomplete for many families in spite of such consular registration. Such registration is obviously inexistent for Jews who were deprived of their Egyptian nationality, and even more evidently inexistent for stateless Jews who were refused the Egyptian nationality in the first place. So foreign civil authorities still depend on the community registers, even though Jews from Egypt may have by now established bona fide civil status documentation in their host countries. Foreign authorities rely on them:

▪ In case of loss of consular archives;

▪ In cases of theft or loss of documents necessitating reconstitution of civil status;

▪ In case of Nationality Certification, in France specifically;

▪ In cases of inheritance disputes requiring the determination of the marriage terms.

The Egyptian nationality laws of 1926-29 did not call on community registers, but relied on Ottoman documents, and on the above Health registration for attribution of the new Egyptian nationality. This nationality would frequently not be granted on the basis of these laws. In certain cases it would later be withdrawn between 1947 and 1967, or abandoned either voluntarily or under duress for departure. These registers are therefore unessential to Egypt.

Civil registration, with the Service Sanitaire is obviously part of Egypt’s Heritage, in the same way as consular registration, if still found, is obviously part of the foreign country’s Heritage. However if the community registers are still used by certain foreign nations only, and for civil purposes, it is because they concern a religious community with its own specificity of diverse origins, nationalities and destinies. They are the exclusive concern of 99,95% of the Jews from Egypt, who are no longer there and who may need them elsewhere. A heritage linked to religion but necessary for civil reasons.

What is their Religious Importance for us ?

As we know devolution of religious rights in Judaism is strictly codified, halakhically. The registers therefore bear a growing importance, for those cases where it may be necessary, to:

▪ Prove your Jewish lineage, after one or more marriages outside the orthodox synagogue, or after one or more mixed marriage.

▪ Exercise one’s right to a Jewish burial in certain countries of the Diaspora. We must never again accept placement of a body in cold storage, waiting for a certificate!

This may not be important to us, but it could affect our children or their own. The sworn-in religious authority required to authenticate and confer unquestionable halakhic credence to the certificates issued on the basis of the registers, simply no longer exists in Egypt. Nor is it likely to, in the short & medium term. Can theses registers be considered the personal property of the communities where local Jews represent 3 men and 40 women? It seems to us essential therefore that they be placed in the hands of such an accepted authority abroad.

Why are they important Historically & for Genealogy ?

It is rare in this part of the Mediterranean to find a series of documents covering a span of 150 years that bear witness to the life of an important Jewish community. Various other communities such as those of Izmir or Salonika have endured fire and plunder leading to the destruction of their documents. The material available here is a well of information for social and community history, the history of this region. Egypt and Alexandria in particular, as a Mediterranean magnets and crossroads, acted as catalysts in the realm of Sephardic (in its broadest sense) Ashkenazi and Karaite genealogy. The single volume of 237 certificates of preparation for marriage indexed by Mathilde, reveals 2086 individuals in great detail. Imagine what 255 such volumes can have in store! The Egyptian government has so far afforded protection to the community as a moral entity; but Time, climate or pilferage will inevitably take their toll. There is no appropriate infrastructure for the conservation of documents and there is an evident lack of interest by Egyptian researchers in all things Jewish.

Preserving this historical heritage and providing free access and availability to researchers and individuals worldwide, would appear logical. For civil status purposes, these religious registers are today clearly more important to foreign civil servants than to Egyptian ones, whatever the number of Jews in Egypt today or tomorrow! The certificates are no longer legitimate, can at best be considered indicative, and ultimately may no longer be issued at all. And yet when our Association sought permission to copy the registers of Alexandria we were faced with the following arguments:

-They can be copied but nothing leaves the synagogue grounds.

-The registers are part of the Egyptian Heritage

-The decision rests with the community who is against it

-The copy could be used to start individual or collective reclamation procedures.

• Our arguments are that these are only copies of religious documents that we are seeking. They must be allowed to leave the grounds if they are to serve their purpose and be certified.

• The Seguel El Madani, the civil registers as we have seen incorporates civil status declarations made to the health services or to the municipality. THAT is the Egyptian Heritage.

• In 1955 Egypt dissolves the religious jurisdictions. It cannot now confer on them a renewed authority. In Alexandria for instance, 3 men and 12 women of an advanced age, cannot forever be responsible for the religious or civil status of 7 or 8 generations that preceded them. But on the other hand they are afraid to approve our action, without formal authoritative approval, because they fear for their own security and we must respect that.

• Historical facts and figures are well known to everyone. Circumcision or wedding records cannot be used against Egypt and personal reclamations or law cases remain the rights of individuals, irrespective of their religion and nothing in these records as we have seen is a pointer to fortune or possible claims.

The current answers do not reflect Egypt’s stated respect for our religion. Yet recording and honouring « Shemot » is central to our culture.

“Shemot”« Veélé shemot beney yisrael habayim mitsrayim et yaacov, ish ou beto baou. »These are the names of the sons of Israel who came into Egypt with Jacob, each man with his household. …3 the names of those that came until in the wilderness of Sinai « Bamidbar » 3, 603550 individuals are counted by family, except for the Levites,… the names of those that left. So whether we look back 2500 / 3500 years ago for the sons of Israel, whether we go back on a 1000 years ago when family names became common for Jews 2, or whether we turn to 14th century Spain when names became hereditary among Sephardim, or simply today when we each so proudly bear our own name, we are looking at our exclusive identity and our own history.

So should the memory and the past of recently exiled Jews vanish and disappear when their names and story are known, lying unattended and unmagnified but a hand’s reach away,? No one deserves to be forgotten. Real death is when you are forgotten. Can we be deprived of honouring these names? Should we acknowledge that they belong only to a handful of Jews who remain in Egypt, or resiliently accept that they are part of the heritage of Egypt by whom they were rejected and who ignores them ?

‘Shemot’ and the ‘Reshima’, the names and their list, have always been the founding stone of our history and our collective memory. We, as Semites, Jew and Arab, both equally sons of Shem, should never allow them to be forgotten, nor the time of their fruitful coexistence in Egypt. May it be a token of good will and an omen of mutual respect that these registers be returned and entrusted to us, as a memorial and for their perpetual usage. A sure sign that real peace is possible.

May it be His will Be ezn  ‘illah ! Be ezrat HaShem !

Sources

1 JNUL , Archives department Ref. ARC 4*1815

2 La Bible : Exode- Chapitre 1, & Nombres- Chapitre 1

3 Kaganoff, B. C. (1977). A dictionary of Jewish names and their history .

New York: Schocken Books.

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