48 Friday, April 4, 1975 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS The Trials of Cairo's 200 Jews (Continued from Page 1) Moslem tourists; as well as Jews, stream through the building, listen to a guide tell how Moses once prayed on this spot because Cairo itself was too full of idols, gaze at the magnificent stained glass windows and hear the shamash tell how nine hundred years ago Rabbi Abraham Ben Ezra came here from Jerusalem and built this house of prayer. Some tourists even get a glimpse of the Torah written on gazelle skin. No one tells tourists about the even larger build- ing on Adly Pasha street called the Grand Temple of Ismaili and although it is only a short walk from the Nile-Hiltak and the Egyp- tian Museum, few bother to try to find it. It is on one of the principal streets in a posh shopping district, op- posite a popular restaurant, the Leban. The iron fence surrounding the seventy- five-year-old building is ten feet high and the gate is fas- tened with an immense pad- lock. But down a narrow al- leyway cluttered with pushcarts and garbage there is an unobtrusive door guarded by a tall and very black Egyptian who smiles broadly whenever he hears the password "Shalom!" The courtyard is paved with marble and tile mosaics. A flight of marble steps leads into a large room off the sanctuary equipped with an improvised ark and a few chairs. Here half a dozen old men and one woman sit staring into space as they mumble their prayers in a French-Ladino-Arabic di- alect of Hebrew incompre- hensible to a European or American Jew. Only some- times on Friday night or Saturday morning do they have,a minyan. Or any hope of a minyan. The men wear faded blue berets instead of yarmulkes. The woman looks as if she had on all the clothes she owns, and still she shivers, for it is cold and dark and humid in this ghastly place. The men's garments are frayed and tattered. There is the smell and look of decay every- where. The eight represent- atives of the two hundred seem oblivious to the cry of a mezzuin chanting the Moslem call to prayer over a loudspeaker with the vol- ume turned up too high for oral comfort. They also ig- nore the presence of several strangers. The praying finished, one of the men, after removing his philacteries, introduces himself. He looks eighty but says he is just under sixty. He has a public relations office down the street. He has lived here all his life. He has few complaints. "We have no big problem. We can leave the country if we wish. will die here someday and I will be buried in our Jewish cemetery, which they still let us keep." Then the old lady spoke. "I talk Hebrew, French, English, German and Ara- bic. Also a little Russian. I am born in Jerusalem, but I came here more than sixty years ago as a young bride. My husband came to make business. Then he died. At one time we had a very good life here. But now . . . now it is all finished." The sanctuary of the Grand Temple Ismaili was once a thing of magnificent beauty, but now the win- dows are too dirty for the sun to filter through, the red carpet the length of the main aisle is threadbare, the pews are thick with dec- ades of dust, the crystal chandelier is badly in need of a bath. And even here the walls too seem to shake with the mezzuin's electronic cry. In the old days this must have been an elegant house of prayer. The real shock comes if one is fortunate enough to persuade some member of the miniscule Jewish com- munity to serve as guide on a tour of the smaller syn- agogues. We found a wiz- ened little man who, in good Of course we can take only one suitcase with us. But we can leave. Then if we want to come •back we can. Some of our people have done both. Young people can also get permission to go but they cannot return. I do not understand why not, but it is really academic, for there are . . . no . . . young peo- ple here anymore. Only peo- ple like us," and he waved his hand toward the old lady and the other five men. "We get kosher meat now and then from Alexandria and at Passover we have all the matzot we need. We help each other. Yes, we get along. I would like to go to America if I were younger, but what would a man of sixty do in America? I am too old to readjust. Israel? We talk a lot about it. Some have gone there, by way of Rome or New York. But Is- rael is also for young people. Young people can readjust. I have never lived on charity and I will not begin now. I English, said he wanted to be called "Old Victor." He had been brought here from Poland seventy-five years ago as a small boy by his father, an Ashkenazi rabbi; before the Nasser revolution he himself was chief clock- maker for King Farouk; now he lives very sparsely — on charity. Old Victor took us down a narrow, twisty street, ex- tremely filthy, even for ri Mohas- Cairo, called Sha sar al Knachab, the Street of the Wood Cutters. This is the way into the heart of what was once one of the most congested Jewish quarters anywhere in the world. These shops, these houses, this whole area was one hundred per cent Jew- ish. Now all trace of Jews and Judaism is gone. The small shops are owned by Egyptians now. There's not a Mogen David anywhere until you come to the ruins of the Maimonides Syn- agogue. Ruins? The walls stand but last Rosh Ha- shana the roof caved in. Someone has cleared a space so a visitor can stand in the center of the sanctuary and imagine what a jewel of a holy place this once was. The building was built half un- derground. At the bottom of a flight of stone steps is what remains of what used to be a tiny hospital. Old Victor points out the "Healing Well" and tells how Christians and Mos- lems as well as Jews used to come from afar to be cured. Often they would stay down here overnight. "Lots of Jewish miracles happened here — people were made well — miracles, you under- stand?" On the floor and upstairs are hunch... of picture frames, the glass broken but the pictures themselves intact; cabalistic pictures, old paintings of the Moses for whom this synagogue was named, Ara- bic words in Hebrew script — historical treasures being trampled underfoot, and al- most no one seeming to care. A young Orthodox rabbi from Boston says he is trying to persuade the •Egyptian Government to do something to save buildings like this before it is too late. The cultural attache of the American Embassy says maybe the Smithsonian In- stitution could be inter- ested. Someone speaks of a demoralized community. It's more than that. It is a community in the last stages of utter decay. Just fifteen years later. Pity the two hundred! `Reassessment' Follows Peace Talks' End (Continued from Page 1) Geneva peace comference. The United States Am- b'a.ssadars to Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Israel were sum- moned to Washington for a high level conference on American Middle East pol- icy. The envoys met with Kissinger at the State De- partment. Kissinger's talks with Ford in California this weekend will cover Ameri- ca's position in Vietnam as well as the Middle East. The President will address the nation on foreign affairs on or about April 9. - "The reassessment is underway," State Depart- ment spokesman Robert Anderson told newsmen with regard to the recall of the U.S. Middle East am- bassadors. He said the re- view would be conducted "in the normal way by the National Security Council machinery" and that all agencies involved in the Middle East will be partic- ipating. The State Department confirmed Wednesday that the U.S. Government has re- ceived official notification from Egypt that it seeks to have the Geneva peace con- ference reconvened and said that the U.S. would he in touch with its conference co- chairman, the Soviet Union, and with other parties to it regarding a date and possi- ble participants. Department spokesman Anderson said there was no estimate at this time of a date and that no date was suggested by Egypt. Qu ,'-,̀,-t-inned on reports that the United Kingdom and France might be invited by Arab countries to partici- pate in the Geneva talks, Anderson said the U.S. ob- v,iously would be talking with the Soviet Union and other parties but he would not discuss U.S. views on that aspect. Department State sources were quoted Tues- day as cautioning that a Middle East peace settle- ment would be difficult to achieve at the Geneva con- ference but that the U.S. was ready to go along with the multinational forum. In Jerusalem, official ,sources were careful not to react to news of President Ford's interview in Hearst newspapers in which he blamed Israeli intransig- ence for the failure of Kis- singer's Mideast effort. Privately, officials tended to hope that Kissinger's news conference last Wednesday in Washington in which he carefully- avoided apportioning blame—represented a more up-to-date and more bal- anced U.S. official position. They note1 that Ford had given his interview March 24, before Kissinger's press conference and when the President was reportedly highly angered and upset by the failure of the shuttle effort. Some well placed sources here said—again in private briefings—that Geneva is not necessarily the sole available option at this stage. They mentioned "proximity talks" as a possible alternative. ISRAELI PROPOSAL EGYPTIAN PROPOSAL Mediterranean Sea Mediterranean Sea ∎ PORT SAP PORT SAID El o ' GAZ y. APtski EL APISH o S E3EERSHEBA rti su ISMAIt IA cr 0 cc SUEZ‘j ---- • 0 SUEZ" Su DE SUDf SINAI Va ABU /ENE rn ABU ZE NE,MA :MA 0 ABU RU \\. Ruacl . Road AK, RUC* IS O 0 o SAUDI A •DAHAs Sands .‘A Sands \ Mounto ■ ns High Mount., I Swamps — E • 1UP 1 Mountains E • ', UR H. gh Mounions 1 _T Swamps 103 ' km SMARM ESH-SHEISH Red Sea ke-printed from the Jerusalem Post THESE TWO MAPS depict the Israel territorial proposal, and the Egyptian counter-proposal, for a "less far-reaching settlement" which were dis- cussed in the latter stages of the talks. The Israel proposal was made when it became clear that Egypt would not agree to a full non- belligerency pact. Israel suggested a Withdrawal to midway across the Passes and the ceding of the oilfields to Egypt administration in return for an Egyptian commitment to refrain from use of force for a fixed period, plus "elements of non- belligerency." Egypt responded with a territorial demand which effectively represented what Israel had been prepared to cede in return for full non- belligerency. Egypt also refused the "elements of non-belligerency," such as direct flights for for- eign tourists and moderation of the Arab boycott.