22 | DECEMBER 23 • 2021 

W

hen Nancy Berman of 
Huntington Woods travels, she 
puts visiting Jewish historical 
sites on her itinerary. On a 2018 trip to 
Spain, she was hard pressed, however, to 
find any historical markers of Spanish 
Jewry. There was no mention or physical 
reminder of the persecution of Jews during 
the Inquisition. Nothing to mark the expul-
sion of all the country’s Jews in 1492. 
“It saddened me that there was not a sin-
gle memorial or plaque that gave any indi-
cation that a Jewish community in Spain 
once existed,
” said Berman, 47, who has 
spent decades in Jewish Detroit leadership 
roles, most notably being past president 
for Yad Ezra. “When I returned home, I 
thought there must be something I can do 

to get involved to change this. But I was 
told I would need to have connections in 
the government, which I did not, so I felt in 
some ways I hit a dead end.
” 
Though her efforts to preserve the pres-
ence of Jewish history in Spain have yet 
to be fulfilled, her tenacity did lead her 
in 2019 to connect with Joseph Douek, a 
New York City businessman and philan-
thropist of Egyptian Jewish descent 
who, in May 2020, was appointed by the 
Trump Administration as commissioner 
of the United States Commission for the 
Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad.

Now, Berman is working with Douek 
and the remaining two Jews in Egypt to 
raise more than $1 million to preserve and 
restore the Jewish cemeteries of Cairo.

On Oct. 18-21, Berman traveled to 
Egypt with Douek to meet with high-level 
government officials there and to see the 
cemeteries for herself, and document them 
with photographs and video for her fund-
raising efforts. She also met with Jonathan 
Cohen, U.S. Ambassador to Egypt, toured 
Cairo, met other Egyptians and explored 
ancient Jewish sites in Alexandria where 
the Egyptian government had restored an 
ancient synagogue. 
“My trip to Egypt was like walking 
through Jewish history,
” Berman said. 
“There is a high educational value in learn-
ing about Jewish communities that once 
flourished and existed, such as the ones in 
Egypt and Spain. Many of the older people 
I met remembered the times when there 
was Jewish life in Egypt. They are heart-
broken that all that are left of their Jewish 
friends and neighbors are the beautiful syn-
agogues and cemeteries. 

PRESERVING HISTORY
“There are things we can do as individuals 
to make an impact to preserve Jewish histo-
ry so future generations can come one day 
and learn and see for themselves about the 
Jewish community that was once there.
” 
Berman said much could be learned 
from wandering the Jewish burial grounds 
— there are three in Cairo — and learning 
about the prominent Jews interred there. 
 The world’s second oldest Jewish cem-
etery, only to the Mount of Olives in 
Jerusalem, the Bassatine cemetery of Cairo 
was established in the late ninth century 
by the Sultan Ahmed ibn Touloun. At the 
time, it was located on a remote desert 
50 miles east of the city and spanned 145 
acres. Visitors still come to visit the grave 

Local woman works to help restore Egypt’s 
Jewish cemeteries.
Reclaiming History

STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

OUR COMMUNITY

PHOTOS COURTESY OF NANCY BERMAN

Before (left)
and after the 
cleanup

Just a small part 
of the Bassatine 
cemetery that has 
been unearthed after 
decades of neglect. 

