DECEMBER 23 • 2021 | 23

of the 15th-century Torah scholar Rabbi 
Kapusi and the tomb of the Mosseri family, 
a prominent clan that came to Egypt from 
Italy in the 1700s. Its members founded 
the country’s Zionist Organization chap-
ter in 1917 and financed the building of 
Jerusalem’s King David Hotel. 
Through time, Cairo’s footprint and 
population rapidly ballooned. In 1950, the 
city had 2 million people, compared to its 
present-day population of 21 million. In the 
1930s and 1940s, the years leading up to 
the creation of the modern State of Israel, 
the Jewish community in Cairo was 80,000 
strong and Jews were involved in every 
part of Egyptian culture and society. But, 
after 1948, most of Egypt’s Jews left or were 
driven out. Cairo’s neighborhoods expand-
ed around and even encroached into the 
land of the Jewish cemeteries with roads 
and makeshift buildings. The marble grave-
stones of Jewish graves were looted, and the 
cemeteries became dumping grounds for 
Cairo’s garbage and sewerage. 
Of the hundreds of acres that were once 

the cemetery, only 38 acres remain. And 
there are just two Jews left in all of Egypt to 
look after and care for the Bassatine, Fostat 
and Karaite cemeteries. 
There have been past efforts of diplo-
macy and work to restore and preserve the 
burial grounds dating back to the 1970s. 
But rapid progress took hold when Douek 
in February 2019 was invited as part of a 
delegation of two dozen American Jewish 
leaders to visit Egypt and have a meeting 
with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Si-
si.

Douek can trace his family roots back 
many generations in Egypt. His great-uncle 
was the last chief rabbi of Egypt. Of the 
issues brought up to el-Sisi that were of 
concern to the Jewish American delegation, 
one was the disrepair and neglect of the 
cemeteries. 
In a JN interview with Douek, now New 
York City planning commissioner, he said 
within hours of his bequest, el-Sisi had 
ordered a fleet of trucks to remove the gar-
bage and workers to delicately unearth the 

graves. 
“I was so fortunate to be able to speak 
personally to el-Sisi and impress upon him 
why preserving Egypt’s Jewish cemeteries 
was so important to the Sephardic commu-
nity in New York, which is made of about 
80,000 Jews,
” he said. 

Douek said whether a Jew can trace 
his or her heritage back to Ashkenazic or 
Sephardic lineage, every Jew today has a 
historical connection to the Jewish commu-
nity that once thrived in Egypt. 
“There is no doubt that whether you are 
an Ashkenazi or Sephardi or Mizrachi Jew, 
somewhere you have an ancestor who lived 
in Egypt because, centuries ago, that’s how 
the world was,
” Douek said. “Over the cen-
turies, Jews wandered the world for work, 
for trade or for safety. So, there’s no doubt 
that every Ashkenazi Jew most likely has 
an ancestor buried in Egypt, and that’s why 
this preservation project is so important.
” 

For more information about the Cairo Jewish cemetery 

project, send an email to contact@atzmotyosef.org. 

Partner with our scientists to solve 
humanity’s most difficult challenges.

And if that isn’t reward enough, there are year-end tax benefits, too.

 Every day, hundreds of scientists 
at the Weizmann Institute in Israel pursue 
breakthroughs in cancer research, health 
& medicine, education, technology, the 
environment, and the world beyond our 
planet. A Charitable Gift Annuity gives you 
the opportunity not only to partner with our 
scientists to make remarkable discoveries 
possible, but also to receive payments for life 
and significant tax benefits.

W E I Z M A N N - U S A . O R G

Charitable Gift Annuity Rates*

*Illustration only. Seek your own legal and tax advice to determine the 
consequences of your gift. NY rates may differ.

Age 70 4.7%

Age 75 5.4%

Age 80 6.5%

Example:
Give $25,000 at age 80
and get $1,625/year (6.5%)
for the rest of your life.

Age 85 7.6%

Age 90 8.6%

TO START EXPERIENCING THESE 
REWARDS, CALL 212.895.7940 or 
email cpp@acwis.org

