76 | APRIL 14 • 2022 

…“Two vast and trunkless legs 
of stone
Stand in the desert … 
And on the pedestal, these 
words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King 
of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, 
and despair!
Nothing beside remains. …”
From Ozymanidas by Percy 
Bysshe Shelley, 1818
D

avid Schey was 
amazed rather than 
in despair. He and his 
wife, Doris, were in Luxor 
during a trip billed as “the 
first ever kosher tour of 
Egypt through the eyes of the 
Tanakh (Jewish Bible)” — and 
he was looking at two enor-
mous trunkless legs of stone 
that made him immediately 
recall Percy Bysshe Shelley’s 
ode written more than two 
centuries earlier.

He was even more amazed 
when their tour guide told 
them that Ozymandias was 
the Greek name of Ramesses 
II, the Egyptian pharaoh at 
the time of the Exodus — 
the one who enslaved the 
Israelites and tried to prevent 
them from leaving. For Schey, 
it was a highlight of a recent 
10-day trip to Egypt.
Inveterate travelers who 
need kosher food and 
Shabbat-friendly itineraries, 
the Scheys, of Huntington 
Woods, had taken several 
tours and river cruises with 
Kesher Tours, which works 
with an Israeli company, Shai 
Bar-Ilan Geographical Tours.
The Scheys booked the trip 
many months ago but weren’t 
sure until Jan. 17, the day 
they left, that it would actual-
ly happen.
While the tour was con-
ducted in English, only three 

couples among the 33 trav-
elers hailed from the United 
States. The rest, though orig-
inally from the U.S., Canada 
or the U.K., lived in Israel.
The tour was led by Rabbi 
Dr. Joshua Berman of Israel’s 
Bar-Ilan University and an 
Egyptian Coptic Christian 
man with a deep knowledge 
of Egyptian history, including 
the ability to read hieroglyph-
ics.
The group visited Aswan, 
Cairo and Luxor; and in each 
area, they saw sites related to 
Jewish history.
Near Aswan, they visited 
Elephantine, an island fortress 
in the Nile River and the site 
of the oldest known Jewish 
diaspora community. 
In Cairo, they saw the 
synagogue where Moses Ben 
Maimon, the Rambam, wor-
shipped, as well as his home 
and medical clinic. They saw 
the Ben Ezra Synagogue, 
where the Cairo Geniza was 
found by two Scottish women 
in 1896; the documents bur-
ied in the geniza dated back 
to the 11th century and pro-
vided great insight into Jewish 
life in the area. 
 The group planned to hold 
Shabbat services at the Sha’ar 
Hashamayim synagogue, the 
only one still functioning in 
Egypt, but for security rea-
sons they prayed at their hotel 
instead.
In the Cairo Museum, 
they saw a stele, an upright, 
engraved stone slab, dated 
to pre-Exodus times, that 
mentions the Israelites. Their 
guide pointed out the loca-
tion of the Biblical Land of 
Goshen. 
In Luxor, a hieroglyph-
ic inscription named sites 
conquered by Ramesses II, 

including some, like Bet 
Shean, in Israel. At a tem-
ple in Luxor, they saw more 
inscriptions that related to the 
Exodus.
The Scheys also enjoyed 
the non-Jewish sights on the 
tour, including several pyra-
mids and temples. David was 
particularly impressed by a 
painted statue of Ramesses II 
that he described as “the most 
beautiful statue I’ve ever seen. 
It was very realistic; the skin 
tones were so lifelike!”
While in Cairo, the group 
met with Israel’s ambassa-
dor to Egypt, Amira Oron, 
whose parents came from 
Egypt. She told them that the 
relationship between the two 
countries is better than it has 
been in years, and that Egypt 
is interested in Israel’s high-
tech achievements, especially 
in water conservation.
Another highlight of the 
trip was a hot air balloon ride 
over the Valley of the Kings, 
the fertile area fed by the Nile. 
Though theirs may have 
been the first kosher tour to 
Egypt, it was obvious that 
Israelis were no strangers to 
the locals. Wherever they 
went, David said, vendors 
would shout, “Shalom, sha-
lom! We love Jews. We love 
Israel!”
What’s next for David, 81, 
a retired social worker, and 
Doris, 77, a retired teacher? 
They had signed up for a 
cruise to Scotland, Norway 
and Iceland, originally sched-
uled for last July. It has been 
rescheduled for August. 
They had also planned a 
river cruise to Vietnam and 
Cambodia in 2020 that was 
canceled. They’re hoping 
it might happen this 
December. 

TRAVEL

Huntington Woods couple visits 
Jewish sites in Egypt.

In Search 
of the True 
Exodus

BARBARA LEWIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

David and 
Doris Schey 
in Egypt