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sukkah brought tears of happi-
ness to his eyes,
” David said.

REVISITING THE PAST
The group visited the site of 
Joe’s father’s printing shop and 
the Lycée Français, the presti-
gious school Joe attended from 
seventh through 12th grades.
The Salamas had landed in 
Cairo after their flight from 
the U.S. and, on their way to 
Alexandria, they visited the 
cemetery at El Alamein, where 
Nazi troops were stopped 
by the British during World 
War II. They noted that if the 
Germans had won that battle, 
the Egyptian Jewish commu-
nities would likely have been 
destroyed and their inhabitants 
exterminated. The Salamas 
looked for the graves of Jewish 
soldiers, marking their visit by 
placing pebbles on the grave-
stones.
After their Alexandria visit, 
they spent three nights in 
Cairo. They recreated a trip 
Joe had made as a child to see 
the Sphinx, and visited several 
historic synagogues, including 
the one where Rav Moshe Ben 
Maimon (Maimonides) wor-
shipped and practiced medi-
cine.
After 12 days in Egypt, the 

group took a short flight to 
Israel. “We recreated a 40-year 
journey in 40 minutes,
” David 
said. It was “our own Salama 
version of leaving Egypt for 
Israel, as powerful a trip as my 
first time landing in Israel when 
I was a teenager.
”
On Shabbat afternoon, they 
enjoyed a family reunion in 
Jaffa with more than 45 cous-
ins, a small sampling of the 
descendants of the family Joe 
had known in Alexandria. “He 
saw some first cousins he had 
not seen since he was a child — 
or, in one case, had never met 
before,
” David said.
Joe said he felt very emotion-
al during much of the trip but 
was grateful for the opportunity 
to return after 56 years and 
share some of his early life with 
his children and grandchildren.

COMMEMORATING 
FORCED EMIGRATION 
On Nov. 30, as it has since 2010, 
Israel will observe Departure 
and Expulsion Day, which 
marks the forced emigration of 
Jews from Arab lands and Iran 
after the establishment of the 
Jewish state in 1948.
The day has special signifi-
cance for Joe, whose family was 
forced to leave Egypt in 1966.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Dr. Joseph Salama inside the Eliyahu 
Hanavi Synagogue in Alexandria, Egypt. Outside of the apartment 
building: David Salama, Elliot Salama, Ari Salama, Joseph Salama, 
Jason Handman, Jill Handman, Evan Salama, Melissa Salama. 
Outside Joseph Salama’s family apartment door in Alexandria: David 
Salama, Evan Salama, Joseph Salama, Jill Salama Handman.

OUR COMMUNITY

