24 | NOVEMBER 24 • 2022 

A

fter 56 years, Joe Salama 
stood in the bedroom 
of his childhood home, 
surrounded by his three children 
and four of his seven grandchil-
dren. He marveled that he, his 
parents and his three siblings had 
lived comfortably in the modest 
apartment at 224 Shatby St., with 
its three small bedrooms, single 
bathroom and galley kitchen. 
Finally, he was able to share 
some of the physical aspects of his 
Egyptian heritage with his fami-
ly. Salama had not been back in 
Egypt since he left in 1966 at the 
age of 19.
For the October trip, Salama, 
75, an orthopedic surgeon at 
Ascension Providence Hospital, 
was accompanied by his children, 
David Salama, M.D., 45, of West 
Bloomfield, and Evan Salama, 
42, and Jill Handman, 37, both 
of whom live in the Los Angeles 
area. Rounding out their group 
of eight were David’s two older 
children, Elliot, 16, and Ari, 13, 
and Evan’s two older children, 
Molly, 10 and Benji, 8. Joe’s wife, 
Rita, has Alzheimer’s disease and 
was unable to make the trip, and 
his children’s spouses stayed home 
with their younger children.
Joe, of Farmington Hills, 
recalled an Alexandria of 500,000 
residents that was very cosmo-
politan; one would hear French, 
English, Italian and Greek spoken 
in the streets along with Arabic. 
The women dressed fashionably 
and hardly any covered their 
hair. Muslims, Christians and 

Jews lived, worked and socialized 
together. Joe recalled a few years 
when Muslim neighbors helped 
his family prepare meals to break 
the Yom Kippur fast.
Today, says Joe, the essence 
of the city is still there, but 
Alexandria now has 7 million 
residents, and so it is much more 
crowded, dirty and noisy. Arabic 
is pretty much the only language 
used, and almost all the women 
wear the hijab.
The Eliyahu Hanavi Syna-
gogue — the largest in all of 
Africa — has been restored, but 
primarily to attract Jewish tour-
ists. It is open only by appoint-
ment; there are no Jews living in 
Alexandria who would attend 
regular services. The synagogue’s 
ark contains 13 Torah scrolls, 
most of which came from other 
synagogues, now closed. When 
the Salamas visited, Joe thought 
he recognized some of the scrolls 
from the synagogue his family 
used to attend.
David Salama said Egypt is in 
the process of renovating another 
synagogue in Alexandria. Several 
Cairo synagogues have also been 
restored.
The Eliyahu Hanavi caretak-
er had erected and decorated a 
sukkah in the synagogue’s court-
yard — the first sukkah built in 
Alexandria since 2008 — and 
served the Salama family a festive 
meal there, including Egyptian 
guaffa (guava), which Joe hadn’t 
tasted since he was a teenager. 
“Taking a bite of this fruit in a 

OUR COMMUNITY

One-time refugee returns to Egypt.

BARBARA LEWIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

An
Exodus
inReverse

COURTESY OF THE SALAMA FAMILY

TOP: 1960 restored photo of the Salama family in front of the 
Sphinx of Giza: Mayer Salama, Gabriel Salama, Edna Ravitz, Joseph 
Salama, Regina Salama 
ABOVE: David Salama, Ari Salama, Jason Handman, Evan Salama, 
Melissa Salama, Joseph Salama, Jill Salama Handman and Elliot 
Salama in front of the Sphinx at Giza

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