With escalating conflict on the Rafah border between Israel and Gaza and rising sectarianism across the Middle East, the Cairo Synagogue hosted an iftar that brought together Muslims, Jews and other communities. The iftar, the breaking of the fast at sunset during the Islamic Holy Month of Ramadan, had been called for by the Egyptian Alliance for Minorities. “This is an event of importance, especially that we here, in Egypt, are not foreign to the idea of uniting Christians, Muslims and Jews,” said journalist Karina Kamel to Aswat Masriya. During the iftar, Magda Haroun, President of the Jewish Community, described the importance of changing Egyptian mentality towards Judaism. “One guy was asked: ‘Do you like Laila Murad?’ He said: ‘Yes, I do very much.’ He was asked again: ‘Do you know that she is Jewish?’ He then replied saying: ‘If so, then I don’t like her.’ This is the ideology that I am trying to change,” said Magda Haroun to Aswat Masriya, “We [the Jews] have lived in Egypt and we have built in Egypt.” ‘Al-Azharoun for a Civil State Movement’ member Sheikh Mohamed Abdullah Nasr, who also led a prayer for Muslims at…
