Courageous, tireless, and loyal was Carmen Weinstein, the former leader of Egypt’s dwindling Jewish community. Weinstein fought the good fight of faith – she is remembered as the “iron lady” of Egypt’s Jews who stood against the forces of history that sought to brand them as forgotten. Weinstein was born in 1931 into an Egyptian family, presumably during the last of the golden days for Egyptian Jewry. The first half of the 20th century in Egypt is known as the ‘golden age’ for Judaism in Egypt because of the large Jewish population that was situated in Egypt; Jews were integrated into society as merchants, bankers, artists, and professionals. They excelled in medicine, served at Court of Rules, and engaged in crafts such as textile dyeing. Cairo was the center of Jewish life in Egypt, the Jews in Egypt were primarily situated in Ḥārat al-Yahūd, or the Jewish quarter in what is now Cairo’s old center, although they also settled down across Alexandria and Cairo as a whole. Following the massive Jewish exodus from Egypt in the mid 20th century, the golden age of Judaism in Egypt withered away, and…
