Egypt’s synagogues reflect the country’s cosmopolitan history and its multicultural and pluralistic religious heritage which extended beyond the trichotomy of Abrahamic religions. According to contemporaneous sources, at its zenith, Egyptian Jewry was among the world’s most diverse Jewish communities, comprising Jews of all denominations and ethnic backgrounds. The Moshe Dari Karaite Synagogue, located in Cairo’s lively district of Abbassiya, was built between 1925 and 1933, at the height of Egyptian Jewry’s cultural and social visibility. Owing its name to 13th century Karaite poet Moshe Dari, the synagogue served members of the ancient Jewish sect in Cairo. Karaite Jews are among the Middle East and North Africa’s oldest religious groups. In fact, some historians estimate that there had been a virtually continuous Karaite presence in Egypt and North Africa that predates Sephardic and Ashkenazi migration to the region. Followers of this relatively obscure Jewish religious movement rely solely on written sacred texts, or the Written Torah, in their understanding and interpretation of Judaism, its traditions and laws. This contrasts with mainstream Rabbinic Judaism, which considers the Talmud a primary source of Jewish law, theology and thought. Egyptian Karaites’ influence on the…
In Photos: The World’s Karaite Jewish Heritage Lives on at Cairo’s Moshe Dari Synagogue
May 20, 2020
