History of the Jews in Alexandria

[2][3] In the Ptolemaic period, Alexandrian Jews played a central role in the development of Hellenistic Judaism and were instrumental in the translation of the Torah from Hebrew to Koine Greek, which produced the Septuagint.

Many important Jewish writers and figures came from or studied in Alexandria, such as Philo, Ben Sira, Tiberius Julius Alexander and Josephus.

Alexandria's Jewry began to diminish, leading to a mass immigration of Alexandrian Jews to Rome, as well as other Mediterranean and North African cities.

[citation needed] It appears that the Jewish community of Alexandria was completely eradicated by the end of the Diaspora Revolt in 117 CE.

Under Ptolemaic rule, a separate section of the city was assigned to the Jews, so that they might not be hindered in the observance of their laws by continual contact with the pagan population.

During this time, the Jews in Alexandria enjoyed a greater degree of political independence and prominence, serving as the city's moneylenders, premium merchants and alabarchs.

According to Strabo, the ethnarch was responsible for the general conduct of Jewish affairs in the city, particularly in legal matters and the drawing up of documents.

[5][6][9][10][11][12] Strabo (64/63 BCE–c.24 CE) described the Jewish community in Alexandria as having substantial autonomy, with an ethnarch that "governs the people and adjudicates suits and supervises contracts and ordinances just as if he were the head of a sovereign state."

Contemporary studies affirm that the community had its own established social and legal institutions, operating with the consent of Ptolemaic and later Roman authorities.

Violence occurred in 66 CE, when the Alexandrines had organized a public assembly to deliberate about an embassy to Nero, and a great number of Jews came flocking to the amphitheater.

[5][18][6] During the Diaspora Revolt (115–117 CE), Jewish communities in the Roman provinces of Egypt, Cyrenaica, and Cyprus rose in rebellion while Emperor Trajan was in the east, engaged in his campaign against the Parthians.

[20] Finally, the Roman suppression of the uprising in the city was aided by Greeks fleeing from Jewish attacks in other parts of the country.

The community is mentioned in several documents in the Cairo Genizah, some of which relate to Alexandrian Jews' reaction to the controversial Sar Shalom ben Moses.

Meshullam of Volterra, who visited it in 1481, states that he found only 60 Jewish families, but reported that the old men remembered the time when the community numbered 4,000.

During the French conquest of Egypt, Napoleon imposed heavy fines on the Jews and ordered the ancient synagogue, associated with the prophet Elijah, to be destroyed.

[5][25] In February 2020, 180 Jews from Europe, Israel and the United States arrived in Alexandria to attend religious ceremonies at the historic Eliyahu Hanavi synagogue, which was renovated by the Egyptian government as part of a program to protect Jewish heritage sites.