Just like cathedrals are for Catholics, synagogues are proud monuments of Jewish history, our legacy in architecture passed through generations. But what should be done with old synagogues where no Jews longer live, the living conditions—inhabited by non-Jews—are poor, and money is being spent to rebuild synagogues that are never used?
This problem sprang up recently in Cairo, where the famed Ben Maimon synagogue in the old Jews’ Quarter, which is no longer inhabited by Jews, is under rehabilitation to restore its former glory. The synagogue is named for the great Jewish thinker and doctor Maimonides. Dr. Zahi Hawass, the Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of the Antiquities—the man wearing the Indiana Jones-style hat in Egyptian documentaries, talking about tomb finds and mummies—maintains, “Jewish sites are an important part of our heritage.†But whose heritage does the synagogue belong to—that of the Egyptians or Jews of today, or the Egyptian Jews of yesterday?
Under clear modern law, the synagogue is on Egyptian land. Therefore, it does legally belong to Egypt. However, its cultural legacy is one of the examples of the rich Jewish community that lived in Alexandria in the centuries before and after the modern era. Their number was “considerable,†some sources say, and produced great thinkers and philosophers.
The Jews at that time who inhabited the synagogue were also Egyptian, not just of the Jewish faith. They may have been the ancestors of today’s Jews, I believe, but they were profoundly Egyptian Jews, citizens of the Roman province of Egypt. They may have had a different religion than the pagan ones of the time that surrounded them, but they lived and died in the province of Egypt, much of which—including Alexandria and what would become Cairo—is now modern Egypt. Though some of their descendants may have fled abroad, it is likely that, though few Jews live in Egypt today, ancient Egyptian Jews assimilated into the later Muslim population.
Still, despite the building’s location and its legal ownership by the Egyptian government, it is still a heritage site for all Jews. Maimonides is a figure respected internationally in Judaism and other faiths for his wisdom and commentary on Hebraic texts, so his namesake synagogue would be worth visiting. It is a locus of the intellectual tradition that pervades Judaism even today.
The building is also a heritage site for Muslims. Though it is in what once was the “Jewish†quarter of Cairo, the temple is named for Moses ben Maimon, a Jew that lived in Egypt after fleeing from Spain. He became an Egyptian and wrote his famous Mishnah commentary in Egypt, also serving as one of the sultan of Egypt’s physicians. Therefore, he also contributed a great deal to Muslim society, adding his wisdom to the already rich tradition of the Quran and participating in Muslim political life.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/pol/pol21.htm
This monument can belong to both heritages, for its founder was a patron of both peoples. The facts that the synagogue is located somewhere formerly Jewish should not matter, because no Jews really live there anymore. Dr. Hawass was correct in saying that the monument was for Jews and for Egypt and its Muslim inhabitants. Some Cairo residents may argue that its reconstruction takes valuable resources away from everyday inhabitants or that the temple’s restoration is just an example of submitting to Israeli points-of-view, but those are separate, yet important, issues. The cultural heritage of the Ben Maimon synagogue is one for both groups, one that could unite them in worship.
