Eleven Torah scrolls from the Great Synagogue of Alexandria have been flown to Britain following an appeal to President Anwar Sadat by Lord Segal, a Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords. Some of the scrolls, in handsome ornate cases, are expected to go to the synagogue in Oxford, of which Lord Segal is honorary president. Others will be offered to the Egyptian Jewish community in London.
Lord Segal requested transfer of the scrolls when he met Sadat in Egypt last year, seven months before Sadat’s Jerusalem visit. There are still another 50 Torah scrolls in the Great Synagogue of Alexandria. Of the city’s 22 synagogues, only two remain in use following the exodus of Jews from Egypt in 1956.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
