Albert Arie, the oldest Jew in Cairo, passed away Thursday morning, at the age of 91.
Like the rest of the dwindling handful of Jews in Egypt, Arie was anti-Zionist and he was celebrated by Egyptians for his refusal to move to Israel as so many other Egyptians were forced to in stages as Egypt persecuted and expelled them starting in 1948.
Arie would often do interviews where he would speak about what life used to be like for Jews in Egypt, recalling how Egyptians used to be able to take a train directly to Jerusalem (although his claim that it took only two hours seems suspect.)
This interview took place last October:
JIMENA estimates that there only about four Jews left in Egypt, and most reports say the remainder are all or mostly elderly women.
However, last month some 13 Yemeni Jews fled their country and went to Cairo, so at least for a while, there are more Jews in Egypt than there have been for about ten years. It would be interesting to see if Egypt allows them to become citizens - current Egyptian nationality law would seem to allow them to apply to become citizens after ten years, since they come from a Muslim-majority country, and the president can override those requirements.
