Expulsion
Expulsion from Egypt
← View on the mapWhy it happened
After the British-French-Israeli attack on Egypt began on 29 October 1956, the Egyptian government took harsh measures against the Jewish community. Historian Joel Beinin estimates that about 1,000 Jews were detained; 13,000 French and British citizens were expelled, among them many Jews, and another 500 Jews without those nationalities were expelled.1
The migration
About 50,000 Jews remained in Egypt on the eve of the 1956 Suez/Sinai War.1 In its aftermath, about 460 Jewish-owned businesses were sequestered, many Jews lost their jobs, and Jews faced unofficial pressure to leave and renounce Egyptian citizenship.1 Beinin, citing the World Jewish Congress, reports that 14,102 Jews left between 22 November 1956 and 15 March 1957, most abandoning the bulk of their assets.1 Emigration then continued more slowly: another 17,000–19,000 left from mid-1957 to mid-1967, leaving about 7,000 Jews before the 1967 war.1 Between one-third and one-half of the dispersed community ultimately relocated in Israel; other leading destinations included Brazil, France, the United States, Argentina, England, and Canada.1 This route therefore marks Israel as one major destination, not a single path followed by all Egyptian Jews.
Sources
- BBeinin J. 1998. The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora. University of California Press link