Just a small part of the Bassatine cemetery that has been unearthed after decades of neglect.
Reclaiming History Local woman works to help restore Egypt’s Jewish cemeteries.
STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
W
hen Nancy Berman of Huntington Woods travels, she puts visiting Jewish historical sites on her itinerary. On a 2018 trip to Spain, she was hard pressed, however, to find any historical markers of Spanish Jewry. There was no mention or physical reminder of the persecution of Jews during the Inquisition. Nothing to mark the expulsion of all the country’s Jews in 1492. “It saddened me that there was not a single memorial or plaque that gave any indication that a Jewish community in Spain once existed,” said Berman, 47, who has spent decades in Jewish Detroit leadership roles, most notably being past president for Yad Ezra. “When I returned home, I thought there must be something I can do
to get involved to change this. But I was told I would need to have connections in the government, which I did not, so I felt in some ways I hit a dead end.” Though her efforts to preserve the presence of Jewish history in Spain have yet to be fulfilled, her tenacity did lead her in 2019 to connect with Joseph Douek, a New York City businessman and philanthropist of Egyptian Jewish descent who, in May 2020, was appointed by the Trump Administration as commissioner of the United States Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad. Now, Berman is working with Douek and the remaining two Jews in Egypt to raise more than $1 million to preserve and restore the Jewish cemeteries of Cairo. Before (left) and after the cleanup
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DECEMBER 23 • 2021
PHOTOS COURTESY OF NANCY BERMAN
OUR COMMUNITY On Oct. 18-21, Berman traveled to Egypt with Douek to meet with high-level government officials there and to see the cemeteries for herself, and document them with photographs and video for her fundraising efforts. She also met with Jonathan Cohen, U.S. Ambassador to Egypt, toured Cairo, met other Egyptians and explored ancient Jewish sites in Alexandria where the Egyptian government had restored an ancient synagogue. “My trip to Egypt was like walking through Jewish history,” Berman said. “There is a high educational value in learning about Jewish communities that once flourished and existed, such as the ones in Egypt and Spain. Many of the older people I met remembered the times when there was Jewish life in Egypt. They are heartbroken that all that are left of their Jewish friends and neighbors are the beautiful synagogues and cemeteries. PRESERVING HISTORY “There are things we can do as individuals to make an impact to preserve Jewish history so future generations can come one day and learn and see for themselves about the Jewish community that was once there.” Berman said much could be learned from wandering the Jewish burial grounds — there are three in Cairo — and learning about the prominent Jews interred there. The world’s second oldest Jewish cemetery, only to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, the Bassatine cemetery of Cairo was established in the late ninth century by the Sultan Ahmed ibn Touloun. At the time, it was located on a remote desert 50 miles east of the city and spanned 145 acres. Visitors still come to visit the grave
