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a pluralistic, multicultural, and multilingual group. Chapter 5 examines the religious divisions of the sample group into Sephardim, Ashkenazim, and Karaites, again comparing and contrasting their differences and similarities. It also looks at the themes of inclusion versus exclusion and allegiance versus alienation, in terms of the participants’ perception of their place in an independent Egyptian nation and their level of involvement in the political scene.
In Chapter 6, the events of the three successive wars that triggered the exodus of Egyptian Jews are evaluated in relation to the participants’ personal experiences, clearly showing that the majority was more or less coerced into leaving the country, either through direct expulsion or economic strangulation. Some of the questions raised in this chapter are: Did the participants expect that rejection? Was it justified? And how prepared were they for emigration?
Chapter 7 explores the process of migration of the sample group and the different stages of the journey to Australia. It outlines the impact of the restrictive “White Australia” Policy and the various difficulties it imposed on Jews of Middle Eastern origin. It also sheds light on the crucial role played by Jewish institutions and their leaders in securing landing permits for Egyptian Jews. It evaluates their difficult beginnings in Australia and their gradual integration and contribution to both mainstream society and Jewish community. Chapter 8 discusses the crucial concept of plural identities, revealing how Egyptian-Jewish migrants negotiated the various layers of their identity in Australia. It also assesses their interaction with other Jewish ethnic groups and their commitment to Jewish communal issues, linking up with the broad concepts of forced emigration, integration, acculturation, and identity.
The analysis of all those aspects of migration led me to widen the scope of my research in Australia with a comparative study of the immigration experience of a select number of Egyptian Jews in France, contrasting the two geographical, social, and cultural contexts, again using oral history as a research tool. The differences and similarities between the two experiences are assessed, taking into consideration the difficult socioeconomic conditions in both Australia and France in the 1950s