Egyptian-Jewish Emigrés in Australia By Racheline Barda

1948. From the dawn of antiquity, Egyptian Jewry had experienced cycles of golden and dark ages, of prosperity and decline, of honour and degradation. These cycles were repeated under every known ruler of Egypt, whether Persian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Ottoman, or Mamluk. The relationship between the Jews and “the dominant other” was mostly one of symbiosis, and the Jewish condition often mirrored the general political, economic, and social situation prevalent at the time in that part of the world. In spite of the numerous vicissitudes it endured, the community succeeded in maintaining its Jewishness, while still espousing outward signs of the dominant culture. Under medieval Islam, in a society that was mainly defined by religion, Jews remained marginalised as dhimmis, protected but nevertheless second-class citizens, always at a distance from mainstream society but at the same time strengthened in their identity as Jews. Since the mid-nineteenth century, their status was greatly enhanced under the protection of the European colonial powers. However, the transformation of Egypt into a modern nation-state increasingly destabilised the foundations of Jewish life in that country. The Jews of Egypt had to respond to the dilemmas introduced by modernity with its long list of “isms”, such as colonialism, liberalism, nationalism, secularism, Arabism, Islamism, Communism, and Zionism. All these ideologies pulled the fabric of their society in conflicting directions. They had to contend with a growing sense of alienation, challenges to their national identity, and political forces that eventually forced them into exile and dispersion. This study investigates every one of these issues with the objective of understanding the underlying reasons for the demise of the Jewish community in Egypt and assessing its integration and acculturation into such diverse diasporas as Australia and France.

Employing a detailed study of a sample group of Egyptian Jews who migrated to Australia and using oral history as a research tool, reinforced by historical data, I tried to construct their social profile as a migrant group, showing how and why they integrated the way they did, how successful was their integration, and how they reconstructed their identity to fit their new context. Finally, by comparing and contrasting the Australian and French migration experiences, I hoped to demonstrate that the