|
|
you for your wonderful and interesting stories. Without these testimonies, there would have been no book.
I am greatly indebted to Australian Jewish institutions and to staff members of various libraries and archival records. The Australian Jewish News allowed me easy access to back issues of the Sydney Jewish News. The Australian Jewish Welfare Society (AJWS) facilitated access to its archives, as did the Australian Jewish Historical Society (AJHS) and its honorary archivist, Helen Bersten. Marianne Dacy, archivist at the Archive of Australian Judaica, also helped me find records pertaining to the immigration of Egyptian Jews. Kathy Buchan, librarian at Moriah College, very kindly assisted me in locating all the back copies of Jewish publications. I would also like to thank the staff at the Inter-Library Loans Department at Fisher Library of Sydney University for being so prompt in answering all my queries.
I would like to acknowledge all the organisations and individuals throughout the world who are making it their duty to research and inform others of the history and exilic experiences of the Jews of Egypt in modern times. For my research in France, I am particularly indebted to Emile Gabbay and Joseph Chalom who, through their past and present involvement with the publication of Nahar Misraim, the bulletin of l‘Association pour la Sauvegarde du Patrimoine Culturel des Juifs d’Egypte (ASPCJE), answered all my questions and assisted me in locating sources not available through academic libraries. I would also like to thank Albert Oudiz, whose extraordinary memory of life in Egypt before the expulsion constituted an important source of information on my topic. My extended family and friends graciously provided some of the photos I have included in this book, for which I thank them.
I am particularly grateful to Paul Richardson and Toni Tan at Cambria Press for believing in the importance of publishing my book and giving a voice to all the people who enriched my research into the world of the Jews from Egypt.
Finally, I would like to thank my wonderful close and extended family and friends for their constant support during the whole period of my research, particularly my late mother, Esther, whose unconditional love,