A Jew and a Muslim Work Together to Save Egypt’s Jewish Heritage

Last month we featured an item about the restoration of a historic synagogue in Egypt, a project financed by that country’s government. This month, along the same lines, we bring the extraordinary story of two Egyptian women -– Magda Haroun, a Jew (pictured left) and Marwa Abu Dagga, a Muslin of Palestinian background -– who became friends and have taken it upon themselves to help restore the country’s vanished Jewish heritage.
 
Quotes: “[The fleeing of Egypt’s Jews] takes me back to my Palestinian family… how they fled [in 1948] and left their homes behind.” — Marwa Abu Dagga | “All our problems would be solved if we accepted others.” — Magda Haroun
 
Sources: BBC, Wikipedia
 
Learn more about Egypt’s once thriving, now lost, Jewish community on Wikipedia. >>
 
Watch “The unlikely friendship saving Egypt’s synagogues” [3:29]. >>
 
Photo: From a BBC video