SAVING A CEMETERY WHERE OUR ANCESTORS ARE BURIED
HASHEM HAS A VERY EFFICIENT AND WELL EXECUTED PLAN FOR US TO FULFILL. IN 1993 WHEN ITS RESTORATION WAS COMPLETED, EL BASSATINE, THE JEWISH CEMETERY IN CAIRO, WAS IN PERFECT CONDITION—COMPLETE WITH WALLS AND GATES THAT WERE NON-EXISTENT PRIOR AND A COMPLETED SUSPENSION BRIDGE CONNECTING THE ROAD AROUND CAIRO.
Our cemetery was safe and well-protected. I gave the keys and the responsibility to Carmen Weinstein, the then–President of the Jewish community of Cairo, Egypt.
In early 2019 I received a video from Egyptian TV in which an anchor woman was showing a video of El Bassatine Cemetery completely covered with garbage and debris and giving off an awful stench. The stone walls that were built were breached and the five huge steel gates had been stolen. She was bringing this hazardous situation to the attention of the government and demanding that they eliminate the cemetery because it was a severe health hazard to the community.
I immediately investigated and discovered that Mrs. Weinstein had passed away several years earlier and there was no one taking care of the cemetery.
The value of this property consisting of 6.5 acres in the heart of Cairo is very precious today and worth several hundred million dollars. I realized that many unscrupulous developers were vying for this property. They built makeshift inexpensive buildings surrounding the cemetery which was illegal. They also bypassed government regulations and dumped their sewer lines onto the grounds of the cemetery creating the stench that was emanating from it and covered the sewer lines with garbage and debris and encouraged the residents in the neighborhood to use the cemetery as a dumping ground to hide their criminal acts.
It broke my heart to see the devastation of the cemetery where my grandparents and many relatives were buried. Now I am 80 years old with limited funds and no government connections to save this cemetery. So, I prayed to the Almighty to help me once again as he had done before, and He listened. A few days later, I received a call from Mr. Joseph Douek, a commissioner from Brooklyn, who knew of my work for the El Bassatine Cemetery. He informed me that he was going to Egypt as part of a Jewish mission to meet with Egypt’s President Abdel Fatah El Sissi and asked if I would like him to deliver a message to the President.
I informed Mr. Douek of the present situation at the El Bassatine Cemetery and what I had done 30 years earlier and that President Hosni Mubarak had agreed to the reclamation of this holy ground. I informed him that this cemetery was deeded to the Jewish people of Egypt in the 7th century on land that was originally located 50 miles away from Cairo in the desert but the city expanded so much since then that the cemetery was now located in the heart of Cairo and is a very expensive and valuable property. Every developer is vying to own it and to build on it. Many of our ancestors were buried in this holy ground and they have earned the right to rest in peace.
Mr. Douek left on the mission with my information and my prayers to the Almighty to help him. He conveyed my message to President El Sissi who in turn ordered the return of this precious land to its rightful owners, the Jewish community and ordered his government to allow us to complete this second restoration.
The Almighty listened to my supplication and handed a great victory to the Jews of Egypt by safeguarding the resting place of our ancestors. I called Asra Kadisha, a dedicated organization that saves and protects all Jewish cemeteries and spoke to the Vice President, Rabbi Chizkiya Kalmanowitz, and connected him to the Vice President of the Jewish community in Egypt, Sammy Ibrahim. I told them to start replacing the breached walls and the five double steel gates around the cemetery. Then they proceeded to remove the garbage and debris. That’s when they discovered the hidden sewer lines. We needed to restore this precious holy ground. We needed an enormous amount of money, approximately half a million dollars, to restore the cemetery to its original condition.
Rabbi Kalmanowitz of Asra Kadisha is an expert on Jewish cemeteries. He went to Egypt with Sammy Ibrahim and they estimated that the work would take at least 18 months for cleaning and restoration. We sent several rabbis to oversee this huge task. They needed hotels, kosher food, airline tickets, transportation and workers. Each day we hired approximately 40 workers and rented trucks, bulldozers, and forklifts.
I started asking friends for donations, which we sent to Asra Kadisha. We needed to raise an enormous of money, enough to restore the cemetery to its original condition. The best approach to raise the additional funds was suggested by my brother, Bobby Soffer. He recommended that I approach the President of Ahaba Ve Ahva, a Jewish Egyptian congregation, Solomon Barnathan and his committee and ask them to raise the additional funds. The project was fully supported and endorsed by their Rabbi, Shimon Alouf, Eli Harari and Isaac Chehebar and their entire executive board to encourage the community to disburse the money needed directly to Asra Kadisha.
I received weekly videos, pictures and communications showing the progress of this huge task. While cleaning, graves belonging to many great rabbis were discovered. The mausoleum of the Chief Rabbi of Egypt, Haim Nahum Effendi zt’l was discovered and an illustrious Rabbi, Yehudah Maslaton zt’l was buried there in 1934. He was brother to the honorable Rabbis Mordechai Maslaton zt’l grandfather of our Rabbi Shaul Maslaton.
Another great miracle occurred when one of the rabbis while searching for plans and surveys of El Bassatine at the government office was told of the existence of another very old Jewish cemetery called Fostat, as old as El Bassatine and slightly smaller in size and also located in the heart of old Cairo. I had no idea of its existence as it had been closed many centuries earlier because it was filled to capacity. I immediately asked the rabbis in Egypt to check on it.
Unfortunately, it was in the same devastating condition as El Bassatine, so we took it upon ourselves to build walls and gates that had been non-existent in Fostat cemetery. That work is being accomplished as I am writing these words. We are removing tons of garbage and debris and I have assigned a second crew with trucks, bulldozers, and forklifts.
Cairo’s summer heat averages 110˚ and these rabbis deserve our utmost gratitude and appreciation for their courage and devotion and expertise to do this entire project according to Din Halacha at great personal sacrifice and to work in Egypt under this enormous heat.
A great Hazak u Baroukh to Solomon Barnathan and the executive board of Ahaba Ve Ahva for their full financial support, to Rabbi Shimon Alouf for his support, Eli Harari and Isaac Chehebar, to Joseph Douek for his accomplishment with President El Sissi and to President El Sissi to whom we are grateful for his respect in honoring our ancestors, and to my brother, Bobby Soffer for his guidance and advice. May Hashem bless all Am Israel.
When Am Israel unites great accomplishments and miracles can happen. We always need to stand up and be counted on to help all our brethren, alive or more so if they are dead. Amen Ken Yehi Ratzon (may it be His will).
Clement Soffer was expelled from Egypt in 1957 and came to the USA by himself. He was sponsored by Mirrer Yeshiva. He was instrumental in building Ahavah ve Ahva, as well as synagogues in Florida. He helped secure the freedom of 4,500 Jews from Syria and has salvaged Jewish Egyptian cemeteries, as well as other cemeteries around the world.
