Ben Ezra Synagogue
The Ben Ezra Synagogue, sometimes referred to as the El-Geniza Synagogue or the Synagogue of the Levantines, is situated in Old Cairo, Egypt. According to local folklore, it is located on the site where baby Moses was found.
The Ben Ezra Synagogue is one of the surviving remnants of the once great Jewish community of Egypt. A synagogue has stood on this spot since the 9th century, more than a hundred years before the Fatimids made Cairo their capital. Because of the relative security of the Jews in Egypt, Cairo became one of the biggest repositories of Jewish knowledge during the Middle Ages. In the 1800s a long-abandoned storage room in the synagogue was found to contain literally hundreds of thousands of Jewish documents. This warehouse, known as the Cairo Geniza, is one of the greatest literary discoveries of all time, and its contents have made their way to museums and libraries throughout the world. Although few Jews now remain in Cairo, the Ben Ezra Synagogue and Geniza are among the most visited and treasured Jewish sites in Egypt. The Ben Ezra Synagogue is part of the Historic Cairo UNESCO World Heritage Site.
