Ben Ezra Synagogue is 95% restored

CAIRO GENIZA WATCH: Egypt set to open Ben Ezra Synagogue. The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has announced its intention to open the ancient Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo soon, after completing about 95% of restoration works, in a move aimed at revitalizing religious tourism (Ahmed Gomaa, Al-Monitor).

As regular readers are aware, the Ben Ezra Synagogue contains the Cairo Geniza, a major source of medieval Middle Eastern Jewish manuscripts.

To be clear — and the article isn't — the Geniza no longer contains those manuscripts. It was emptied in the late nineteenth century and the manuscripts were moved elsewhere, especially, but not exclusively, to Cambridge and New York.

For background on the Ben Ezra Synagogue and its restoration, see here and links.

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