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The Jewish Synagogue of
Ben Ezra
 Ben Ezer's Temple, lying at the end point of church buildings ,
is reported to have been erected in the 6th or presumably the
9th Century AD. The temple site and the surrounding grounds,
originally a property of the church, was acquired by the Jews in
return for "kantars of gold". The basilica-style temple contains
a Jewish heritage library, that was inaugurated on November
25,1997.
 In 1896, a collection of documents known as "Jineesah" were
found in the temple. The document, written mostly in what was
called "Hebrew Arabic", a variation of Arabic in Hebrew
alphabet, exclusively used by Jews in the Middle Ages, reflected
political, economic and social conditions of Jews under the Arab
rule of Egypt as well as sectarial organizations and relations
between different Jewish sects.
 The said documents contained a number of rare manuscripts of
interpretations of the Old Testament, excerpts of linguistic
research on Hebrew as well as documents explaining how Jews
dealt with the Arab Muslim authorities.
These documents, first compiled during the Fatimid era, were
earlier within in Aramaic but were later written in Arabic, the
official language in government departments (diwans).
At the back of the temple, there is a very deep well, where the
coffers in which Prophet Moses as an infant was placed by his
mother, was reportedly found. |
