Exodus to Kidderminster: The Fate of Egypt’s “British” Jews
About
Exodus to Kidderminster: The Fate of Egypt’s “British” Jews in the Wake of the Suez Crisis. With Professor Karen E. H. Skinazi, Hebrew Union College
Today, the number of Jews in Egypt is estimated to be between 3 and 50. Up until the mid-twentieth century, however, there was a large, flourishing, diverse community. Jews in Egypt spoke multiple languages; were Sephardic, Ashkenazi, Persian, Baghdadi, Misri, and Karaite; and participated in every aspect of Egyptian life. Many claimed a European nationality, an advantage in business and a form of legal protection. The “British” Jews—those who were British subjects despite, in most cases, having never stepped foot on British soil, neither they nor their ancestors—were among the first to see their asset become a liability. In 1956, when the British, French, and Israeli armies invaded Egypt, they, along with French nationals and the stateless, were summarily imprisoned, had their businesses and bank accounts sequestered, and were expelled, often with 24 hours’ notice. One thousand Jews went to Britain, where they were reluctantly admitted.
Drawing from national, local, and Jewish archives, as well as oral testimony, I will talk about what happened to these Jews: how their experiences contrasted those of the Hungarian Jews, also seeking refuge in Britain at that time; how they were helped by Jewish leadership and individual Jews across the country; what their lives were like in the hostels where they were put up. And finally, I will discuss how they—and their children—integrated into and impacted largely European-heritage Jewish communities in Britain, as well as Australia.
Karen E. H. Skinazi, Ph.D., is Professor of Modern Jewish Literature and Culture and Hebrew Union College’s Director of the Louchheim School for Judaic Studies, the Jewish Studies program at the University of Southern California. Previously, she taught at universities in Canada, the US, and the UK and has held fellowships at Oxford University and with the Posen Library of Culture and Civilization. She is the author of Women of Valor: Orthodox Jewish Troll Fighters, Crime Writers, and Rock Stars in Contemporary Literature and Culture (2018), examining representations of Orthodox Jewish women, and she writes widely on Jewish culture, including book reviews for Jewish Journal and a column for The Jewish Chronicle. She is currently working on two research projects: a history of the expulsion of Jews from Egypt in 1956-7, and a study of contemporary Jewish-Muslim relations through literature and film.
Date
Wednesday 5 August 2026 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM (UTC+10)
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