Synagogue Ben Ezra, Cairo

So good to have this in the Coptic Christian area. It was great to see. Pushy for donations. Roped off sections ruin the experience a bit. However, a good place to pray. No pictures or video allowed.

Ben Ezra Synagogue is a synagogue that more of a tourist attraction in Coptic Cairo more than a place of worship due to the few Jews still in Egypt. The building doesn’t look like much, but the inside has been attractively restored and certainly looks pretty. Pity no photos are allowed though.

The Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo is located behind the Hanging Church and was once a church itself. Ben Ezra is quite easily accessible from anywhere in Cairo, with the Metro being the most convenient Mar Girgis Station. The Ben Ezra Synagogue was originally a Christian church, which the Coptic Christians of Cairo had to sell to the Jews in 882 A.D in order to pay the annual taxes imposed by the Muslim rulers of the time. The church was purchased by Abraham Ben Ezra, who came from Jerusalem during the reign of Ahmed Ibn Tulun, for 20,000 dinars. The synagogue was a place of pilgrimage for North African Jews and the site of major festival celebrations. The famous medieval rabbi Moses Maimonides worshipped at Ben Ezra synagogue when he lived in Cairo. Numerous restorations and renovations were made over the centuries, and the present building dates from 1892. It is a faithful reconstruction of the original, which had collapsed. During the reconstruction, a medieval Geniza (a hiding place for sacred books and worn-out Torah scrolls) was discovered, revealing thousands of original documents from the Middle Ages. The Synagogue of Ben Ezra has a basilica-style plan and two floors, the lower one for men and the upper one for women. The main floor is divided into three parts by steel bars, and in the center is an octagonal marble bima (platform for Torah reading). The synagogue is decorated with geometric and floral patterns in the Turkish style. Tradition marks this as the spot where the prophet Jeremiah gathered the Jews in the 6th century after Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Jerusalem temple. The adjacent spring behind the building (not accessible now but can be seen from the outside through the grill) is supposed to mark the place where the pharaoh’s daughter found Moses in the reeds, and also where Mary drew water to wash Jesus. Today Ben Ezra Synagogue is a historical monument and the most-visited Jewish site in Cairo. Be prepared to pass through security in order to enter the synagogue.

The Ben Ezra Synagogue is the most beautiful and oldest Synagogue in Cairo / Egypt . There is so much beautiful history about this place back to Mosses and Rambam time . Another important thing about the BenEzra that the Cairo Genizah was discovered there in the 2nd floor, sadly it's all taken to the UK . Over all its an amazing place worth visiting .

Historically pharaoh's daughter saves baby Moses in a crib here and Moses prayed here before meeting pharaoh and history of prophet Jeremiah meeting Alexander the great.