Alexandria was one of the greatest Jewish cultural capitals of the world, in modern times a vibrant home to 40,000. Today, the Jewish community is for all practical purposes extinct in this city of 3 million people. This District also known as the Delta was the district of the foreign minorities such as the Syrians, the Persians, and the Jews. In Alexandria the Jews came into contact with Greek learning, which profoundly influenced the later religious thought of the world. Later philosophers attempted to fuse the doctrines of Christianity with the ideals of Greek philosophy. Gradually, however, the city lost its prosperity. A Jewish revolt in AD 116 resulted in the annihilation of the Jewish population and the destruction of a large portion of the city. In 215 the Roman emperor Caracalla ordered a massacre of the male inhabitants of the entire city for reasons that remain obscure but might have involved a punishment for some form of seditious conduct.
Alexandria, according to Philo, boasted a Jewish population of over 1,000,000. Probably founded in the early years of the Ptolemy dynasty, at
it's height, the Jewish community of Alexandria formed the majority in at
least two out of the city's five major neighborhoods. While the
Alexandrian Jews welcomed the Hellenistic influence, they also developed a
rich Jewish culture. Greek largely replaced Hebrew as the major language of
daily life. For the very first time, the Bible was translated, according
to Jewish legend during the reign of Ptolemy II (285-246 BCE). The
Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible made the sacred text
accessible to the entire Greek world. For Hellenized Jews, who may have
been unable to understand the original Hebrew text, the Septuagint was a
crucial educational tool in preserving Jewish continuity. The great
synagogue of Alexandria was an exquisite palatial basilica adorned with
gold. Talmudic sources add "Whoever has not seen the synagogue of
Alexandria has never seen Jewish glory." According to the sources, the
synagogue was so massive that it was impossible for all of the worshippers
to hear the prayer leader. A red flag was waved by a sexton to alert
worshippers the proper time to answer the prayer leader with a resounding
"Amen". The red flag may have also been a
signal convenient for those congregation members whose ignorance of Hebrew
prevented them from following the service themselves.
Alexandria also produced bold attempts to meld Jewish Learning with Greek
philosophy. Philo of Alexandria (20 BCE - 50 CE) grew up in on of
Alexandria's finest Jewish homes. His works reveal his intimate knowledge
of classical Greek learning; both in philosophy and the sciences.
Stylistically, his Greek was impeccable. However, many scholars doubt
whether he knew Hebrew at all. His works include legal expositions on the
Mosaic code, philosophical discussions on the nature of revelation and
creation, historical works, and textual analysis of Biblical non-legal
materials. Like in the case of Josephus, the works of Philo were forgotten
by Jewish tradition. Ironically, it was the Christian Church who preserved
Philo's work. Philo fathered a great radical tradition. Later figures like
Maimonides, Moses Mendelsohhn, and Hermann Cohen all followed in his
figurative footsteps in their attempts to synthesize Jewish learning with
the great philosophical teachings of the non-Jewish world.
However, the Jewish attempt to integrate the best of both the Jewish and
Hellenistic worlds was not always welcomed by the pagan majority of the
Hellenistic-Roman world. Hellenistic culture perceived of Judaism as a primitive, xenophobic cult. Hellenism, as it saw itself as attempting to unite humanity under one political-cultural system, perceived Judaism's insistence on Jewish national-religious particularity as misanthropy. Antisemitism found some of it's earliest written documents in the Hellenistic world. As early as the Third Century BCE, the Egyptian historian, Manetho charged that the Jews were a leprous rabble without any
sense of shared humanity. Lysimachus, the head librarian of the great
library at Alexandria, who lived in the First Century BCE, continued in the
tradition of Manetho. The basis of Jewish law, according to Lysimachus, is
disrespect and hatred for all Non-Jews. Among other Hellenistic anti-Jewish
polemics, it was stated that Non-Jews were not allowed to enter the Temple
in Jerusalem because human sacrifice was performed there. With the Roman
occupation of Egypt, the Ptolemaic Dynasty was made powerless. The loss of
status among the Egyptian aristocracy, and their competition with the Jews
only added to tensions.
Up until the 10th century, 90% of the Jews in the world lived in what are now Arab countries. But perhaps no place had as distinctive and rich a Jewish legacy as Alexandria. From the time the city was founded more than 2,300 years ago by Alexander the Great until 40 years ago, Jews played a prominent role in establishing it as a center of culture and enlightenment. In ancient times, a third of its population was Jewish, and for centuries it served as the birthplace and home of many of the religion's leading thinkers, writers and poets. Philo, the first Jewish philosopher, was from Alexandria; the 12th-century sage Maimonides lived and wrote here for a time. Until the second half of the 20th century, as many as 40,000 Jews lived in Alexandria in a prosperous cosmopolitan community that, though not integrated with the Muslim population, lived peaceably with it. They set up hospitals, schools, homes for the aged and charity programs, and they ran many of the city's successful businesses. Even today, although ramshackle and rundown,
