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PlacesPeople & PlacesLiving · since 300 BCE

EGYPT · 31.2°N 29.9°E · CITY

Alexandria

IskandariyaPtolemaic · to 30 BCERoman/Byzantine · 30 BCE-641Arab/Ottoman · 641-1914British protectorate · 1914-1922

The great Jewish city of Hellenistic antiquity - Septuagint, Philo, the Great Synagogue destroyed in 116 CE - reborn as a cosmopolitan port in the 19th century and emptied after 1948; the Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue was restored in 2020.

Modern locality anchor

Alexandria

Egypt · City · 31.2°N 29.9°E

This anchor orients the sourced locality record. It is not a reconstructed historical position or border; the single map below provides geographic context.

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Where is Alexandria?

Land geometry: Natural Earth 1:50m via world-atlas. Pins mark modern localities or representative regional anchors stored on Atlas place records, not historical borders and not reconstructed positions. · Sources & methods

THE COMMUNITY TIMELINE · EVERY NODE DATED

What happened to the Jewish community of Alexandria?

300 BCE–117

Ancient metropolis (Jews est. ~1/5-2/5 of city, 1st c. BCE-CE - contested ancient estimates)

38–38

38 CE anti-Jewish riots (Flaccus era)

116–117

116 CE Kitos War destruction of the Great Synagogue

1850–1948

19th-20th c. cosmopolitan revival (Eliyahu Hanavi 1850)

1948–present

1948-56 exodus; handful today

Today

Today

A handful of Jews; the restored synagogue stands as national heritage.

LANGUAGES & COMMUNITY

What did Alexandria sound like?

Alexandria Jewish Community
Judeo-Greek (Yevanic)Hebrew (עברית, Ivrit)Judeo-ArabicLadino / Judeo-Spanish (Judezmo; Haketía)

Judeo-Greek (Yevanic) is a language with its own grammar, literature, and history — not “broken” anything, and not a dialect of Hebrew.

AFTER · IN FULL COLOR

What survives today?

In Alexandria

A handful of Jews; the restored synagogue stands as national heritage.

  • Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue

    synagogue · public landmark

    Restored 2020.

In Israel & the diaspora

The community's story continued elsewhere — these places carry it now.

JerusalemCaesareaRomeNehardea

KEEP GOING

Related places & stories

Jerusalem

Israel

The city at the center of Jewish memory and prayer for three millennia; today Israel's largest city by Jewish population (CBS 2022 estimate).

Open the place story

Caesarea

Israel

Herodian port city and a major rabbinic center of the 1st-6th centuries - seat of Rabbi Abbahu's academy and settings of Rabbi Akiva martyrdom traditions.

Open the place story

Rome

Italy

The oldest continuous Diaspora community - documented since 161 BCE, marked by the 70 CE captives of the Arch of Titus, the 1555-1870 papal ghetto, and the 16 October 1943 roundup - with its own Italian (not Ashkenazi/Sephardi) rite.

Open the place story
Guided story · 7 stopsThe Jewish MediterraneanFor 400 years, a Jew could sail from Venice to Izmir and pray in the same language at every port. What knitted the sea together?Begin the route
Guided story · 8 stopsThe languages Jews spoke before modern HebrewOne people, a dozen mother tongues. What did Jews speak before modern Hebrew? Follow the words.Begin the route

SOURCES & REVIEW

  • Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed. (place entry)

    Macmillan Reference USA · 2007

  • Egypt - Virtual Jewish History Tour

    Jewish Virtual Library · open source

Reviewed 2026-07-30

Reading about Judeo-Greek (Yevanic) and Hebrew (עברית, Ivrit)? Baba can help you understand the languages in context →