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Chief Rabbi of Cairo

Chief Rabbi of Cairo

1848 CE–1928 CE · Modern · Rabat

R. Raphael Aharon ben Shimon (1848-1928) was Chief Rabbi of Cairo from 1891 to 1921 — three of the most consequential decades in the modern history of Egyptian Jewry, encompassing the British occupation (1882) onward and the formation of modern Egyptian national identity. Born in Rabat to a leading Moroccan-rabbinic family, he made aliyah to Jerusalem in his youth before being called to Cairo.

His Nahar Mitzraim is the principal scholarly documentation of Egyptian-Jewish minhag — a remarkable conservation effort for a community that had only one generation left in Egypt. His U-Mitzur Devash responsa, Bat Naavat HaMardut, and Tuv Mitzrayim (a historical chronicle of Egyptian Jewry) preserve the late-classical phase of an ancient community.

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Stop 1 of 41848Born

RabatMorocco

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About Rabat

Rabat, a city on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, had a long-established Jewish community within Moroccan Sephardi Jewry. It was the birthplace, in 1847/48, of Rabbi Raphael Aharon ben Shimon, who later served for some thirty years as Chief Rabbi of Cairo and was a figure in the bringing to light of the Cairo Genizah.

In Rabat at the same time

Refael Elazar Ben-Tovo

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In the same place & time

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