Teaneck’s Rinat Yisrael recently featured Professor Eve Krakowski, assistant professor of medieval Jewish History at Princeton, in a discussion of a controversial Maimonidean edict found among the thousands of rediscovered documents from the 1,000-year-old Cairo Genizah.
At the suggestion of her son Yitz, a Ph.D. student in the department of religion at Princeton University, Rinat’s Adult Education Chair Faye Landes was directed to award-winning filmmaker Michelle Paymar, whose recent documentary “From Cairo to the Cloud” provides the extraordinary story of the journey of the Cairo Genizah from medieval Cairo to our home computers via the cloud. The screening of the film will take place on Motzei Shabbat, January 31 at 8 p.m..
The journey of the Cairo Genizah reads like an international espionage novel.
Incredible as it may seem, the massive Cairo Genizah was considered a “trash heap” of its time, tucked into an underground room in the Ben Ezra Synagogue in 10th- to 12th-century Cairo. It consisted of over half-a-million complete documents and fragments of religious texts; literary treasures; love letters and marriage contracts; medical amulets and prescriptions; and even children’s drawings. Handwritten documents of the Rambam, Torah scholar, philosopher and doctor, are amongst the most valued treasures of the Genizah.
In 1879, during renovations at the ancient Egyptian synagogue, two female Christian scholars from Scotland came across the trove and bought several documents, which they brought to the attention of Talmudic scholar Solomon Schechter, then living in the U.K. He immediately traveled to the source. Realizing that these documents would revolutionize our understanding of Jewish history and philosophy during a “golden age” of relative religious tolerance, he purchased the entire Genizah and brought it back to Cambridge University.
Today, 70% of the Cairo Genizah documents still reside at Cambridge University. The other 30% are scattered in libraries and collections worldwide. The Friedberg Genizah Project, housed at the National Library of Israel, includes a portion of the documents, as do Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University and Haifa University. In Europe, in addition to Cambridge, documents are housed at Oxford University and the Sorbonne. In the U.S., fragments of the collection can be found at UCLA, Princeton, and closer to home at Yeshiva University and the Jewish Theological Seminary.
To date, three generations of scholars have worked on piecing the fragments of the Genizah together. Today, through the skill and knowledge of an international consortium of scholars, archivists and digital experts, the entire Genizah has been digitized, finally uniting all of the precious manuscripts.
Michelle Paymar produced, directed and filmed the documentary “From Cairo to the Cloud,” which features commentary by over 40 Judaic scholars. At the beginning of her project, which spanned seven years (2011-2018), she was shocked that no filmmaker had yet undertaken the documentation of the digitization of the Genizah.
She was equally shocked to learn that she was the first filmmaker allowed to film within the Ben Ezra Synagogue, which had housed the Genizah for close to 1,000 years. In fact it took seven years and three Egyptians presidents—Mubarak, Morsi and Sisi—to obtain permission to gain access to the original site of the Genizah. Assistance and support was also provided by the tiny Jewish community of Cairo,
the Canadian Consulate in Cairo, the Egyptian Ministries of the Interior and Antiquities, and the Egyptian police, tourist and press Offices.
When asked what drew her to this “ginormous” project, Paymar responded, ”As a Jew raised in North America, I was deeply aware of the Eastern European world of my ancestors, but had scant exposure to the history of Jews in Islamic countries. Learning about the Cairo Genizah and discovering the richness of Judeo-Arabic culture was truly a revelation.”
The world premiere of “Cairo to the Cloud” took place at Cambridge in 2018. It has subsequently been shown at Jewish film festivals throughout the world. Shortly before the outbreak of COVID, the film was shown in two screenings at the old and new campuses of the American University of Cairo. Translated into Arabic, it was warmly received by Arabic scholars and university students, Paymar said. “The feeling of openness in learning about the history of the Jews in Arabic countries was palpable. The government of Egypt has of late been investing greatly in Egypt’s multicultural background and is beginning to see medieval Jewish history as part of the larger Egyptian history.”
COVID has not deterred Paymar from screening her film. The upcoming Teaneck showing was preceded by recent showings in Vienna, Paris, Australia, Hong Kong and Indonesia. In North America, screenings were held in Michigan, Maine, Philadelphia, Minnesota, Toronto and Montreal, among many other locations.
The film has received much praise. Said Video Library: “While the subject matter is scholarly, Paymar presents the material in a user-friendly manner that places old Cairo, Schechter’s 19th-century academic world, and contemporary historical research into fascinating context.” The Cambridge Film Festival Review said: ”It is meticulously researched, with a cast of engaging experts who enlighten and entertain with this extraordinary story. Anyone with a passing interest in history will find this film enthralling.”
The screening of “From Cairo to the Cloud” on Saturday, January 30 at 8 p.m., will be followed by a Q&A session with Paymar. Admission to the event is $10 to help defray the cost of the rental.
To register, go to https://www.rinat.org/form/Cairo-to-the-Cloud.html
By Pearl Markovitz
