In a different world, the day before Covid, I wrote a book about visiting Egypt and finding Jewish connections everywhere. It’s still available on Amazon. 

Well, it turns out it isn’t available right now.  I’ll have to see what happened, Check back in a few days and let me know.

 The photos by Ezi are amazing, and I still love the book, but I didn’t tell the story of the last day in Khan AL-Khalili.  I was on my own for a few minutes, so I got myself into a bit of trouble.  I was peeking in the window of a shop when the owner came to the door, smiled at me, and I smiled back.  “You’re Greek, aren’t you?”  he said, and I answered no while acting on his invitation to enter the shop,  and added as I walked in, “I’m Israeli.”  I’d been telling everyone I was Israeli and the answer was always, “you’re number one,” probably so I’d buy something.  But it made me feel good.  

This guy, however, was very much taken aback.  He literally stepped back.  So I said, “Don’t worry, all I need is a bracelet – with a name in Arabic.”  He showed me something and I said I’ll have to get my husband to make sure it’s what we want.  This scared him, I know.  But he didn’t argue and I was sure he was sure he’d never see me again.  But after a quarter of an hour I found my husband and brought him back brought my husband back and he approved the gift.    I didn’t bargain with the shopkeeper, even though I had become an expert at bargaining while in Egypt, but I paid whatI thought was a fair price and he gave me change.  And I thought that fear had brought us together, but what counted was that we had been brought together.  

I wouldn’t play that game now – but I hope I can get back to Egypt again soon and we can pretend to be civilized.