My Father's Egyptian Story

[RockaFowler]

My Dad was born in Egypt in 1936. He remembers the days of the Monarchy in the 50's and how the people overthrew the monarchy at the time. At that time my family was very rich (in Egyptian terms). They had a farm and house filled with tons of children (my dad is one of 13). My father is the oldest male and even at the age of 14 he took care of the family. My family is also Jewish. They were fine in the country until 1956. At that time Egypt and Israel went to war again. This time there was no monarchy. This time the Egyptian government decided to banish all Jews living in Egypt. My family was one of those families. They thought they could stick it out because they had French Passports (my Grandfather was born in Casablanca, Morroco). The Egyptian government agreed to let them stay. They could have left at that time with all of their money and belongings, until the French then got involved in the war - on Israel's side. The government stormed into my family's home and shipped all of them to France. They even wanted to send my Grandmother (an Italian resident) to Italy. My father has not been back since. And I have never been to Egypt - hopefully one day soon I will be able to go.

My father cried yesterday. His home is gone. And his former country is in shambles. He never considered himself an Egyptian. He considers himself more an American now than anything. He's been in this country since 1962. But this is the first time he wants to return to his former country. To try and help the country he once loved as a child. Hopefully they would allow my peace-loving Jewish father back there to help them get the country back for the people. You never know!!


My father is the young man in the center. He was so cute as a youngster.


Me and my Dad at my wedding 10 years ago :hug:. Love you Daddy :)

[Solly Mack]

1. Thank you for sharing!

[demmiblue]

2. Beautiful post. K&R

[barbtries]

3. wow, he should write a book

and he was an adorable youngster! if only all the peace-loving people could somehow overwhelm the warmongers.

[RockaFowler]

4. I'm trying to get him to do it

He has some great stories from back then. My Uncle was in the Egyptian Army. He left the army when my family was kicked out of Egypt, my Uncle went to Israel and gave the Israeli's Egyptian secrets. And he was Egyptian. He just loved my Aunt (my dad's sister) so much. He also converted to Judaism shortly thereafter.

[malaise]

5. Great story

Thanks - rec for others to see

[Kali]

6. Cool! thanks for sharing

I echo the urging of him to write his history - or you can help by at least recording some of his stories!

http://dohistory.org/on_your_own/toolkit/oralHistory.html

http://nationaldayoflistening.org/participate/

[RockaFowler]

7. Thanks Kali

:hug:

My dad is 75 now. It would be great to put this all together for him and the rest of the family for maybe a little family reunion next year!!

[DinahMoeHum]

8. I have cousins on my dad's side of the family that left Egypt

at the time the monarchy (King Farouk) was overthrown and Nasser came to power.

(they are Armenian and were originally from Port Said)

So I understand a little bit what you're going through.

:hug:

[RockaFowler]

9. Hi Dinah

:hug:

I've been watching this and feeling horrible lately. My dad really loved Egypt. He just didn't like the politics. Hopefully one of these days he can make it back there. I would love to go with him, too :)

[roguevalley]

10. Bless your dad and bless your family. What lovely pictures.

I hope he can go back some time. Bless Egypt and her brave people.

[EFerrari]

11. Wow. Look at all those handsome people!

Beautiful family, Rockafowler.

[denese]

12. thanks for sharing that

what a beautiful family
I hope he gets to go back one day
Denese