Karaism
is a variant of post-biblical Judaism that follows a literal application
of principles laid down in the Hebrew Scriptures, or the Old Testament.
The term “Karaite,” deriving from the Hebrew root kr’
(to read), has been translated as “scripturalist.” It
reflects both etymology and theology, since the Hebrew word for scriptures”—mikra—derives
from that root. Indeed, Karaites refer to themselves as Bene Mikra
(Children of the Scriptures, in Hebrew). They accept the Written Law
of the Torah but reject rabbinic teachings—the Oral Law—including
the Mishnah and the Talmud.
Consequently, orthodox followers of rabbinic Judaism regard them as
a breakaway sect, even as they respect and study the outstanding achievements
of Karaites in the realm of biblical scholarship and Hebrew grammar.
Karaites, for their part, consider themselves to be followers of Judaism
in its truest manifestation.
Historians trace the origins of the small Karaite sect to eighth-
and ninth-century Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). Karaism, which accepts
the supremacy of the Hebrew Bible over post-biblical interpretations,
attracted supporters in the realm of medieval Islam, including Damascus,
Jerusalem, and Cairo—where they have been a continuous presence
since at least the eleventh century. Later, Karaites established communities
in the Byzantine Empire, in and around Constantinople, on the Crimean
Peninsula, and in the Tsarist Russian Empire.
Karaites once occupied their own separate quarter in Cairo—adjacent
to the rabbinic Jewish quarter—with its population estimated
at 5,000 as of 1948. Ira Nowinski traveled to Egypt and Israel in
1985, where he photographed Karaites and sites of Karaite religious
and historical significance. While in Cairo he also photographed the
ancient Ben Ezra Synagogue, in that city’s rabbinic Jewish quarter.
He undertook this expedition at the initiative of the Judah L. Magnes
Museum, which has long maintained a strong interest in collecting
and exhibiting materials relating to “exotic” Jewish communities.
Many of his Karaite photos were included in the Magnes Museum’s
1988 exhibition The Karaites: People of the Scriptures.
By the time of Nowinski’s visit, the ranks of Egyptian Karaites
had dwindled and their synagogue and cemetery were showing signs of
serious neglect. The Israeli communities that he photographed, by
contrast, seemed to be thriving and their members had become—outwardly,
at least—well integrated into Israeli society. Today, the total
number of Karaites is quite small, with estimates ranging up to 35,000
worldwide. The largest concentration is in Israel; most of them are
either immigrants who left Egypt starting
in the sixties, a small but cohesive community of several hundred
Egyptian Karaites settled in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Jewish
Community Federation of San Francisco assisted some of them in their
resettlement.
In what sense are today’s Karaites considered to be Jews? The
Israeli government, for its part, has taken a pragmatic approach to
this question. Thus, under Israel’s Law of Return, Karaites
are permitted to immigrate freely and become citizens—and indeed,
thousands of them have done so. In addition, like most other Israeli
Jews, Karaites are required to serve in the military.
Meanwhile, that country’s religious establishment—Sephardic
and Ashkenazic—has adopted the classic orthodox stance: Since
Karaites do not accept the strictures of rabbinic law (halakhah),
Israel’s Chief Rabbis do not recognize them as part of the Jewish
community. This position has serious ramifications in view of the
binding authority that the Israeli rabbinate exercises in the realm
of religious laws (especially family law) that apply to that country’s
Jews. The result is that Karaites possess a bifurcated legal status
in Israel—they are Jews in the eyes of the state, and sectarians
in the eyes of the rabbinate.
As in Israel, members of the tiny Karaite community in America have
adapted well to their new surroundings. Nowinski’s Karaite photos
provide fascinating evidence of the processes through which members
of a small and relatively obscure subculture, the Egyptian Karaites,
become Israelis and Americans.
Israel
in the 1980s
Ira Nowinski’s visits to Israel provided him with opportunities
to photograph the diverse faces and scenes that he encountered there.
Appreciating the diversity of Jewish society in Israel, he photographed
individuals and families hailing from many segments of Israeli society—urban
and rural, European and Middle Eastern, Jewish and Arab.
Nowinski visited Israel in the second half of the 1980s, a period
of accelerating friction between Jews and Palestinians. In 1987
these tensions erupted into demonstrations and violent unrest in
what is now known as the First Intifada, or uprising. That Intifada
lasted into the early 1990s; the Second Intifada broke out in the
autumn of 2000 and continues to this day. The photographs that Nowinski
took in Jerusalem’s Old City serve as an indirect reminder
of the conflict between two peoples over the homeland that one of
them calls Yisra’el and the other, Filastin.
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The
back gate of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fostat, Cairo, 1985.
The gate’s design integrates the symbols of Judaism and
Islam, the Star of David and the crescent. This synagogue served
followers of rabbinical Judaism. (The rabbinical and Karaite
Jewish districts of Cairo were adjacent to each other.) The
medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides worshipped there, and
it also housed the Cairo genizah, a storehouse containing more
than 220,000 Hebrew manuscript fragments dating from the Middle
Ages. The Ben Ezra Synagogue was carefully restored in the late
1980s and 1990s.
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Youssef
El-Kodsi, inside the Moussa al-Dar‘i (Karaite) synagogue
in al-‘Abbasiyah, Cairo, 1985. In 1948 there were approximately
5,000 Karaites in Cairo; by 1970 their ranks had dwindled to
about 200.
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Elie
Massuda, a member of the Egyptian Karaite community, holds an
empty wooden Torah case at the Moussa al-Dar'i (Karaite) synagogue
in al-'Abbasiyah, Cairo, 1985. Massuda, a lawyer, later emigrated
to Israel.
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Nelly
El-Kodsi, in the office of the Moussa al-Dar‘i (Karaite)
synagogue in al-‘Abbasiyah, Cairo, 1985. The large plaque
on the wall behind the desk represents the Ten Commandments.
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Rollers
that are used to knead matzo dough, outside the Moussa al-Dar‘i
(Karaite) synagogue in al-‘Abbasiyah, Cairo, 1985. Matzo
is the flat, crispy, unleavened bread that Jews eat during Passover,
the holiday that commemorates the Biblical Exodus from Egypt.
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Boys
and men at prayer in a Karaite synagogue in Ashdod, Israel,
1985. The service is being led by Hakham Hayim Levi (at the
left, wearing a hat). Worshippers remove their shoes and either
stand or kneel during prayer.
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Three
youngsters relax during the annual outing of the Israeli Karaite
community, Jerusalem, 1985.
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David
Pessah, the son of Remy and Joseph Pessah (one of the leaders
of the Bay Area Karaites), mid-1980s. He is holding a case housing
a miniature Torah scroll, which contains the text of the first
five books of the Hebrew Bible.
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A
Hasidic Jew walks down a Jerusalem alley, mid-1980s. The scene
is intentionally evocative of photographs taken by Roman Vishniac
in Poland and Czechoslovakia shortly before World War II.
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Two
Palestinian children climb a stairway leading to the Dome of
the Rock, mid-1980s. This mosque, which is one of Islam’s
oldest and most revered shrines (constructed between 685 and
691 CE), sits atop the plateau where the ancient Jewish Temple
stood until the Romans destroyed it during the Jewish revolt
of 67 to 70 CE. All that remains of the Temple is the wall that
abuts the western edge of the plateau. Known as the Western
(or “Wailing”) Wall, it is Judaism’s holiest
site.
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