Egypt's Sephardim explore Jewish roots in quest for Spanish citizenship
Egypt's minuscule Jewish community has taken advantage of a chance to gain Spanish nationality, though will stay in Egypt if they get it.
Samy Ibrahim, an Egyptian of Jewish descent on his father’s side, had never paid much attention to his family story. It was not until 2015, when he joined the calls to revive Drop of Milk, an association dedicated to the preservation of Egypt’s rich Jewish heritage, that Ibrahim, then 48, became curious about Judaism and its legacy.
Up until that moment, he barely knew that his grandmother’s family was originally from Eastern Europe and that his grandfather, Jack, came from Turkey. His family name, Arie, which means "lion" in Hebrew, had never sparked his curiosity. “This is all we knew,” Ibrahim recounted to Al-Monitor. “Until I started to dig into the family’s history.”
