The historic Ben Ezra synagogue in Cairo, Egypt, which recently underwent renovation, has created tension between Egypt's small Jewish community and the government.

The author discusses their work on personal letters from the Cairo Geniza, focusing on the daily life of Andalusian Jews.

Solomon Schechter's discovery of the Cairo Geniza in 1896, a collection of discarded Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic manuscripts from the Ben Ezra Synagogue, revealed a trove of Jewish historical and literary treasures, including writings from the Exilarchs, Jewish philosophers like Saadya Gaon and Maimonides, and poets such as Shmuel Ha-nagid and Yehuda Halevi.

Despite a once vibrant Jewish presence in Egypt dating back to ancient times, the Jewish communities in Alexandria and Cairo are now dwindling, with fewer than fifty Jews remaining, many elderly and intermarried.