CAIRO - Mourners including ambassadors, intellectuals and ordinary citizens attended the funeral on Thursday of Carmen Weinstein, leader of the Jewish community of Cairo, who died last Saturday. More than 100 people, including the ambassadors of the United States, France, Israel, and Canada, gathered at the Sha'ar Hashama'im (Hebrew for Heavens' Gate) Synagogue in downtown Cairo to pay their final respects to Carmen, who was born to a well-to-do family in 1931. "Today is a sad day," Ms Magda Haroun, the newly elected doyenne of Cairo's Jewish community, told the mourners, who were led by Rabbi Mark el-Fassi, who came from Paris to lead the prayers and supervise Carmen's funeral and burial procedures. In her brief eulogy, Ms. Haroun pledged to preserve the Egyptian Jewish heritage ... to give it back to Egypt, because it belonged to Egypt. She said that late Carmen considered herself an Egyptian before being Jewish, born and raised in the country. Ms. Haroun said that she would continue Carmen's work in caring about the small number of Egyptian Jews, who are living in Cairo and Alexandria. Late Carmen's coffin was placed in a separate room at the heavily guarded synagogue in Adli Pasha Street. After Ms. Haroun's speech, Rabbi Fassi had recited a prayer for Carmen's soul before her body was carried to the Jewish cemetery on the outskirts of Cairo for burial. Late Carmen was laid to rest between her father and her mother in the Bassatine Cemetery. Rabbi Fassi said that late Carmen would be remembered for her sharp intelligence and services for of the community members, as well as her efforts to preserve Egyptian Jewish heritage.
