Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities Sunday cancelled a ceremony to mark the restoration of a synagogue in Cairo after provocative practices made by the Jewish sect during an opening party last week, Egypt's chief archaeologist Zahi Hawass said. "While the Jews who opened the Maimonides Synagogue last week provoked the feelings of Egyptians and Muslims everywhere, the ceremony to mark the restoration is no more," Hawass added. He added that the Jewish ceremony coincided with practices against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem and the addition to Israel's indclusion of Bilal Ibn Rabah and Ibrahimi mosques in the West Bank into a list of the Jewish heritage list. "We care for all Egyptian antiquities: Islamic, Coptic and Jewish. We are sending a message of tolerance to the world," Hawass said. Minister of Culture Farouq Hosni said in a statement that his ministry viewed Jewish sites as much a part of Egypt's culture as mosques or churches, and the restorations would not require any foreign funding. Last week, the Ben Maimon Synagogue, named after the 12th century rabbi and intellectual Maimonides, was rededicated in a ceremony that included half a dozen Egyptian Jewish families that long ago fled the country. The ceremony at the Ben Maimon synagogue was closed to media but the audience said it was an emotional event, especially for the Egyptian-Jewish families invited, many of whom now living in Europe.
