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JewishHistoryעברית

Cairo Jewish-quarter bombings of 1948

Date
June 1948 – November 1948
Location
CairoEgypt
Then part of
Kingdom of Egypt
Perpetrators
  • Unidentified bombers of Jewish neighborhoods and businesses in Cairo (Individual)
Killed (estimate)
70 – 250[1]Jews killed or, in Encyclopaedia Judaica, killed or wounded. Jewish Virtual Library states that bombs in the Jewish quarter of Cairo between June and November 1948 killed more than 70 Jews and wounded nearly 200. Encyclopaedia Judaica states that bombs planted in Jewish neighborhoods from June through August 1948 killed or wounded about 250 Jews. A Reuters report via JTA on 23 September 1948 gave 9 killed and 10-20 injured in one blast that day.
Locality

0.17% – 0.6% of the Jewish population of Cairo[4]

Country

0.088% – 0.33% of the Jewish population of Kingdom of Egypt (c. 1948)[60]

Worldwide

0.00061% – 0.0022% of the worldwide Jewish population (c. 1948)[15]

Category
Terror attack
Confidence
DisputedJewish Virtual Library gives more than 70 Jews killed and nearly 200 wounded between June and November 1948. Encyclopaedia Judaica gives about 250 Jews killed or wounded by bombs from June through August, without separating deaths from injuries. The only dated single-incident figure fetched here is the 23 September blast reported by Reuters via JTA (9 killed, 10-20 injured). Fetched sources do not name the bombers.

Summary

After Israel was established and Egypt declared emergency law on 15 May 1948, bombs were planted in Jewish neighborhoods and businesses in Cairo. Encyclopaedia Judaica records bombings from June through August 1948, looting of Jewish businesses, and about 250 Jews killed or wounded. Jewish Virtual Library dates the bombings from June to November 1948 and gives more than 70 Jews killed and nearly 200 wounded, with about 2,000 Jews arrested and property confiscated. On 23 September 1948 Reuters, via JTA, reported a bomb in the Jewish quarter that killed 9 people and injured 10-20; Egyptian police and troops then cordoned the quarter.

Sources

  1. Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries. Jewish Virtual Library
  2. Egypt Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library (Encyclopaedia Judaica)
  3. Nine Killed, 20 Injured when Blasts Jewish Quarter of Cairo; Police Act Speedily. Jewish Telegraphic Agency (1948)
  4. Ben Ezra Synagogue at Cairo, Egypt. Diarna

Jewish population (estimates)

  • Worldwide: 11,500,000[15]c. 1948DellaPergola's Fundamentals Table 2 gives 11.5 million Jews worldwide in 1948.
  • Kingdom of Egypt: 75,000 – 80,000[60]c. 1948DellaPergola / JVL Arab-world table and AJYB 1948–49 / 1950 Africa tables agree on 75,000 for Egypt around 1948–49. JVL Egypt page header also gives 75,000 for 1948.
  • Cairo: 41,860[4]Jews in Cairo in 1947, the year before the bombings that began in June 1948. Diarna cites Jacob Landau's figure from the Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World.

Sources for population estimates

  1. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2025)
  2. Sergio DellaPergola, Notes toward a Demographic History of the Jews. Genealogy 8(1) (2024)
  3. Jewish Population of Europe in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  4. Jewish Population of the World. American Jewish Year Book 1948–1949, via Berman Jewish Policy Archive (1949)
  5. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Voluntary Conversions and Diaspora: A Human Capital Interpretation of Jewish History. American Economic Association annual meeting paper (2007)
  6. Jews in the USSR (1926–1959). Demographic Changes. JewishGen Belarus SIG (table compiled from the 1939 All-Union census)
  7. Mandate for Palestine. Report of the Mandatory to the League of Nations (Palestine Administration, 1922). United Nations UNISPAL (British mandatory report) (1922)
  8. José Hinojosa Montalvo, La sociedad y la economía de los judíos en Castilla y la Corona de Aragón durante la Baja Edad Media. Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, Serie III, Historia Medieval (1993)
  9. The Contagion of Violence. 1391 and the Jews of the Spanish Kingdoms. Palgrave / Springer chapter (preview) (2021)
  10. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Religious Norms, Human Capital, and Money Lending in Jewish European History. Handbook chapter PDF via zvi-eckstein.com
  11. Sergio DellaPergola, Some Fundamentals of Jewish Demographic History. Berman Jewish Policy Archive (PDF) (2001)
  12. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, THE CHOSEN FEW: HOW EDUCATION SHAPED JEWISH HISTORY, 70–1492 (book summary). Bar-Ilan University Economics seminar PDF (Princeton University Press forthcoming summary)
  13. Joseph Jacobs, Statistics. Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
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  17. Russia (Census Statistics). Jewish Encyclopedia (1901–1906)
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  19. Игорь Виленский, Оценка сокращения численности еврейского населения Российской Империи и СССР (1897–1926). Еврейская Старина (2024)
  20. Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2024. American Jewish Year Book 2024, via Berman Jewish DataBank / Israel CBS host (2025)
  21. Sergio DellaPergola, Demographic Trends in Israel and Palestine: Prospects and Policy Implications. American Jewish Year Book 2003, via Berman Jewish DataBank (2003)
  22. Population of Israel/Palestine by Religion (1553–Present). Jewish Virtual Library (citing CBS, British Mandate publications, Bachi and others)
  23. US Jewish Population Pocket Demographics 2.0. Berman Jewish DataBank / Jewish Federations of North America (2018)
  24. H. S. Linfield, The Jews of the United States: Preliminary Figures for 1937 (Linfield) / Statistics of Jews. American Jewish Year Book 1939–40, via Berman Jewish DataBank (1939)
  25. Changes in the Jewish Population of the United States, 1949–1950. American Jewish Year Book 1951, via Berman Jewish DataBank (1951)
  26. American Jewry, 1970 (NJPS 1971 article). American Jewish Year Book, via Berman Jewish DataBank
  27. Germany: Jewish Population in 1933. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  31. Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein, Appendix A: Sources and Methodology for Section 2 (Jewish and total population in Germany-Austria and Poland-Lithuania). Authors' appendix PDF (citing Weinryb, Stampfer, Kupovetsky, Guggenheim, Toch, Battenberg, Israel) (2018)
  32. Kirsten E. Schulze, The Jews of Lebanon between Coexistence and Conflict. Internet Archive full text
  33. Jews in Arab Countries. American Jewish Year Book excerpt, Berman Jewish Policy Archive (1978)
  34. Esther Meir-Glitzenstein, The Farhud. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  35. Joseph Rothschild (tabulated), Interwar East European Census Data. Lawrence University course materials
  36. Mark Tolts, Population since World War I. YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe
  37. Davis Trietsch, Die Juden der Türkei. Länder und Völker der Türkei, Heft 8 (Leipzig) (1915)
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  41. Yitzhak Arad, “Operation Reinhard” | Death Camps of Belzec, Sobibor & Treblinka. Yad Vashem
  42. The Holocaust in Hungary. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  43. Bulgaria. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
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  46. France. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  47. Belgium. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  48. Norway. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  49. Denmark. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  50. Greece. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  51. Lithuania. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  52. German Jews during the Holocaust, 1939–1945. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  53. Statistics of Jews (World and US Jewish Population). American Jewish Year Book 1946–1947, via Berman Jewish DataBank (1947)
  54. Jacqueline Shields, Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries. Jewish Virtual Library
  55. Lebanon Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
  56. Jewish Populations in the Arab World. Jewish Virtual Library (citing Sergio DellaPergola, World Jewish Population, 2021 / AJYB 2023)
  57. Algeria (Vital Statistics). Jewish Encyclopedia (1906)
  58. Archives juives n°45/2 — Les Juifs d'Algérie. Archives Juives / Les Belles Lettres (2012)
  59. EHRI Country Report — Tunisia. European Holocaust Research Infrastructure
  60. Leon Shapiro, World Jewish Population. American Jewish Year Book 1981 (estimates for 1979), via Berman Jewish DataBank (1981)
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  62. Sara Koplik, The Demise of the Jewish Community in Afghanistan, 1933–1952. SOAS University of London (PhD thesis abstract / deposit page) (2001)
  63. Argentina Virtual Jewish History Tour. Jewish Virtual Library
  64. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the USSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)
  65. All-Union 1959 census — ethnic composition of the Uzbek SSR. Demoscope Weekly (РГАЭ РФ fond 1562)