Israeli amb. to Egypt visits Yaakov Abuhatzeira tomb in Damanhour

CAIRO – 31 October 2017: Israeli Ambassador to Egypt David Govrin visited the tomb of Yaakov Abuhatzeira in the Beheira governorate’s city of Damanhour, a security source in Beheira said on Tuesday.

The Israeli ambassador’s visit came amid tight security, and then he left the tomb after 30 minutes, heading to the embassy’s premises.

In December 2014, the Administrative Court of Alexandria banned the annual festivities, previously attended by hundreds of Jews at Abuhatzeira’s gravesite in the Nile Delta city of Damanhur, where the rabbi was buried in 1879 en route to Israel.

Yaakov Abuhatzeira was a leading Moroccan-Jewish rabbi of the 19th century. In 1879, Abuhatzeira left his native Morocco and embarked on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land via Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. While passing through the Egyptian Nile Delta city of Damanhour, he grew ill and died. He was buried in Damanhour, where his tomb has become a site of pilgrimage.