1. Joel Beinin, Was the Red Flag Flying There? Marxist Politics and the Arab-Israeli Conflict in Egypt and Israel, 1948–1965 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), pp. 185–88. [BACK]

2. For example, Gudrun Krämer, The Jews in Modern Egypt, 1914–1952 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1989) and Michael M. Laskier, The Jews of Egypt, 1920–1970: In the Midst of Zionism, Anti-Semitism, and the Middle East Conflict (New York: New York University Press, 1992) mention the Karaites only briefly. [BACK]

3. Meron Benvenisti, City of Stone: The Hidden History of Jerusalem (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), p. 170. [BACK]

4. Rabbi Avraham Gabr, interview, Ramlah, Jan. 11, 1993. [BACK]

5. Mourad El-Kodsi, The Karaite Jews of Egypt, 1882–1986 (Lyons, NY: Wilprint, 1987), p. 296. [BACK]

6. Maurice Shammas, interview, Jerusalem, May 5, 1994. [BACK]

7. Yosefa Nunu, interview, Ramlah, Mar. 7, 1993. [BACK]

8. The lower figure is that of Nathan Schur, History of the Karaites (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1992). p. 142. The higher figure is the one usually given by Karaite spokespersons. Schur's work is informed by traditional anti-Karaite biases and is not particularly perceptive or reliable. [BACK]

9. Sumi Colligan, “Religion, Nationalism and Ethnicity in Israel: The Case of the Karaite Jews” (Ph.D. thesis, Princeton University, 1980), pp. 296–97. [BACK]

10. Shlomo Barad, “ha-Pe‘ilut ha-tzionit be-mitzrayim, 1917–1952,” Shorashim ba-mizrah 2 (1989):118. Barad offers no documentary evidence in this article to support this rather harsh allegation, so I went to interview him at his home in Kibutz Karmia on Jan. 3, 1996, to hear how he had come to this conclusion. Barad was a member of ha-Shomer ha-Tza‘ir in Tunisia, and his gar‘in was training at the movement's farm at La Roche, France. The Tunisians were to have completed their training and emigrated to Israel, but they could not leave La Roche until a new group of trainees arrived to replace them. Their departure was delayed because of the late arrival of members of the Egyptian gar‘in from Egypt headed toward ‘Ein-Shemer. The Egyptians told him that they had delayed their departure and halted all immigration from Egypt as a protest against the Jewish Agency's policy of excluding Karaites from immigration to Israel. They resumed recruitment and processing of immigrants and they themselves departed only after receiving assurances that this policy had been reversed. [BACK]

11. Colligan, “Religion, Nationalism and Ethnicity in Israel,” pp. 234–35; Y. Bitsur, Ma‘ariv, June 30, 1961. [BACK]

12. El-Kodsi, The Karaite Jews of Egypt, p. 99–100. [BACK]

13. Ibid., pp. 62, 296. [BACK]

14. Joe Pessah, interview, Mountain View, California, June 12, 1992. [BACK]

15. Jehoash Hirshberg, “Musikah ke-gorem le-likud ha-kehilah ha-kara’it be-san frantzisko,” Pe‘amim 32 (1988):73. [BACK]

16. Information about the Masliah family is based on my long friendship with Yusuf Darwish and many meetings with Jacob and Nelly Masliah, especially formal interviews in their home in San Francisco on May 8 and 16, 1992 (the second with the participation of their daughter, Nadia Hartmann). [BACK]

17. Number of professionals as estimated by Maurice Shammas, interview, Jerusalem, May 5, 1994. [BACK]

18. Nadia Hartmann, interview, San Francisco, May 16, 1992. [BACK]

19. Henry and Doris Mourad, interview, Los Altos Hills, California, June 10, 1992. [BACK]

20. Ibid. [BACK]

21. Joe and Remy Pessah, interview, Mountain View, June 12, 1992. [BACK]

22. “Egyptian Love Story Leads to Altar Here,” San Francisco Jewish Bulletin, Jan. 29, 1971, p. 1. [BACK]

23. Henry and Doris Mourad, interview. [BACK]

24. Hirshberg, “Musikah ke-gorem le-likud ha-kehilah ha-kara’it be-san frantzisko,” p. 70. [BACK]

25. Information in this section is based on articles in various issues of the KJA Bulletin, confirmed and elaborated by discussion with members of the community. [BACK]

26. Northern California Jewish Bulletin, Sept. 9, 1994. [BACK]

27. Jehoash Hirshberg, “Musical Tradition as a Cohesive Force in a Community in Transition: The Case of the Karaites,” Asian Music 17 (no. 2, 1986):46–68; Hirshberg, “Musikah ke-gorem le-likud ha-kehilah ha-kara’it be-san frantzisko,” pp. 66–81. [BACK]

29. Elaine Laporte, “Karaite Grandmother Celebrates Bat Mitzvah-at 70,” Northern California Jewish Bulletin, Sept. 23, 1994, reprinted in KJA Bulletin, Mar. 1995, pp. 15–16. [BACK]

30. Deborah Kalb, The Jewish Monthly, Mar. 1992, reprinted in KJA Bulletin, Sept. 1992, p. 6. [BACK]

31. Rabbi Haim Levy, interview, San Francisco, July 13, 1993. [BACK]

32. Rabbi Avraham Gabr, interview. [BACK]

33. Sumi Colligan, personal communication, September 14, 1994. [BACK]