of government efforts to resurrect Egypt's dwindling Jewish heritage. Works by Egyptian Jews on their communities the author is called Bat-Ye’or). (an autobiography of a Jewish family during their years in Egypt and after they emigrated to the United States) A Cairo Jewish boyhood during and after the Six-Day War. (oral history project based on interviews with more than two dozen exiled Egyptian Jews) Egyptian Jews in literature Kamal Ruhayyim's Gamal trilogy (Diary of a Jewish Muslim, Days in the Diaspora, and Menorahs and Minarets) portrays the life of an Egyptian boy, son of a Jewish mother. Genesis and Exodus The Hebrew Bible, especially the Books of Genesis and Exodus, describes a long period during which the children of Israel, also called Israelites, lived in the Nile Delta of ancient Egypt. The Egyptians appear to have called them Hebrews and enslaved them. The Israelites, by then organised into twelve tribes, escaped from servitude, spending forty years wandering in the wilderness of Sinai. It has been claimed that the Hebrews/Israelites were a federation of Habiru tribes of the hill-country around the Jordan River. The Bronze Age term "Habiru" was less specific than the Biblical term "Hebrew", because the Habiru included Levantine people who were members of various religions and ethnicities. Mesopotamian, Hittite, Canaanite, and Egyptian sources largely describe the Habiru as bandits. Certainly, there were some Habiru slaves in ancient Egypt, but native Egyptian kingdoms were not heavily slave-based. According to Shaye J. D. Cohen, "Most Israelites were actually of Canaanite stock; their ancestors did not participate in an Exodus from Egypt; Israelites did not build the pyramids!!!" See also Ancient history Elephantine papyri Jewish temple at Elephantine Land of Onias Philo Modern history Antisemitism in the Arab world Antisemitism in Islam History of the Jews in Africa History of the Jews under Muslim rule Islamic–Jewish relations Suez Crisis Egypt–Israel peace treaty Egypt–Israel relations Jewish exodus from the Muslim world 1956–1957 exodus and expulsions from Egypt Operation Goshen Mizrahi Jews in Israel Jews of Egypt (film) Pallache family Institutions List of synagogues in Egypt Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue in Alexandria Sha'ar Hashamayim Synagogue in Cairo Tomb of rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira in Damanhur Cairo Geniza References The Works of Josephus, Complete and Unabridged, New Updated Edition (Translated by William Whiston, A.M.) Peabody Massachusetts:Hendrickson Publishers, 1987 (Fifth Printing:Jan.1991): Antiquities of the Jews, Book 12, chapters 1 and 2, pp.