Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Egyptian Police Seize Jewish Artifacts Being Smuggled to Belgium

Egyptian police seized a collection of Jewish artifacts from a local port as they were about to be smuggled to Belgium.

The artifacts were discovered hidden among other cargo at Damietta port, Egyptian Antiquities Minister Mohammed Ibrahim said Friday in a statement.

The objects are covered by a 1983 law on the protection of antiquities, which makes it illegal to trade in antiquities, which are considered the property of the state.

Among the antiquities were several wooden boxes with silver plating used to house Torah scrolls, a silver knife dated to 1890 with inscriptions on it, a silver crown bearing Hebrew text, silver chandeliers and silver bells.

The objects will be studied to determine their provenance, according to Ibrahim.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.