Born | Cairo, Egypt, about 1945 |
Today | Rav Emeritus of Congregation B'nai Israel, the Karaite Jewish congregation in Daly City, California |
Career | Electrical engineer in the Bay Area semiconductor industry |
Expertise | Karaite Jewish life in Egypt; the imprisonment of Egyptian Jewish men from 1967 to 1970 |
Speaks to | Synagogues, schools, and community audiences, often together with his wife, Remy Pessah |
Joe Pessah was born in Cairo, the eldest son in a large Karaite Jewish family whose roots in Egypt went back generations. His father was a dentist, and Joe grew up in a close knit community at a time when tens of thousands of Jews lived in Egypt. As a boy he witnessed anti-Jewish riots in 1952 and grew increasingly aware that his Egyptian identity was being questioned. He met his future wife, Remy, in the early 1960s when he taught her Hebrew at synagogue, and the two became engaged in 1966 while he was studying electrical engineering in Cairo.
After the Six-Day War in June 1967, Egyptian authorities detained Jewish men across the country. Joe's father and uncle were taken first, and about a month later Joe, his brother, and his cousin were arrested. He was held without charge for three years, first at Abu Zaabal and then at Tora, where prisoners were beaten and mistreated. In 1970, with a rabbi present, he and Remy were married inside the prison. When he was released that June, Egypt revoked his citizenship and he was taken directly to the airport and deported, allowed to take only about five dollars.
Joe and Remy lived briefly in Paris before settling in the San Francisco Bay Area, where both earned engineering degrees at San Jose State University. Joe built a career as an electrical engineer in the semiconductor industry and helped found Congregation B'nai Israel in Daly City, the Karaite Jewish congregation, where he served as its Rav and is now Rav Emeritus. He recorded his oral history with JIMENA and has spoken at synagogues and community events so that students understand what happened to the Jews of Egypt.
Though I am free, the emotions have left a scar.
Joe Pessah, interview with the San Jose Mercury News
Speaking Topics
What Joe talks about
1. Karaite Jewish life in Cairo
Growing up in Egypt's Karaite community, its traditions, and its place in Egyptian Jewish life.
2. Imprisoned for being Jewish
Three years in Abu Zaabal and Tora prisons after the 1967 war, and the release and deportation of Jewish prisoners in 1970.
3. A wedding behind bars
How Joe and Remy married inside an Egyptian prison and began a new life in exile.
4. Rebuilding in America
Starting over in Paris and the Bay Area, and sustaining the Karaite community in Daly City.
Select Talks
Selected talks and appearances
2022 | Niv magazine, Issue 12: joint feature with Remy Pessah drawn from JIMENA's Oral History Project |
2016 | Congregation Beth Sholom, San Francisco, with Remy Pessah (JIMENA) |
2013 | JIMENA Oral History and Digital Experience Project: recorded testimony, Voice of Joe Pessah (republished by the Historical Society of Jews from Egypt) |
2007 | The Forward: profile interview, Meet Joe Pessah, rabbi for California's Karaites |
About 2005 | San Jose Mercury News: Passover feature interview with Remy Pessah on their second exodus from Egypt; pictured at a gathering at Jewish Community High School, San Francisco |
About 2002 | Jewish Community Center of San Francisco: his first public talk about his imprisonment in Egypt, as reported by the Mercury News |
These are a selection of Joe’s talks. Joe has given many more, at synagogues, Jewish community centers, schools, and Jewish press in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Publications and Media
Read, watch, and listen
Profile
Joe & Remy Pessah
Their story of love, imprisonment, and exile, based on testimony provided by JIMENA, in Niv Magazine, 2022. Read in Niv Magazine
Profile
Jewish Life and Imprisonment in Egypt
Summary of Joe Pessah's JIMENA oral history, published by the Historical Society of Jews from Egypt, 2013. Read the summary
Article
Passover brings memory of escaping from Egypt
San Jose Mercury News feature on Joe and Remy Pessah, republished by the Historical Society of Jews from Egypt (mid 2000s). Read the article
Affiliations
Organizations
- Congregation B'nai Israel, Daly City (Rav Emeritus)
- JIMENA Speakers Bureau
- JIMENA Oral History and Digital Experience Project
Book Joe
Bring this speaker to your audience
To invite Joe Pessah to your school, university, congregation, or organization, use the Book Speaker button above or email info@jimena.org.