I was also taught the Passover Haggadah, which describes the Exodus, and like many others, I read it every year at the traditional meal. Egyptian religious figures tend to describe what happened as fact, based on holy texts: Moses is the prophet and God punished Pharaoh.
That Exodus took place long ago, but there have been other Exoduses, some of them in the modern era. The most notable one was Egypt's Jews being expelled by former President Gamal Abdel Nasser in the late 1950s. Ideology, hatred for Israel, and his pan-Arabic state led Nasser to wipe out a glorious community.
The peace treaty between Israel and Egypt restored the tradition of the seder to the Land of the Nile. The Israeli Embassy in Cairo, with help from the tiny Jewish community that remained in Egypt and Jewish institutions, helped organize a traditional seder, which was held at the Shaarei Shamayim Synagogue in the heart of Cairo. The few members of the Jewish community who remained celebrated it together, along with Jewish diplomats and representatives of Jewish organizations who had traveled there for the occasion. No one wanted to miss it.
It was hard to hide the excitement when in the heart of Cairo, people read out, "We were slaves; now we are free." I pray that this year, the tradition will continue.
Personally, I had my own Exodus. My embassy colleagues and I were forced to evacuate in the middle of the night after an outraged crowd attacked the embassy and put our lives in real danger. Like the Jews of the original Exodus, we didn't have time to take anything to eat. We dropped everything and cleared out. Everyone has their own Exodus.
