Carmen Weinstein dies; led Jews in Egypt

CAIRO -- The leader of Egypt's dwindling and aging Jewish community, known for her tireless work preserving synagogues and a once-sprawling Jewish cemetery, died Saturday at the age of 82.

Carmen Weinstein will be buried on Thursday in the Bassatine cemetery she worked to save since 1978. It is the only Jewish cemetery left in Cairo and is the largest in Egypt.

Egypt's once thriving Jewish community largely left more than 60 years ago at a time of hostilities between the country and Israel.According to a friend of Weinstein, Magda Haroun, only about 40 Egyptian Jews remain in the country, split between Cairo and the Mediterranean city of Alexandria that was also once a thriving multicultural and cosmopolitan hub.

Several members of Weinstein's family, as well as Haroun's, are buried in Bassatine. -- AP