http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/5855/bassa13.htm
BASSATINE NEWS - April 2000 Volume II Issue 1
After
umpteen transatlantic telephone calls, faxes and emails between the JCC
(Jewish Community in Cairo), and former American University Cairo 'Student
Abroad' alumni (1998-9) Aaron Kiviat, it's finally been agreed that Kiviat will
embark this summer on a program to digitize the Bassatine Cemetery. In other
words, with the help of a hand-picked team Kiviat will (i) map out the
cemetery--that part which is now enclosed by a wall; (ii) record on camera all
marked tombstones; and (iii) put over 4,000 names still in evidence on a
soon-to-be accessible database.
This
milestone project will be of ENORMOUS help for all those who are trying to
locate, identify, pinpoint, where there loved ones are buried.
This
project is made possible thanks to the initiative and intervention of the JCC
Cairo, funds availed in the USA from friends and supporters of Aaron Kiviat,
Carmen Weinstein for providing suitable downtown Cairo lodgings along with
transport and communication arrangements to and from Bassatine, and to JCC
travel advisor Joseph Kazasian for providing cheap air transport to and
from the West Coast. And, of-course, team leader Aaron Kiviat.
More
on this subject in a Special Issue of Bassatine News. Meanwhile check out Aaron
Kiviat's website (see above) for details.
Team leader - Aaron Kiviat,
http://www.geocities.com/jewsofcairo/index.htm
FJCC - Newsletter #1, August 10, 2000
The Bassatine Mapping Project, A Huge Success !!!!
By Aaron Kiviat
Now that the light at the end of the tunnel is in
sight, I am happy to say that the Bassatine Mapping 
Project has been a success! We were able to
accomplish our goal of creating a digital map and spreadsheet of all existing
graves in the Bassatine Cemetery. We recorded almost 4,000
graves!!! Below is a quick summary of how we documented the worlds second oldest
Jewish cemetery.
I arrived in Egypt in late May and began preparations for the Bassatine mapping project. The first order of business was to create a 1:1000 scale map of the cemetery walls. With the help of Wafik Nosser, an Egyptian volunteer engineer, we began the grueling process of trial and error. Using a 50 meter measuring tape and a compass, we were able to create a fairly accurate representation of the enclosing wall. Next we located the main landmarks inside the wall including tombs, roads, entrances and recorded them all on our digital map. We then divided the cemetery into a grid of 100 meter sections running North to South and East to West. Each section was given a letter, A-P. If you would like to see a copy of the map, click here.
It is on the end of the article.
At this point, in mid June, the volunteers began to arrive and the real grunt work commenced. The crew consisted of Jack Rosen, Jenny Schulder, Erin Coryell, Anthony Zamlich, Rachelle Mokofsky and myself, Aaron Kiviat. We would rise early before the heat would break 100F and head out to the city of the dead in taxis. There, we broke up into teams of twos and spread out in search of legible graves.
We tackled the graveyard section by section, starting in A and moving South. We had made the decision to only locate graves that were still legible, leaving the unmarked graves for another project (this would take much more time and expertise than we had). First, we would locate a grave by measuring its distance from two or three landmarks already on the map. Second, we would record the name and dates on the tombstone for our excel database. Third, we would photograph the tombstone with a digital camera. Click here to see some examples of our digital photos. Finally, we would paint an identification number on the side of the grave, i.e. A1,A2,A3…..
As of now, August 10 2000 we have successfully mapped all sections of the graveyard and have found thousands of legible graves (nearly 4,000) and have organized them both alphabetically and numerically on an Excel database in order to facilitate the location of graves by the descendants of Egyptian Jewry and genealogists worldwide.
It has not been easy, to say the least. Every day has been a challenge, but the dedicated volunteers have made this project a success, and a lot of fun!
Jewish Teens Volunteer in Egypt
By Anthony Zamlich and Jack
Rosen
Upon hearing about this project we knew that we were in for an adventure. We had just met at the Kiviat’s Passover dinner and the idea sounded great.
When we first got here, we didn’t know what to expect. All we knew was that Cairo was a “hectic, chaotic” city. Our parents warned us to look out for each other and watch our backs. Once we arrived, however, Aaron made us feel at home, informing us not to worry, McDonalds was right around the corner. We bonded with other foreigners over “football” (aka soccer), rooting for France in the Euro 2000 finals.
The project of course was our main focus and gave us a feeling of great satisfaction —our hard work has paid off and made those in the community really happy that we were there to help.
Now, after being here for a month we have certainly worked hard and gotten to know the city. Everyone wants to know when we will be coming back to help again. Although we don’t know exactly when, we are both sure that we our paths will lead back to Cairo one day.
The City Of The Dead, "We're almost there, I can
smell it."
July 3, 2000 Cairo,
Egypt
By Jenny Schulder
“We’re almost there, I can smell it”
Staten Island has nothing on the City of the Dead., where the Bassatine Cemetery resides, and where we have been working for the past 3 weeks, mapping out graves. Living in Cairo has been an eye opening experience for all of us, work is mixed with exploratory excursions and late night discussions about the quirky inhabitants of this sometimes charming section of Cairo.
When we arrived, Aaron had already
gotten started with the map of the cemetery. He and Wafik, measured and mapped
out the perimeters of the cemetery, 
creating
sections and giving each section a letter. There are 16 sections A-P. With this
as an outline, the rest of our group had a good base to work with. I arrived
next followed by Erin, Rachelle, Tony and Jack. We started working right away,
marking grave placement, giving each grave a number within its section (see map
for examples), and photographing each marked grave. Spending each day there has
felt 
empowering because we can see the progress—we
have definitely been making our mark, and are proud of our work.
Besides graves, there is also a
family that is paid by the community to reside within the walls of the
cemetery. “Ataoui” (who’s real name is Mohamed and got his nickname after being
found living in one of the bigger graves of a family called “Cataoui”) is the
father of 4 beautiful children who live with him and his wife Aman. They take
care of the 
grounds,
making sure that no intruders come in. experience of a completely different
lifestyle. We have found common boundaries with people who couldn’t be more
different, at least on the surface. Soon enough, Jack and Erin were talking
soccer with the boys and Rochelle and I complimented Aman on her choice of lipstick.
Body language and facial expressions seem to work quite nicely in the absence
of a common tongue.
Shabbat Minyan at Adli’s Shaar HaShamayim Synagogue
On July the 15th, 2000 we were lucky enough to round up ten Jewish men (actually 12) and a crowd of Jewish women for a lovely service and Torah reading, the first minyan in Cairo since Shavouot!! In attendance were Jack Rosen, Anthony Zamlich, Daniel Kurtzer, Sheila Kurtzer, David Kurtzer, Bob Silverman, The Markovitzs (of Ohio), David Bensadoun (of Lyon), Linda Rabin (San Diego), Avi Jerash, Barak Barfi, Aaron Kiviat, Atif Yosef, Leah Harris, Carmen and Esther Weinstein and several other members of Cairo’s Jewish Community.
Getting a minyan in Cairo is very challenging and we usually rely on tourists and embassy folk to fill the bleachers. However, when successful we feel a real sense of purpose. It brings a spark of Jewish life to a community, which feels disconnected from Yidishkite.
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Some
examples of digital photos, in Bassatine cemetery – Cairo
Copy of the map, of Bassatine
(The Jewish cemetery in Cairo).
