ABSTRACT
Apart from those places in which only individual Jews lived
(and some of these only as transients), a community was organized
in every Jewish settlement. In the larger ones even two or three
communities existed at one time. In the smaller, Ashkenazi and
Sephardi Jews and even the Karaites belonged to one community,
although the Karaites sought spiritual guidance from their chief
Cantor in Cairo.1 The rabbis of Egypt regarded the Karaites as non-
Jews, and pronounced Karaite cheese forbidden,2 nor did they permit them to purchase a Scroll of the Law in current use.3
