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Letter from the Editor

Hello Swiss Egyptians and Egyptian Swiss

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Issue number six .. The first issue was on January 1st, 2016, three years ago.

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Our major article is covering the inauguration of the new Swiss Honorary Consulate in El Gouna, Red Sea Governorate; this is great news considering that the Swiss diplomatic representation in Egypt was limited to The Embassy in Cairo since end 1978.

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The Swiss Ambassador Mr. Paul Garnier generously contributed by a presentation of his first year in Egypt, another article is telling the story of seven amazing Egyptian young ladies.

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We received a letter from the Centre d'Études Alexandrines (PDF file attached) aknowledging their cooperation with the Swiss Club of Alexandria to numerically preserve the issues of "Bulletin suisse d’Égypte" and "Journal suisse d’Égypte et du Proche-Orient".

I Hope you will enjoy this edition and wish you all a Happy New Year 2019.

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Yehia Shalash

Alexandria January 1st, 2019

Hello Swiss Egyptians and Egyptian Swiss

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Issue number five .. better late than never.

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The situation of the Swiss Cemetery has greatly improved: renovation started, caretaker back, the works; check out the photos in the gallery section.

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However, to keep the momentum and with The Swiss Club limited financial resources, your continued donations will be highly appreciated to maintain the Swiss Cemetery in a good and honorable shape.

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I am happy to announce that the Swiss Club Alexandria in cooperation with Le Centre d'Etudes Alexandrines have successfully completed a project of scanning all the issues of the "Le Journale Suisse d'Egypte et du Proche-Orient" kept at the club library; you can retrieve any copy through the CEAlex site:

 

http://www.cealex.org/pfe/diffusion/collection_reponse_liste.php

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and look for the title: Journal Suisse d’Égypte et du Proche-Orient

(You will find it about mid page)

I wrot an article about the origin and history of Easter as well as the story of the Julian and Gregorian Calendars, hope you will enjoy it.

Please also check our news and the last page.

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Yehia Shalash

Alexandria April 5th, 2018

Hello Swiss Egyptians and Egyptian Swiss

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Welcome to issue number four.

 

I am happy to announce that the article about the Swiss cemetery in Cairo brought attention to many both in Egypt and in Switzerland; the Swiss Club in Cairo acknowledged his responsibilities towards the cemetery in its last General Assembly meeting thanks to the efforts of Dr. Edward Lambelet and Ms. Maggie Lambelet, the previous caretaker/ gardener has been reinstated to his previous position.

 

Renovation work started with the help of the little fund left in the cemetery account as well as a donation from Dr. Lambelet; the water pump has been fixed and overall clean up restoration of tomb stones and gardening is underway with the help of Ms. Lambelet who is in charge of the cemetery.

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Your donations for the cemetery will be highly appreciated, please contact:

maggylambelet100@hotmail.com

I added a map of the cemetery plan under "Gallery/ the Swiss cemetery", the plan was provided by Dr. Lambelet.

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Unfortunately I was not able to prepare a new main article for this issue, seems I am running out of topics. I did however present the amazing story of the El Tawil/ Beglinger Swiss/Egyptian connection (under "stories") which I believe you will find very unique, I also invite you to visit a link about one of the last remaining Swiss icons left in Egypt namely the "Windsor Hotel" now owned and operated by the family Doss (just click on the link here) and finally the usual updates of the "news" and of the "last page".

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Unfortunately it is not all good news; sadly the famous "Lehnert and Landrock" book store has changed location, it is now at 36 Abdel Khalek Tharwat street, first floor, just around the corner from the old book store where it was located since 1934. 

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Finally, please help me out by contributing to the site, I am sure you must have many interesting stories to share, a memory, or a photo ...

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swissegyptian@gmail.com

egyptswiss@hotmail.com

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Yehia Shalash

Alexandria August 25, 2017

Hello Swiss Egyptians and Egyptian Swiss

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This is the third version of our site. I was deeply involved in some personal matters which did not allow me the time to present this issue on time (end December); it seems I may not be able to update the site by the end of each June and December as promised but I will do my best.

 

Between this version and the previous one dated September 2016, the Egyptian Pound devalued by about 50% which forced me to chose a cheaper arrangement with the site service provider; hence the new site address; please accept my apologies for any inconvenience this action may have caused.

The new site address/link is: https://egyptswiss.wixsite.com/yehia.

For better communication I also added a new email account: swissegyptian@gmail.com

The previous email account: egyptswiss@hotmail.com is also still valid. 

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The main article in this issue is about the Swiss Cemetery in Cairo: dated since 1925, the cemetery is one of the last remaining icons of Swiss Community in Egypt which since the mid of the nineteenth century actively contributed to the various aspects of life in Egypt; the cemetery is today almost abandoned. I want to bring awareness to this issue and I believe that we owe it to the men and women resting within its confinement to save there resting place both for moral values as well as historical values.

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Also to celebrate women's international day, the Swiss Embassy in Cairo have presented a number of stories of Swiss women who have set up successful entrepreneurial ventures in different cities across Egypt. Those inspiring stories are evidence that the continued relation between the people of our two countries which experienced a peak in the first half of the twentieth century has all the potential to be successfully resumed again for the benefit of all.

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I hope you will enjoy it.

 

Yehia Shalash

Alexandria March 31,2017.

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Hello Swiss Egyptians and Egyptian Swiss

 

As you can see from the counter on home page, the site recorded a little over 1200 visits since January 1st this year (the counter starts at 1234); it seems I am not successful in attracting enough attention to the subject I am covering.

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The reasons may be one of many: (1) Those who made part of that common history which I seek to preserve are becoming too few (2) the second generation is even less interested, or (3) I am not good at marketing.

Except for some help from a couple of dear friends in translation, editing and proofreading, I have been doing most of the work by myself; the mailing list reached a little over 170 names; but I did learn a few things during the past year:

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  • ​I am enjoying working on this site very much; it gives me great pleasure and satisfaction.

  • There is still a lot of stories and history to be uncovered.

  • Most of the good stories are held in the memory of senior women and men.

  • I do not have the time or the means to continue doing this at the path I expected, I have been in CH only once this year and only for a very short period of time.

  • I will continue doing this work but I definitely appreciate some help.

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There you go my friends, right now I do have a list of very interesting people to meet (hopefully very soon), I have a few ideas for some other subjects to research, on the other hand the Egyptian Pound has devaluated by over 40% during the past year.

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I hope you will enjoy the new stories presented in this issue, please tell me your feedback and please share with me any idea you think might help 

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Yehia Shalash

Alexandria, September 16th, 2016

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Hello Swiss Egyptians and Egyptian Swiss

 

I just finished writing a book about you people, your history and the communities you built. It was a very pleasurable experience which took me three times to Switzerland for researches and interviews, not to mention a few dozen visits to Cairo (I live in Alexandria). I never imagined the diversity and colorfulness that my research will reveal, discovering a common history between Egypt and Switzerland that extends back to the third century AD.

Now that the book is done, I have this strange feeling of being on a great first date but never reaching the second.  Next to making new friends and rediscovering both Egypt and Switzerland, I unveiled a number of forgotten stories and helped bring them back to memory. But the flow never stopped, I keep hearing interesting little stories every now and then, but I can't write a second book to present them, so I decided to create this site to be a continuation of my book, serving the same purpose as well as open the door for your own participation.

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In my work, I discovered many stories about roles played and contributions made that are slowly fading away, I am sure many of you must have interesting stories to be told. Please send them here so that we can all share them, and most importantly preserve them; they are part of our mutual rich history that deserves admiration and proper recognition.

Brief vom Redaktor

Hallo Schweizer Ägypter und Ägypter Schweizer

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Ich habe gerade ein Buch über Sie Leute beendet, Ihre Geschichte und die Gemeinden die Sie gebaut. Es war eine sehr angenehme Erfahrung, die mich drei Mal nahm die Schweiz für Recherchen und Interviews, nicht auf ein paar Dutzend Besuche in Kairo (ich lebe in Alexandria) zu erwähnen. Ich hätte nie gedacht, die Vielfalt und Buntheit, dass meine Forschung wird zeigen, die Entdeckung einer gemeinsamen Geschichte zwischen Ägypten und der Schweiz, die bis ins dritte Jahrhundert nach Christus erstreckt.

 

Nun, da das Buch fertig ist, habe ich dieses seltsame Gefühl, auf einem guten ersten Tag, aber nie Erreichen der zweiten. Weiter, um neue Freundschaften zu machen und die Wiederentdeckung Ägypten und der Schweiz, präsentierte ich eine Reihe von forgoten Geschichten und dazu beigetragen, bringen sie zurück in den Speicher. Aber der Fluss nie aufgehört, ich höre immer wieder interessante kleine Geschichten immer mal als, aber ich kann ein zweites Buch zu präsentieren nicht schreiben, so habe ich beschlossen, diese Website zu erstellen, um eine Fortsetzung meines Buches ist, dient dem gleichen Zweck wie auch die Tür für die eigene Beteiligung.

 

In meiner Arbeit, entdeckte ich viele Geschichten über Rollen gespielt und Beiträge geleistet, die langsam verblassen weg, ich bin sicher, viele von Ihnen sind interessante Geschichten müssen erzählt werden. Bitte senden Sie diese hier, damit wir alle teilen Sie sie, und vor allem bewahren; sie sind Teil unserer gegenseitigen reiche Geschichte, die Bewunderung und angemessene Anerkennung verdienen.

 

Es war einmal vor einer Reihe von Zeitschriften, beiden Gemeinschaften, Schweizer Ägypter und Ägyptische Schweizer, jetzt gibt es keine. Es sollte einfacher sein, diese heute profitiert von den Kommunikationswunder unserer Zeit, das Angebot ist uns allen die Möglichkeit, mitzumachen, zu beteiligen und mit unseren Geschichten und Fotos zu wiederholen.

 

Also bitte gehen Sie voran, öffnen Sie Ihre Erinnerungen Feld und teilen Sie sie mit uns.

Unser gemeinsames Erbe ist auch erhaltenswert.

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Yehia Shalash

Alexandria, Januar 1, 2016

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Bonjour les  les Suisses d’Egypte et les Égyptiens de Suisse

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Je viens de terminer l'écriture d'un livre sur vous, sur votre histoire et les communautés que vous avez construites. Ce fut une expérience très agréable qui m'a amené trois fois en Suisse pour des recherches et des entrevues, pour ne pas mentionner quelques dizaines de visites au Caire (je vis à Alexandrie). Je ne m'attendais pas à la diversité et à la profondeur que ma recherche allait révéler, la découverte d'une histoire commune entre l'Egypte et la Suisse qui remonte au troisième siècle de notre ère.

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Maintenant que le livre est fait,  j’ai cet étrange sentiment d’être dans un bon jour, mais de ne jamais atteindre celui d’après. Afin de lier de nouvelles amitiés et de redécouvrir l'Egypte et la Suisse, j’ai dévoilé un certain nombre d'histoires oubliées et aidé à les ramener à la mémoire. Mais le flux n'a jamais cessé, je continue à entendre des petites histoires intéressantes de temps. Comme je ne peux pas écrire un deuxième livre pour les présenter, j’ai donc décidé de créer ce site pour qu’il devienne une continuation de mon livre afin qu’il serve le même but, mais qu’il ouvre également la porte à votre propre participation.

 

Dans mon travail, je découvre beaucoup d'histoires sur des rôles joués et des contributions faites, qui sont lentement en train de disparaître. Je suis sûr que beaucoup d'entre vous avez aussi des histoires intéressantes à raconter. S'il vous plaît, envoyez-les ici afin que nous puissions les partager, et surtout les préserver; elles font partie de notre riche histoire mutuelle et méritent l'admiration et la reconnaissance appropriées.

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Il existait auparavant un certain nombre de périodiques portant sur les deux communautés, les Egyptiens suisses et les Suisses égyptiens, malheureusement il n’y en a plus à présent. Il devrait être plus facile de refaire cela aujourd'hui avec les facilités que nous offrent les communications actuelles qui donnent à tous la possibilité de participer et de contribuer par l’ajout d’histoires et de photographies.

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Donc, s'il vous plaît, allez-y, ouvrez votre boîte de souvenirs et partagez  les avec nous.

Notre patrimoine commun vaut bien la peine d’être préservé.

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Yehia Shalash

Alexandrie, le premier Janvier, 2016

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Lettre de l'Éditeur

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