A Genizah is a place where sacred Jewish writings that can no longer be used are stored until they are sent for burial. But the Genizah in the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat (Old Cairo) was unique in two significant respects: (1) none of it was ever sent for burial, so it accumulated for nearly 1000 years, from the founding of the synagogue until the discovery of the Genizah by Europeans in the mid-19^th century; and (2) the Jews behind the Genizah apparently felt that Hebrew letters themselves were sacred, so anything written with Hebrew characters, including secular documents and writings in Arabic, for which Jews used Hebrew letters, was thrown into the Genizah.

The page in front of you contains a list, written in four columns (each apparent column contains two names on each line), listing names followed by the Hebrew letter aleph. This is a charity collector’s record of individuals in the community and their donation of a single drachma each. This is, in other words, an egalitarian charity list, showing the same donation from each individual, regardless of their wealth.