Mazal Meni was born in Hevron in 1894 to one of the prestigious families of the Jewish community, her father Malchiel Meni was the first Jew to serve as a judge in the Ottoman empire and her grandfather Eliyahu Meni was the Chief rabbi of the holy city of Hevron. According to the Meni family tradition their linkage goes back to the line of King David. In 1901 the family moved from Hevron to Jerusalem where her father would sit as a judge in court. She completed her schooling in the Evelina de Rothschild School in Jerusalem and with private tutors. In 1912 the Egyptian Jewish Doctor Albert Mosseri came to Jerusalem to bury his father at the Mount of Olives century. He visited the Meni home and immediately fell in love with Mazal and asked for her hand in marriage. She wasn’t quick to agree to marry the Doctor who was 27 years her senior and only agreed after he promised that they would make their home in Jerusalem and that he would help her pursue medical studies herself. They were married in the Amdorsky hotel in Jerusalem with live music performed by the Ottoman military orchestra at the order of the Trukish governor of the city.
After the war was over, Mazal expected the family to return to Jerusalem, but a surprise was waiting for her. Her husband Doctor Albert Mosseri had a calling to go back into the world of journalism. He convinced her that by publishing a pro Zionist newspaper in Cairo they could be doing a greater service to the nation than simply going to live in the land of Israel. She agreed. Their newspaper called “Israel” would appear weekly in French, Arabic and Hebrew for the better part of the next 20 years.
Mazal Mosseri Zionist leader in Cairo
Publisher Dr. Albert Mosseri died suddenly in February 1933,his Mazal assumed leadership of the publication. The editorial board includes representatives of all parts of Egypt’s complex Jewish community, Sefaradi, Ashkanazi, local, and Karite Jews. This was not the only Jewish newspaper in Egypt during this period, but “Israel” was unique because it was published in three languages, French, Arabic and Hebrew which brought its message to all parts of the Jewish community in Egypt and also to non Jewish readers. The editorial positions lead by Mazal Mosseri were very clearly in support of the Jewish revival and settlement in the Land of Israel which was under the British Mandate, the paper also took a very strong and courageous stand agaist Hitler and Nazi germany. This was not without challenges in the internal Egyptian political atmosphere at the time. As mentioned above Egypt too was controlled by the British and emerging political trends believed that aligning with the Nazis might assist them in getting the British out of their country. Mazal was actually sued for libel by the German and Italian ambassadors for writing editorials against Hitler and fascist dictator of Italy Benito Mussolini. The Egyptian government threatened to close her newspaper. As the Egyptian became more and more opposed to Zionism it became impossible to continue publishing the newspaper. Mazal started to receive direct anonymous threats. In August 1939 she decided to leave Egypt. The newspaper “Israel” was mergerd with a Zionist newspaper out of Alexandria called “La Tribune Juive”. Many leaders of the Jewish community in Cairo attended a farewell reception in her honor. She would return to the land of Israel to join her daughter Yehudit and her son Macabee who himself would become an officer in the Haggana and a war hero. On departing Egypt for the last her passport was stamped with the words “Not to be granted reentry to Egypt”.
