Interrupted biographies: curating Jewish ritual objects in post-minority Egypt

This article examines how Egyptian museums and heritage institutions curate Jewish ritual objects within the country's post-minority landscape. It introduces the concept of Interrupted Biography as a refinement of Kopytoff's cultural biography of things, arguing that demographic rupture transforms not only the social lives of sacred objects but also the institutional authority through which their meanings are produced and communicated. Drawing on object-based analysis, heritage documentation, exhibition analysis, and museum narratives, the study investigates how Jewish ritual objects are preserved, interpreted, and incorporated into contemporary heritage discourse. Particular attention is given to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC), where Jewish ritual objects are presented within narratives of Egypt's religious diversity and cultural continuity. The historical trajectories of the Ben Ezra Synagogue and the Cairo Geniza illustrate how Jewish material culture entered museum and archival collections through different pathways of circulation, preservation, and reinterpretation. Rather than treating museums as neutral repositories, the article argues that curatorial practices reshape the meanings of sacred objects by transferring interpretive authority from religious communities to heritage institutions. The study offers a conceptual framework for understanding how museums negotiate the afterlives of sacred material culture in societies marked by profound demographic change.