Mr. Joe (Giusy) Barda was born in Alexandria in 1934 and left Egypt in 1956, a month before the Suez War. After 2 years in Italy, he settled in Sydney, Australia where he established an Export and a Shipping Company to the Pacific Islands. Now retired, he has concentrated his activities in the past 15 years to Jewish causes. He is the Regional Officer of the Historical Society of the Jews from Egypt, a Founding member of the Nebi Daniel International Association, and a member of the International Board of the World Congress of the Jews from Egypt (Haifa 2006). Joe has now dedicated the next 7 years to world wide fund-raising for the Haifa University Endowment for the study and research of the history of the Jews of Egypt.

Dr. Racheline Barda was born in Alexandria and left Egypt in 1957, shortly after the Suez War. She joined Joe in Rome where they married in 1957. After bringing up three children: Daniella (50 – Sydney), David (48 – Sydney), Monique (41 – Los Angeles), she undertook academic studies at the University of Sydney and obtained a BA Hons and a Master Phil in French literature and a PhD in Jewish History. She now lectures on the history of the Jews of Egypt at Sydney University and contributed several talks, papers and articles on the immigration of the Jews of Egypt to Australia and France. Racheline recently published a book by Cambria Press: EGYPTIAN-JEWISH EMIGRES IN AUSTRALIA, available from Amazon (www.amazon.com).