Wail, O community, and lament in trembling

Eli ben ‘Amram ha-Kohen he-Ḥaver (“the fellow,” an honorific often bestowed by the Palestinian academy in Jerusalem) was a communal leader and poet in Fustāt (Old Cairo) during the second half of the eleventh century. He served as the head of the Palestinian Rabbanite congregation in Fustāt after the death of Ephraim ben Shemariah in 1055. Eli’s tenure was marked by deep and enduring ties to Jewish communities throughout the Mediterranean. Among the many surviving documents in the Cairo Geniza testifying to Eli’s activity, two kinot (dirges) written by him upon the assassination of Abū Naṣr Faḍl al-Tustarī bespeak his close relationship with the al-Tustarīs, a leading family of Karaites, some of whom had held important positions in the Fātimid state apparatus. As the result of a rivalry within the Fātimid military, Abū Naṣr was assassinated in 1047, an event that reverberated through the Jewish community.