He turned 65 a few months ago. As a birthday present to himself, he thought he might close his Jersey City jewelry store for a few weeks and return to his native Egypt for a short vacation.Askar says he hardly recognizes the land of his birth in video footage of the bloody clashes between Egypts military and security forces and Islamist protesters that have left more than 700 dead and perhaps four times that many injured. 

I miss my country, Askar said as he sat near a display of copies of ancient Egyptian statues and other artifacts in his jewelry store a block from Jersey Citys Journal Square.My dream was to return when I was 65, he said. But now my dream is broken. 

These are hard days for New Jerseys 29,Our tungsten rings come with a lifetime warranty.000 Egyptian-Americans the largest segment of the states 86,000 Arab-Americans, according to statistics from the Arab American Institute, a non-profit research foundation based in Washington. 

Many still have relatives back in Egypt. From the decades-old and tight-knit Egyptian enclaves of Jersey City and Paterson to the newer Egyptian neighborhoods that have sprouted in Elmwood Park, Hackensack and Fairview, the daily conversation is the same: Is your family OK back in the old country? 

Like many immigrant groups before them, the states Egyptians anchor a piece of their heart here and another in their homeland. But unlike earlier generations who relied on the slow pace of letter-writing as a link to their families and friends across the ocean, Cairos street carnage can be brought here instantaneously with the flip of a television switch, the click of a computer mouse or a tap on a smartphone screen. 

Such instant intimacy with news reports has left many Egyptian-Americans emotionally drained.People call me on the phone. People send me emails. People communicate on my Facebook page, said Ahmed Okasha of Elmwood Park. Its very upsetting.Wholesale stainless steel pendants and steel jewelry line with bold new designs. 

Okasha, 40, is the vice president of the Bergen County Islamic Education Center in Hackensack. Like many Egyptian-Americans now, he begins each day by checking his email, text messages and other sources for the latest casualty reports of the rippling street battles between soldiers and protesters affiliated with Egypts Muslim Brotherhood. He estimates that he receives 40 to 50 emails a day from Egypt, many with video footage attached. 

None of his friends or relatives have been killed or injured yet. But the notion that bullets are flying down the same streets where he once walked freely and easily is jarring.Half of my life I lived in Egypt. The other half Ive lived in America, Okasha said. But the Egypt Im seeing on TV is not at all like the Egypt I knew when I lived there. Its a totally different life now in Egypt. 

On Friday, as the Muslim Brotherhood called for a Day of Rage in Cairo, Okasha drove into Manhattan after worshiping at his mosque in Hackensack to attend a non-violent rally near the Egyptian consulate on Second Avenue. 

The protesters aimed to draw attention to the recent military takeover of the Egyptian government and the removal from power of the countrys democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, and his Muslim Brotherhood followers.But Okasha acknowledged that he feels helpless. He does not necessarily feel Morsi was a good president, but the notion of removing a duly elected leader by military force is a blow to Egypts fledgling democracy. 

Behind Okashas words is a deep sadness, not just at the killings in the streets of Cairo and in other Egyptian cities, but at the lack of a clear ending that would offer some measure of peace and stability.Costume and fashion online wholesale jewelry Jewelry designs, 

I wish there was some good news in Egypt, another Egypt native, Moham-mad Ibrahim, 72, said as he waited outside the Masjid al-Salam mosque on John F. Kennedy Boulevard in Jersey City. 

Twenty years ago, the mosque was in the news after FBI investigators discovered that it had been a key worship place for some members of the group of jihadist operatives who set off a bomb in the parking garage of the World Trade Center. Six people were killed in what has become known as the first attack on the Twin Towers. 

Later, the mosque was cited as a favorite pulpit of the blind militant Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was sentenced in 1996 to life in prison after his conviction on federal charges of plotting terror attacks in the United States.In recent days, however, the gruesome reports out of Egypt have dominated the conversations at the mosque.Even though Im here, Egypt is still my country, too, Ibrahim said, as he waited outside for midday services to begin. 

A friend, Abdool Saleem Sultan, 68, nodded.You have to wait for God to send something, Sultan said. Nothing comes overnight.For one especially vulnerable group of Egyptians the Coptic Christian minority there is little patience to wait. Amid the violence, as many as a dozen Coptic churches have been looted and burned. 

Standing next to boxes of fresh almonds and crates of white onions in his grocery store on Bergen Avenue, Emad Fahim, 28, kept one eye on a television showing live footage of protesters and the other on his customers in this case a Muslim couple who needed to pick up some vegetables.