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I am writing this paper in Cairo near the end of a sabbatical experience with family in Egypt, and as such I ask a certain indulgence for framing my discussion in the form of anecdotal observations about my family's experience here. My wife and I met as Talmud study partners in rabbinical school, and my children have attended Jewish day-schools all their lives before coming to Egypt. We lived for some years in Israel, where our children attended Israeli public schools in the Jewish, as opposed to Arab, education system.1 We are “observant” Jews, meaning that we observe Jewish religious traditions that require certain particularistic behaviors that have tended to surprise (and occasionally delight) our Egyptian friends. While in Egypt, our children attended an English language school that was attended primarily by Egyptian students (nearly 80% according to the school's account). Many of their friends are thus Egyptian, both Muslim and Christian. While we are living in an area of Cairo that is home to many US and European ex-patriots, I speak Arabic and both my wife and I have been involved in intensive Arabic language programs that encouraged and enabled us to engage with Egyptians of all social and economic classes.
We also are friends with Muslim Palestinian Arabs, whom we visited this year as well, both within the “Green Line” that defines the official borders of the state of Israel, and also in an area contingent to Jerusalem but officially associated with the territories governed by the Palestinian Authority. Most of our time has been spent within Egypt, however, so my anecdotal observations will be restricted primarily to this country.
I can confirm from my family's experience that anti-Jewish as well as anti-Zionist anxieties and prejudice are an integral part of contemporary Egyptian milieu. This observation applies to Egyptian Christians as well as Muslims, and in fact some of the most anti-Semitic sentiments we have experienced have originated among Egyptian