Walking While Jewish in … Cairo

Walking While Jewish in … Cairo

Is this officially a series now?

We’ve done Paris, Britain, Copenhagen and Malmö, where people walking the street dressed in attire indicating they are religious Jews face street harassment, mostly by Muslim young men.

We also did Montevideo, where the reaction was positive.

Here’s Cairo, as the Jerusalem Post reports:

An Egyptian journalist conducted an experiment in which he dressed up as a Jew and asked passersby on the streets of Cairo for directions to a nearby synagogue – with nearly serious consequences for his physical safety.

The Cairo-based Internet news site DOTMSR sent the journalist to the streets of Cairo dressed in overtly Hassidic garb – sidecurls, skullcap, beard, and a hat.

The “Jewish” journalist was then subjected to threats of violence, epithets, slurs, and shoving from hostile locals….

DOTMSR is an Arab-language Internet news site “that broadcasts high-quality news items in Arabic.”

It describes itself as a news outlet that “believes in openness, innovation, and an obligation to accepting those who are different.”

The video seems highly edited, so it’s hard to get a sense if the harassment was as pervasive as in European cities.

Regardless, Walking While Jewish remains risky in many places in the world.

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