Egypt is considered to be one of the few countries in which Arab culture flourished among the Jews, in both the popular and the canonical fields. Some of Jews, such as Yacqūb Ṣanūc (James Sanua) (1839-1912), Togo Mizraḥī (1901-1987), and Laylā Murād (1918-1995), rose to prominence. However, on the whole, Jewish involvement was relatively limited in comparison to Iraq, probably because Arabic had low status among Egyptian Jews. A Jew as “a carbon copy of ibn al-balad” was never a desired option for most of the Egyptian-Jewish writers, artists, and intellectuals. Due to the peculiar demographic structure of Egyptian Jewry, the dreams of its members were much more infused with the spirit of Alexandrian cosmopolitanism, which was the product of a limited period and singular history – that of the crumbling Ottoman Empire.
In the wake of the national and political conflict in the Middle East, Arab-Jewish culture has undergone a process of marginalization and negligence, as well as a gradual descent into utter oblivion, owing to both Arab-Musim and Hebrew-Jewish-Zionist national and culural systems. Both sides, each with its own form of limited reasoning and particularistic considerations, have refused to accept the legitimacy of Arab-Jewish hybridism highlighting instead "pure" nationally, culturally, and religiously exclusive identities. The article explores the gradual demise of Arab-Jewish cultural hybridism, which, from a historical point of view, coexisted with Arab-Muslim and Arab-Christian hybridisms during some periods. Following a short era in the twentieth century during which Arab-Jewish culture flourished, especially in Egypt and Iraq, we are currently witnessing the demise of that culture. Consequently, Israeli-Arab Jews, or those seen as their offspring, currently have, or will have in the near future, three man cultural options. The first - the revival of active Jewish involvement in Arab canonical culture - is probably impossible. The second option is involvement in popular Israeli culture; this option is characterized by a strong longing for legitimacy - Jewish musicians and singers of Arab origin have accomplished a great deal in this field. The third option is participation in the activities of the canonical Hebrew culture.