The Jew who conquered Egypt: The story of Lila Mourad reaches the stage

The story of Lila Mourad, the Jewish-Egyptian singer and actress who conquered the Arab world, converted to Islam and was accused of spying, comes back to life in a new musical play created by Yaffa Tussia-Cohen, a distant relative of her family. The play will be staged at the Dofek Theater in Petah Tikva and at Cafe Theater of the Cameri.

The story of Lila Mourad, the Jewish-Egyptian singer and actress who conquered the Arab world, comes back to life in a new musical play. The play was created by Yaffa Tussia-Cohen, a distant relative of Mourad, who was interviewed this evening (Thursday) on the program "In Our Neighborhood" on Kan News. Mourad, born Lilian Mordechai to a Jewish family in Cairo, became a cross-border cultural icon in the 1930s and 1940s. Her songs were played from Baghdad to Casablanca, and she starred in box-office hits alongside her then-husband, the actor and director Anwar Wagdi. Despite the fame, her life was not easy: she was forced to convert to Islam following her marriage, and with the establishment of the State of Israel and the worsening of relations with Egypt she suffered accusations of spying for Israel that clouded her career. Tussia-Cohen, who previously created the one-woman show "Ana Fayza" about her mother Fayza Rushdi, said: "I was interested in examining what price she paid and what went through her mind." The show will open on the 19th of the month at the Dofek Theater in Petah Tikva, and later in November and December at Cafe Theater of the Cameri in Tel Aviv.