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Women's Interfaith Encounter is
a
program of the Interfaith Encounter Association
30th May 2004
On May 17 we were twenty-two women -- Muslim, Christian, and Jewish -- ranging in age from two and a half (Aida's daughter, Neel) to eighty and including Nadia's mother, Fahmia Imhamis. Our meeting was devoted to sharing the personal stories of three more of our members. Rose brought a new member, Fadua, who we were pleased to welcome. Vered, who had been away for months working in other countries, lit our candle. Rose offered a beautiful prayer about the hope that we get from our group that enables to endure difficult times.
Nasrin spoke about being a woman in Arab society. She told of her childhood in Shibli village at the foot of Mount Tavor where she insisted to get an education rather than to marry young and remain in the village. She spent two years convincing her father that she could go to the University to study to be a nurse and getting her degree was a dream come true. Her father still wants her to return home and find a husband -- which she plans to do when she's ready. On an emotional level it is hard because of the difficult situation in this land. Because she can't manage with all this alone, she came to our group and was amazed to find that women could be open and discuss their struggles together. Although she works in the hospital with a variety of people, she only focuses on the work and puts everything else out of her mind. Here she can talk about everything and sees that we are all victims in this situation.
Wendy grew up in Brooklyn in a non-Jewish neighborhood always feeling part of a minority. She belonged to a Reform synagogue and became more involved as she grew up. She went to Temple University in Philadelphia because it had a large Jewish community and was close to home. Shortly after she started school, her friend who had come with her to school was stabbed and killed -- and it made a huge difference in her life. A few weeks later she heard about a program in Israel and came here for a one year program and became involved with a group founding kibbutz Lotan in the Arava. She found it strange to be living close to the border with Jordan after living in the U.S. She married and had two daughters and lived there for 17 years. In 2000, they came to live in Jerusalem, where her husband is from -- shortly before the beginning of the intifada. She has always been very left in politics and religion and still wears her heart on her sleeve and believes she is making more of a contribution here that if she had stayed in the US.
Fachira spoke about taking a path different from the one society chose for her. She grew up in a Druze village as a Christian and experienced being in the minority. She decided at age 26 to come to Jerusalem to discover herself and this was hard for her family because she is the eldest and her mother wanted her to marry and have a family. Instead she studied criminology and conflict management and now works especially with Israeli-Palestinian groups. Being in Jerusalem made her political identity more clear and made it possible to be in dialogue. As a social worker she was working with Palestinians that had committed crimes -- and it was very complicated -- she was a Palestinian in an Israeli office presenting the case of a Palestinians in an Israeli court. When she works in schools, the Muslim children have difficulty accepting that she is a Christian. When she first left home she wanted to be free of religion, but now she feels a need to return to the importance and feeling of religion from her childhood, and this group strengthens that for her. As a facilitator of dialogue, she works hard to see the responsibility for change is on both sides. She has to be very connected to herself so that she can see both sides.
We planned to continue our sharing of stories at our next meeting. There will be a video night at Anastasia's where we will view the documentary "Peace X Peace" Women on the Frontlines" that was given to us by the Director, Patricia Smith Melton. Ester is having a bridal party for Inbal who will be married shortly. We will each bring a recipe and make a cook book for her. This will be the beginning of the Women's Interfaith Cookbook which we will create as a fund-raising project. Anastasia and a group of us will go to Suhair's elementary school in Beit Hanina to make plans for us all to paint to the school next month. Ellen has already raised funds to pay for the materials. We ended with a group hug which gave us strength to go out into the night and the unfolding news of the ongoing tragedies in Gaza.
This report was prepared by Elana Rozenman with assistance from Neima Eichenholtz, Aida Shibli, and Hanan Totary in Jerusalem.
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