Convivencia Achieved? Jews and Non-Jews in Haifa

Convivencia Achieved? Jews and Non-Jews in Haifa

By Rivka Kellner and Menachem Kellne

 

Convivencia is the term often used to describe the coexistence of Jews and Muslims (and

Christians) in the so-called Golden Age of Spain. Jews in Haifa have not yet produced figures

like Bahya ibn Pakudah, Judah Halevi, or Maimonides, nor have the Arabs of Haifa produced

figures like Averroes, but, withal, Jews and Arabs do get along pretty well in Haifa. We are

here to report on that.

Last Simhat Torah we were blissfully unaware of what was happening down South. We 

heard in synagogue that Hamas had fired a few rockets at Tel Aviv, but nothing more. Since that

day, our lives have been consumed by little else. After a day or so, we were led to expect that

Hezbollah would fire on Haifa, and people in my Rambam class were talking about buying

generators in case the electricity went out…in the event, I do not think any of them actually

did buy a generator.

Overall, aside from the scores of thousands of refugees from Israel’s North living in

hotels around the city (and our attempts to help them, Menachem with laundry and Rivka with

English lessons and packing toys) there was very little sense in Haifa that Israel is at war.

Glued to the news, of course, horrified at our losses and the undeniable Hamas-caused

suffering of Gazans, endlessly frustrated by our useless government (and all too often

embarrassed by it), daily life went on much as before. This includes the remarkably good

relations between Jews and Arabs in Haifa. Menachem used to joke that it is no surprise that

Jews and Arabs get along in Haifa, the real surprise was that Jews and Jews got along as well.

Jews and Arabs continue to get along well in Haifa, despite the war (or perhaps even because

of it, on that more below), thank God, but the anger at the Haredi community grows day by

day.

Rivka and Menachem wrote the above a month ago. Then the other shoe dropped.

Consciously or unconsciously, we are now constantly listening for missile and drone alerts.

When entering any enclosed space, be it a mall or a synagogue, we scan our surrounding for

the nearest shelter. Our building, ten stories, forty apartments, was erected in the early 70’s.

We are therefore lucky enough to have a safe room on every floor. Our building was certainly

advanced when it was built. New buildings have safe rooms in every apartment. Older

buildings usually have no safe rooms and no shelters.

It turns out that we have several new neighbors on our floor. We have usually seen them

bleary-eyed, confused, sporting the latest pajama attire, in our floor’s safe room in the middle

of the night after an air raid alert has most rudely ripped us out of our beds. More than once

Menachem was caught in the middle of shaharit if the alert came in the morning; he zoomed

into the safe room in tallit and tefilln (photos available on request). Our new neighbors are

recent immigrants from Ukraine who probably never saw tefillin before (and do not know

Hebrew or even English) --- the Tower of Babel has reached our safe room.

Having brought you up to date, as it were, we want to write about Haifa’s unique spread 

of religions, and the way in which we all get along, despite the war, the alerts and the rockets

(which do not distinguish Jews from Arabs).

On an unremarkable day (as if any day during this war can be unremarkable), Rivka got

into a cab and noticed what was clearly a Muslim prayer book. She asked if she could look at it

(as a sign of respect to the driver) and, when she put it back down, she treated it like a siddur,

kissing the cover. She explained to the driver that halakhah mandates respectful treatment of

Jewish religious texts, and Rivka felt it appropriate to show respect to the texts of other

religions. This took place during Sukkot, and Rivka wished the driver a chag sameach (happy

holiday). She realized that he might have been offended since it was not his holiday, and she

said as much. He replied: “Why should I be offended? It is my holiday too --- I am also

Israeli.” (This is not the sort of story one will read concerning Haifa in the New York Times.)

In our experience Jews and Non-Jews in Haifa get along fine. Thus, for example, our favorite

neighborhood (kosher) coffee shop is jointly owned by a Jew and an Arab, staffed by a

variety of people, and enjoyed by the entire neighborhood. Did we not know his name, we

would not know that the Arab co-owner was an Arab (his Hebrew is certainly better than

Menachem’s!). Although the coffee shop is kosher, the clientele is diverse, including Arabs of

various types (although once we noticed that four of the patrons were members of our

synagogue).

Our family doctor has an Arab partner, Menachem’s rheumatologist is a Muslim woman 

(no hijab, but she observes Ramadan, and thinks that two 25-hour Jewish fasts are harder than

Ramadan), almost all our pharmacists are Arabs.

Unlike taxis in Jerusalem (or New York), getting into a cab driven by an Arab does not

 make Rivka nervous at all. Rivka freely engages these drivers into sometimes riveting

conversations about life, politics, and weather. Despite that, it seems to Rivka that

occasionally Arab “feminism” lags decades behind that of Jewish cabbies. Rivka suspects

that behind the rare examples of sexual harassment to which she was subjected, lay more than

“simple” sexism, but was also anti-Jewish honor-based overtone to the violence. Rivka

discussed these events with a different (Arab) cabbie, who though that she was over-reacting

and should be flattered.

One of Rivka’s cabbies told her that his relatives in Lebanon were not doing well (as is 

the case with Palestinians there). Rivka handed him a 20 shekel note and asked him to try to find

a way to alleviate their suffering. He was moved beyond words.

But neither Rivka nor Menachem ever felt that the Arabs with whom they dealt (in

 medical contexts, in malls, at the beach) harbored anti-Jewish prejudice. We have no idea what 

people feel in their hearts, but so far as outward behavior is concerned, we have never seen 

evidence of such prejudice.

Rivka has been laughingly called a JAP (Jewish American Princess); she always makes it

clear that she is a JIP (Jewish Israeli Princess). As such she is an expert on the many malls in

Haifa. In these malls she sees Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Druze working and shopping.

Recently she came across a cute little toddler who was being coaxed by his bemused mother

in Arabic to get up. Rivka crouched down next to the child and in Hebrew, English and broken

Arabic tried to get him to get up. The little angel smiled, got up, and gave Rivka a hug she

will never forget. She put her hand on his head and blessed him--and earned a smile from

the mother, who was clearly pleased.

Rivka teaches supplementary English to school children of all ages in a community

Center here in Haifa. Yesterday, one of her breaks between lessons was rudely interrupted by a 

siren. Rivka was pleasantly surprised by the way in which children and teachers all filed down to

the bomb shelter in an orderly fashion. When the mandatory 10 minutes were over, and

HKBH took care of them all, and nothing blew up, class resumed as if nothing had happened.

Rivka was impressed by the calm of her students and saddened that they appear unfazed by

the experience. No child should be used to such an event. It was clear to Rivka that we

protect our children, and do not use them as human shields.

Not long ago, Menachem stopped at a convenience store to pick up some milk. A 

customer with a complicated issue was there before him. The customer told Menachem to go 

ahead of him, since all he wanted was a liter of milk. Menachem complimented the customer for

allowing an older person to get ahead of him. Mustafa (as his name turned out to be) replied:

“it all depends on how one is raised at home.”

Why do matters work so well in Haifa? For one thing, we have a huge number of Russian

olim, strongly secular and usually very cultured, who help balance the growing Haredi

presence. For another thing, our Arab population is largely Christian and highly educated

(one of them, Prof. Mouna Maroun, a neuroscientist and expert in post-trauma stress disorder,

was recently elected to be the university’s rector). There are several varieties of Christians,

several of whom we know from our years at the University of Haifa. Among the Muslims,

very few of them appear to be Shi’ites and there is a large population of Ahmedi Muslims

whose religion commits them to peaceful coexistence 

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmadiyya). Rivka and Menachem were invited to their

annual convocation twice, where we were given kosher food! There are also Druze, most of

whom are fervent Israeli patriots, and of course Bahai

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bah%C3%A1%CA%BC%C3%AD_World_Centre). All of the

Arabs in Haifa know well that they would be murdered by Hamas and Hezbollah. This

mosaic of non-Jewish religions and their relative assimilation helps explain Haifa’s unique

success.

We do not want to give the impression that all is hunky dory here in Haifa. We both find 

the war enervating and feel that we are suffering from Pre-Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. We

are also living through an old (once almost amusing) joke: 1/3 of Israelis pay taxes, 1/3 of

Israelis do army service, and 1/3 of Israelis work for a living. The problem is that it is the

same 1/3! Our shambolic government is trying to sell out that 1/3 in order to keep

Haredim in the government

Convivencia between Jews and Arabs in Haifa is strong. Convivencia between those 

Jews who serve (and die) and contribute to Israeli society and those Jews who feel no obligation

whatsoever to do so, is getting weaker by the day. That may be another cost of the war.