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.