I am traveling to Israel in a few months for Baha’i pilgrimage. I am grateful that the State of Israel has accomodated the presence of the hundreds of Baha’is working at the World Centre and has provided protection that has included the Baha’i Holy Places under its umbrella. I have watched the news of the conflict on Israel’s borders with sadness, recognizing that my Baha’i brothers and sisters are on both sides of every border, and that Baha’i or not, we are one people on this planet.
As America enters a new era with the election of its first African-American president whose inaugural speech celebrated unity in diversity, I am aware that Israel faces its own problems regarding the diversity among its citizens, as outlined in the Christian Science Monitor article below. (Thanks to dear Barmak for bringing this article to my attention.)
In the article is reference to the educational system in Israel. In our cluster is a Persian Baha’i who attended school with Arabs in Haifa when she was a child. Her ability to speak Arabic today (and to teach the Arabic-speaking seekers we encounter when doing our door-to-door teaching here) can be attributed to this experience.
Israel lacks an identity that transcends subnational units of ethnicity and religion, which can unify all citizens as equal members of a shared state with a shared destiny reached through common goals.
Israel’s bigger battle ahead: its national identity
Yesterday I came across the following story out of Israel from 1997 that iluustrates the problem described in the article from a somewhat different angle. -gw
Gregori Pesahovic. In August 1997, 15 year old Grigory (Grisha) Pesahovic was murdered during one of the terrorist bombings in Jerusalem. But adding insult to injury, Grigory was refused burial next to his fellow Jews. His infraction? Being only Jewish thru his father’s line. Rabbinical Orthodoxy, which is responsible for Israel’s laws on burials, marriages, etc., does not consider patrilineal descendants of Jews, as Jewish. Grigory and his family were not Christian and his parents refused a Greek Orthodox burial. At the end of the day, this boy, who made Aliyah from Russia to live like a Jew, with other Jews, would not be considered good enough to be offered a resting place in a Jewish cemetery. His heroism consisted first in making Aliyah and secondly in ending up giving up his life for living among his Jewish people. The heroism of his parents, for enduring their only child’s death, and suffering the iniquities of having to beg for his descent burial. In the end, only the Bahai faith, who is tolerant of many faiths, provided the burial ground for Grigory.
http://half-jewish.org/beta-gershom_heroes.shtml
Photo: “Israeli Arab schoolgirls on a bus overlooking Haifa,” uploaded on April 15, 2008
by jdlasica on flickr, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic
she had an interesting observation that I noticed too, which was that it seems far more effective when Zambian Baha’is interact with their fellow Zambian’s and tell them about the Faith, show them how Baha’is are. Because when they see us foreignors, we’re already foreign and somewhat strange in thier eyes, so they expect us to be something strange and different than what they’re used to. But to see fellow Zambian’s that they grew up with, they know their grandmothers and used to live next door to thier uncles, and see them as Baha’is then they become intigued and say ‘You’re a Baha’i? What is that?”. Rather than to us where they would say “You’re a Baha’i? Ohh ok. I’m a maize farmer”. So it was noticed that the word of Baha’is in town hadn’t really started to spread until Mushota and Chuungu moved to Kabwe.
Zabine says, “You will absolutely adore Gary….plus he will share from his attendance from recent conferences with us too. He has a fabulous voice and is a dance man too!!!!!”.
Email from Deb of Deb/Tim/Isaac/Sam fame. -gw
