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Life in Jerusalem Becoming More Integrated for Jews and Arabs

(Jerusalem Post) Barbara Sofer - In Jerusalem, while we live our lives forever alert to possible terrorism, daily human interactions between Jews and Arabs are becoming more and more integrated. At the Sylvan Adams Sports Center at the YMCA on King David Street in western Jerusalem, Jewish, Christian and Muslim children and adults swim and work out together in an upbeat, congenial atmosphere. I do my food shopping at a discount chain that draws large families of both Jews and Arabs who queue up together at the checkout. At the store where I frequently buy clothing for my grandchildren, my favorite saleswoman wears a hijab. At my pharmacy, the pharmacist wears a hijab. The health fund nurse who takes my blood pressure at the local medical clinic wears a hijab. My gynecologist at Hadassah Medical Center is a female Arab doctor. The manager and mechanics at the garage where I have my car serviced are Arab. So is my hairdresser. None of this derives from a political agenda. I never make these choices out of a desire to be ethnically diverse. That's just the way life is in Jerusalem. The writer is the Israel director of public relations at Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America.
2018-12-21 00:00:00
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