Reading Resposne 9

I really enjoyed this reading, about Edward Saim and his conversations with Daniel and Ara.  I like how they addressed the issue of home not in a historical sense, but in a sense of where they feel the most at home.  As Daniel said anywhere he could really play and conduct music felt like home. I felt like he was describing home as anywhere he could truly express himself freely and be accepted and appreciated.   I also liked the way Edward called New York a chameleon city, because you could be anywhere there and not be 'of there'  which I felt was a really neat way to look at it.  With all that we have looked at in the conflict so far, I feel it has been mainly a conflict over homelands and I liked how they presented a different side to this argument, especially because one is an Israeli and the other a Palestinian.  The fact that both of them can look at the area and appreciate it for what it is was different in a good way.  Although I suppose their positions  on the issue may be different if they had only lived in Israel their whole lives.  I think it is this sense of travel from an earlier age that has allowed them to be more open to different cultures and through their openness allowed them to create a great project giving others, most importantly kids, a chance to grow and develop their own ideas about the world and other cultures.  I really liked how both men seemed to view identity.  The idea that it is best to belong to many different cultures or have multiple identities is something I strongly believe in as well.  I don't believe that any one person has only one identity, because we all play many roles, and no culture is truly pure in the sense of not being mixed with another at some point in time.

Questions for Mariam Said

For the Knowledge is the Beginning project, I was wonder where and what kind of places the West-Eastern divan orchastra plays?  And what kind of an effect you think this group has had on their audience and for those who have seen the film.

Being on the board for many different groups who promote Middle Eastern artists, what do you think is so important about expression art for areas of high contention like Israel and other parts of the Middle East?

Weblong 3

I think that the best way to describe myself and my family to the class would be in looking at some of my family traditions. I've found that most of them revolve around holidays, usually religious ones or ones celebrating my father's Macedonian heritage.  My mother was baptized and raised catholic, attending catholic schools and mass her whole life, while my father is Eastern Orthodox and spent his school years in a non-religious public school and most of his summers back in his parents village in Macedonia and traveling visiting relatives in Eastern Europe.  Since my parents couldn't exactly decide on a religious way to raise my sister and I, she was baptized into my father's Eastern Orthodox church and I was baptized Catholic, however we both attended the same Catholic schools throughout high school and sort of alternated churches, usually attending Catholic mass with our mother but all church and related Macedonian functions with my father and grandparents.   The two faiths are similar and therefore share many of the same holidays.  Every year we go to midnight mass at the Catholic church and then celebrate Christmas Day openning gifts, eating, and watching christams movies with most of our extended family on both sides, that is everyone that lives nearby.  The other main holiday we celebrate is Easter, which for our family comes twice a year:)  Easter never really has a set date but the Eastern Orthodox church generally celebrates Easter about 2-4 weeks after the Catholic church.  Therefore our family celebrates Catholic Easter at church and then has brunch with my mothers family.  Then a few weeks later we go to the Eastern Orthodox church for Easter again and spend the day with my grandmother and aunts making traditional Macedonian dishes for Easter dinner.  Other non-religious traditions our family has are a traditional Macedonian pita on New Years' Day, where one piece contains a quarter and whoever finds this quarter will have luck on their side throughout the year.  The only other family tradition I can really think of is the yearly Macedonian Ball.  It is put on by my father's church St. Nicholas, where majority of the population is of Macedonian or Greek descent. The evening basically consists of sharing a meal of some traditional dishes and then a band, consisting mostly of my extended family members, will play music from the old country and everyone will join in performing the required dances.  Throughout the years it is probably my favorite of our family traditions.  It is always fun seeing cousins who sometimes come from as far as New York and Florida once a year and a great way to keep the younger generations tied to their heritage in an interesting way.

Reading Response 8

The readings this week on Arab Jews in Palestine I found definitely confusing but also interesting.  The one about Ishaq Shami and the Arab Jew I thought raised some interesting points and even got me thinking about the name of the conflict, or I suppose more accurately the many names of the conflict and the problem since some of the Jews living in the area come from Arab countries, or just consider themselves culturally Arab, especially those who moved earlier in history when they considered Palestine to be part of the Arab world.  The more we read about the conflict and history of Jerusalem the more confused I am actually becoming and I can see why this conflict is so incredibly messy.  I liked the part of this article where he states "We are Arabic Jews just as there are American Jews- it's a historical fact." (156) clearly showing that they are all Jews just from different geographical and cultural locations.  He says people didn't use that distinction because the Israeli's didn't like it.  I understand now where the historical rift and difference comes from between the Arab Muslims and Israeli Jews, but I can't fully grasp why there is such an aversion to mixing the cultural aspects of these two areas, they are after all neighbors.  It may in a way come from the fear of losing identity as it could possibly be argued many have done here in the American melting pot, but in a way no culture is actually truly pure and without influence of another usually many, many others.

Reading Response 7

Although I've read about the Balfour Declaration and this period in history before it always amazes me how much power Britian and to a lesser degree America had over this region.  I suppose it can really be said for any of the major powers at different point in history and sometimes even still today.  They spent a lot of time appointing different councils and essentially playing the two sides against each other with promises, often at their own benefit.  Yet armstrong also says during the British occupation Jerusalem flourished. And it seems to have been a remotely peaceful time compared to previous occupations so I'm not really sure what to make of the power and control Britian exerted over the area.

I like when she compared the Exodus, journey through the desert, and final entrance into the Promised Land to the final State of Israel after the horrible catastrophe in concentration camps during World War II. And the experience of the Jewish soldiers again finally touching the wall feeling like they were in paradise after the six day war.  The power of the city and it's history overtook their reasons for taking Jerusalem illegally, and had their plan for letting each religion continue to run its own holy shrines sat better with the israeli people maybe there wouldn't have been so much continued conflict.

Reading Response 6

So far I liked this part if Armstongs book, chapters 11-13 the best.  Of the three religions Islam is the one I haven't really ever studied or learned anything about, so it was neat to hear about its origns and funny to think how their highest prophet Muhammad warned and taught them to respect the other monotheistic religions, especially Judaism, since they all worshiped the same God and how in some respects this has gone completely by the way side.  One thing that confused me was the belief that no location was holier than any other, however since the time of Muhammad Muslims were taught to pray facing Jerusalem and then Mecca.  Also the notion that Mecca in the center of the world where the gates of heaven stand above is a contradiction to this belief.  I also really liked how she explained how the three religions started to claim superiority and really began to split farther.

Reading Response 5

This next section of Armstrong's book, chapter 9 specifically, she talked about the partial split in Christianity.  Some believed that Jesus was divine like God but wasn't really God because God had created him.  While on the other hand the rest believed Jesus had to be truly God because only "one who created the world could save it."  This is a very big question because in my understand of Christianity and Judaism this is where they also split I believe, Christians believing Jesus was the Savior and Jews still waiting for the Savoir to come.  In going with the first belief she explains that this wasn't the only time God had revealed himself and that Jesus was another part in his ongoing revelation.  I like how Armstrong related this to Jesus coming as a reminder of what was really important and that they let their temples and Torah and other worldy things, like geographical location, get in the way of what really mattered.  This might be an idea to look back on today and see if all of the fighting over sacred land is really what should be the main focus today.