Anyone entering The Old Yishuv Court Museum in the Jewish Quarter on Wednesday morning could have seen a group of sixth-graders sitting in a room designed as a synagogue and clapping to the rhythm of an old Jewish song. After the song was
Anyone entering The Old Yishuv Court Museum in the Jewish Quarter on Wednesday morning could have seen a group of sixth-graders sitting in a room designed as a synagogue and clapping to the rhythm of an old Jewish song. After the song was over the guide explained that just like many other fields, Jewish music, too, was deeply influenced by Arab neighbors. "Did you hear the darbukas?" she asked. The schoolchildren's teacher translated the explanation into Arabic. The children are from one of the schools in the Muslim Quarter, and are taking part in an almost secret project. This is the second year that Arab children visit the museum in the Jewish Quarter.
Whoever is familiar with the Old City of Jerusalem knows that the invisible walls surrounding each quarter are as high as those that surround the Old City. Many inhabitants of the Jewish Quarter or Muslim Quarter have never set foot in the neighboring quarter.
"Some of the teachers felt like it was a trip abroad, even though the museum is a three-minute walk from their school," explains Ofra Regev, who initiated the project. Regev, a travel guide, has good connections in the Muslim Quarter and leads several volunteer projects, among them, one project with the small city's small Gypsy community. She managed to convince the municipality of Jerusalem to spare some funds for the museum project.
The goal of the special visit is to show that the invisible wall didn't always exist, and that the differences between the inhabitants of the quarters aren't as large as they seem. Ora Fickel-Zabari, the museum's curator and coordinator admits that she, too, doesn't cross the line between the neighborhoods, but talks about a different reality when the children arrive. "You have the Ramadan, and we have Yom Kippur and several other fasts. You pray five times a day and we pray three times. You have the haj to Mecca and we have pilgrimages," she explains.
Some of the words - fast, charity, purity - don't have to be translated since they're similar in both languages and religions. Fickel-Zabari tells the children about the time when Jews and Arabs lived in the same neighborhood or even shared the same apartment. "One room was for Jews, the other for Arabs, and they helped each other," she says. "On Saturdays, for example, the Jews couldn't light a fire and are forbidden to ask anyone else to do so. But if a Jew would stand with a long face in the entrance to the building the Arab would understand and light a fire for him. Religious Jews aren't allowed to play music at weddings, so Arab musicians would come and play."
The children are curious and ask about the Torah and the shofar, which they've seen in souvenir shops, but never knew what they were.
In the room depicting the professions of the inhabitants of the Jewish Quarter, Fickel-Zabari recalls the story of "saida (Mrs. ) Mendelbaum", who had a large blanket and linen store. "She would sell her products to Jews and Arabs alike, and sometimes agree to be paid in installments. Her grandson (Mosh