Meet the Israelis - Website PEOPLE

1. Reut Peleg Yisraela Gratzayani Sammy Smooha Yasser Mansour Moshe Stein Tamar Kriegel Michail Famous Gabi Boron Nissim Abu Hamad Boaz Katz Amal el-Sanna Meir Bouskila Malaku Mukonen

3. Moroccan Jews Name: Meir Bouskila Residence: Kiryat Malachi Profession: Soccer Coach, former construction worker Religion: Traditional Jewish (Masorti) “ I’m not bitter, I’m a builder. I welcome onto my soccer team children from Ethiopia and children from the Former Soviet Union who live in new immigrants absorption center. I don’t want these kids to feel like outsiders like I did when I came from Morocco. I want them all to feel ‘blue and white’. “ “ My G-d is flexible and tolerant. That means that after I go to Sabbath services, I coach soccer. The kids need it, it boosts their image. They have goals and I’ve seen them achieve them. We Israelis fight well together so why separate ourselves and fight each other? Why keep pushing the differences? We’re all Israelis.”

4. Sephardi, Masorati Jews Yisraeli Gratzyani Residence: Netanya Profession: Lawyer Religion: Jewish/Traditional Sephardi “ I’m a traditional Sephardi, which means I have strong emotional ties to Judaism, but I am very open-minded. After lighting candles each Shabbat evening, I love to go dancing at friends’ house parties.”

5. The Mizrahi Jews—Israelis from Arab Lands Name: Sammy Smoocha Residence: Haifa Profession: Professor of Sociology Religion: Traditional Jewish (Masorti) “ I was born in Baghdad, Iraq, part of one of the oldest Jewish Diaspora communities. For many years we prospered there. But in 1941 pro-Nazi Iraqis instigated a pogrom killing over 135 Jews. Then after Israel was established in 1948, mobs began gathering in Baghdad’s central square hanging Jews. The government responded by nationalizing Jewish property and killing and jailing hundreds of Jews. My family escaped in 1951 with the shirts on our backs, arriving in Israel penniless.

6. Ethiopian Israeli Name: Malaku Mukonen Residence: Mevasseret Zion, Immigrant Absorption Center Religion: Jewish Profession: Future Airplane Mechanic “ All my life I knew war in Ethiopia. Finally I have peace. My daughter Isabella was born here and represents a new chapter in our family history. I wish my parents could see her. They died of starvation during the civil war. I am optimistic about my future here in Israel. After I learn Hebrew, I want to go to school and become an airplane mechanic.”

7. Arab-Israeli, Muslim Yasser Mansour Residence: Haifa Profession: Pediatrician Religion: Islam “ These days I see some small hope on the horizon. Maybe these last years of brutal madness for everybody will end. Here in Haifa, I see Jews and Arabs living together. What we need are models for coexistence, such as more good schools where Arab and Jewish children can learn about each other’s cultures and to respect differences. I think the ideal age to begin in three, before the child is exposed to the surrounding tensions. This could be an important gift for the children of this conflicted land.”

8. Ultra-Orthodox Jews Moshe Stein Residence: Jerusalem Profession: Student Religion: Jewish, ultra-Orthodox “Secular Jews don’t know what is Shabbos. And they don’t know what is kosher. There is Jewish. Then there’s Jewish-Jewish. We’re Jewish-Jewish-Jewish.”

9. Arab Israeli, Christian Michail Famous Residence: Ramle Profession: CEO of Nonprofit Agency Religion: Christian “ I’ve been living here, a minority all my life, an Anglican among Orthodox Christians, a Christian among Muslims, a Palestinian among Jews, a left-winger in a right-wing town. Often I feel like a bridge between Jews and Muslims. Christians have always lived between two worlds. So maybe we’re the ones who can connect them.”

10. Mizrahi, Masorati Jews Name: Gabi Boron Residence: Sderot Profession: Student Religion: Traditional Jewish (Masorati) “ When I hear a Code Red, I know what to do. If I have a house near me, even if it’s a stranger, I’ll run in without knocking. If there’s no house, I run to a tree. And if there’s no tree, I lie down on my stomach and cover my head. Six missiles have hit my elementary school, sending off explosives, bullets, nails and shrapnel.”

11. Druze Israeli Nissim Abu Hamad Residence: Daliyat al-Carmel Profession: High-tech entrepreneur Religion: Druze “ Our company is trying hard to make it. I want to prove a Druze can do it. Druze lose time in the army. I lost three years. Yet, because of the army, I have this business. Before the army, I had no Jewish friends. It is difficult to make it in high tech as a Druze. I enter the market, I got a Jewish partner, a friend who is a colonel. His connections helped me with the startup marketing.”

12. Arab-Israeli, Muslim Yasser Mansour

13. Russian Jews Name: Boaz Katz Residence: Tel Aviv Profession: Software engineer Religion: Jewish “ During the years of militant atheism in the Former Soviet Union, we were known as the Jews of Silence. We were afraid. We hid our Jewishness. Jews have to overcome decades of amnesia. Mostly what people know about Judaism in the Former Soviet Union are distortions and lies. I’ll never forget when I asked a man from my town in Ukraine if he’d ever seen a Torah. He said, ‘Yes, at the Museum of Atheism in Moscow, in a display that showed how primitive people once prayed.”