My Mixed Jewish-Arab Identity

Making peace with my two lives.
by Yakov Halu

My father was a Christian Arab, from a town in northern Israel called Rameh.
He met my mother, an American Jew who had made aliyah in the 1980s. He wanted so much to marry her, but she wasn’t sure. When she got sick and ended up in the hospital, he rode on a bus for hours each day to visit her.
That convinced her.
They got married and moved to southern Israel. My father’s Arab aunt came to live with them, to teach my mother how to cook. In time, my brother and sister were born.
When my mother was pregnant with me, our family moved to Colorado. My father was an engineer and was having trouble finding work in Israel.
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My Mixed Jewish-Arab Identity

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