the Druze are lovely people

This is what you always hear from Israelis...they love the Druzim among them...

En route to Haifa during Chanukah on a family tour of Israel, we ate lunch in a family dining room in a Druze village. After stuffing ourselves with cinnamon rice, bean and lentil stew, eggplant salad, and sweet tea and baklawa, we sat and heard a 45-minute summation of the Druze faith by a young woman who was studying English at Haifa University. They are an insular people, she told us; they prohibit intermarriage and don't invite new members. Their community, dispersed throughout the Near East, numbers about 100,000 in Israel. They coexist peacefully with Jews, Muslims and some Christians in this particular town, and have just recently begun a cultural tourism business, prompted by two Jewish Israelis. They divide their community into secular and religious. Once a secular person makes the decision to become religious, which may happen any time in a person’s life after the age of 16 or not at all, they adopt a special code of dress and behavior. Only then may a person begin to learn from the Druze scriptures, attend prayer services and ceremonies, etc.

They believe in the transmigration of souls, and accordingly, do not mark the tombs of the deceased, and are forbidden from changing their bodies in any way, through piercings or tattoos or the like.

The religion began centuries ago in Egypt when a small group of Muslim women acted out against gender apartheid. Today the women are among the most “liberated” of the Israeli Arabs. Like any tight-knit culture, it is not without its problems. Last week I watched the Israeli film “The Syrian Bride”. I share the heart-wrenching uncertainty of the bride-to-be, even if I am far from being able to truly relate with her character. The film’s characters are nuanced and realistic, the scenery is true to the beauty of the northern border…rent it!