By Kathy Carlson
Dr. David Mendelsohn
Dr. David Mendelsohn grew up in Montreal surrounded by Yiddish, English and French, so his choice of sociolinguistics as a professional field seems fitting.
He now lives in Israel and studies the interplay of language and culture – Hebrew and Arabic – over the 63 years that Israel has been a nation. Mendelsohn was to speak to the Nashville chapter of J Street on Jan. 19 on the topic of “Arab Citizens of Israel: Search for Identity and Equality in a Jewish Homeland.” He has recently completed a book on the sociolinguistic impact of the Hebrew language on Arabic in Israel.
“The whole issue of language and culture for me is very important,” he said. When he shifted from religious to secular schools in Canada, he learned to adapt through language. “I learned very quickly wherever people said one thing but meant something very different.”
Mendelsohn has strong Nashville ties. His grandmother, Eva Mendelsohn, owned and operated the Murdock Mendelsohn store in Nashville and still lives here. After his family moved to Montreal, Mendelsohn returned to Nashville each summer to connect with his grandparents and attend the JCC camp.
In his Nashville talk, he wants to “try to explain … why do Arabs and Israelis feel as they do. What is (Arab Israelis’) identity versus that of Palestinians and also (in contrast to) Israeli Jews.”
Arab Israelis make up 20 percent of Israel’s population, a “huge minority,” he said. All Arab Israelis speak Hebrew, he continued. “Their Hebrew is starting to replace much of the Arabic” they speak, some 300 Hebrew words so far. Israeli society as a whole has benefited from the contributions of Arab Israelis, he said, mentioning poets and screenwriters, but incorporating bits of Hebrew into Arabic creates identity questions for Arab Israelis.
Mendelsohn said he doesn’t aim to persuade anyone to a particular point of view but to describe the lives of Arab Israelis from their own perspective – how they grew up, how they see and perceive things. Mendelsohn is academic director at Givat Haviva Institute in Israel, an organization founded in 1949 by a kibbutz federation to educate for peace, democracy, coexistence and social solidarity, according to information the website of Givat Haviva Educational Foundation, a New York-based group that supports Givat Haviva Institute.
Givat Haviva’s programs aim to promote greater understanding between Jews and Arabs. “Only in this manner can the moral foundation for achieving peace with the Palestinians and the Arab states be achieved,” the website states.
One such program has worked toward building bridges between Pardes Hanna-Karkur in Nashville’s Partnership2Gether region of Hadera-Eiron and the nearby Arab town of Kfar Kara.
Some projects aim to bring people together through photography, enabling them almost literally to see through others’ eyes. In one such project, children are invited into each other’s homes and allowed to photograph what they see.
“There are very few differences,” Mendelsohn said. The children “see the same football hero hanging on the wall.” Most peace initiatives bring kids together outside the home, and once they go back home, their extended families may douse the budding friendships, he said. “Ahmed’s a wonderful boy,” a Jewish uncle might tell a boy, “but wait till he gets older and radicalized.” Along the same lines, the stereotypical Arab uncle might caution, “Shlomo’s a great kid, but wait till he joins the IDF,” Mendelsohn explained. With the Givat Haviva program, the uncles and aunts can meet Shlomo and Ahmed and get to know them as real people.
In another project, women are getting to know one another through cooking. Before these programs, he said, “you’d never see a Jew going to Kfar Kara,” or vice versa.