Before the war in 1948, my family lived in a beautiful house.  There were many orange trees growing all around.  Before I was born, my family had to leave our home.  We wish to return one day.  Now, we live in a crowded two-room house. In the refugee camp, there are no sidewalks, parks, trees, playgrounds, or shops.  Everything is crammed together.  It is crowded and noisy here.

I am 7 years old. I have two brothers and one sister. My brothers and dad make concrete pieces to build homes in the refugee camp. They come home sweaty and tired.  My sister works with my mom cleaning stores. We get paid with food from the stores they clean. We get chickpeas, rice, eggs, and roasted vegetables. My favorite is the fried, sweet bread from the bakery.  My father talks of one day leaving the refugee camp.  My older brothers think he is dreaming.  That will never happen, they say.  It’s been like this for so many years.  Nothing will ever change.  

I speak Arabic and study Arabic in school.  My father knows a little Hebrew and a little English.  Sometimes he teaches me what he knows when it is quiet at night.

            My friends and I like playing soccer together. We find alleys to play in. We kick the ball against concrete walls in the camp.  My wish is to play soccer on a real, grassy soccer field one day.

            I live in a town with mainly Mizrahi Jews. I speak Hebrew and Arabic.  My grandfather lives in Morocco. Morocco is a country in North Africa.  I love when he visits us.  He is very tall. He has bushy white hair and eyebrows.  He has a deep, booming voice. He tells me to be proud of who I am. He tells me I am a Jew with “many colors.” He means that I come from a family with many origins and stories. 

       I wish to go to Galilee University someday. Maybe after I serve in the Israeli Army I will go to university. My father says college will teach me skills to work on computers. He says after I go to college I can do anything I want. My family and my friends’ families only travel to inside our city of Haifa.  My mother is a Kindergarten teacher. My father is a butcher at a Kosher butcher shop. I am proud of them. Sometimes I wonder where I will live when I am older. My wish is to live anywhere I want. I could live in Israel or Morocco or Spain. My mother says that the world is mine. She makes me excited for what is to come!

We are Jewish. We are what’s called secular. We wear regular clothes and don’t follow many of the laws in the Torah. We celebrate Jewish holidays and traditions. We have a big Passover seder. We go to parties on Purim.  In Israel, there are Jews here from all over the world.  We are always learning about different Jewish traditions.  

We don’t have school on Jewish holidays.  The school week is a different too.  We have school Sunday through Friday morning.  Then we are off Friday afternoon and all of Saturday. Saturday is Shabbat.  Everything stops on Shabbat.  Almost no buses run. Most of the stores are closed.  On Shabbat we play in a park. We have a big lunch with family or friends.  

It’s neat that so many people celebrate Judaism. On Sukkot you can see a sukkah on every corner!  

            Tel Aviv is a very busy place.  People drink coffee in cafes all day and night.  We sometimes get dressed up and go dancing at night.  We go to the beach and play in the sand. I wish we could go dancing every day!

Our dad is a doctor, and he works many hours. Sometimes he gets called into work at odd hours of the day. It’s hard when he is away so much. Our mom is involved in a lot of political work. She often goes to protests on Friday afternoons.  Sometimes we go with her.  People have such strong opinions about politics.  There is always talk of war. People are always fighting.  Our mom believes that the only way for there to be peace is to give back land that was taken from the Palestinians.  Our aunt disagrees with her. Sometimes they get into big fights about it.  We wish there was peace so they wouldn’t fight.

We live right outside of Be’er Sheva in the southern part of Israel. We are part of a Bedouin tribe.  We live in a small home with two bedrooms. The kitchen and room where we play and do homework are combined. My sister and I help our parents take care of our small farm. We have 12 goats, 5 sheep, and tons of cats all over. Sometimes the cats relax on top of our goats! 

         We are Muslim. We speak Arabic. We go to a small school. At school, we know each other very well.  My mother knows English. She translates for nurses and doctors in our town. She can help patients talk to the doctors and nurses.  My father takes care of our animals. He is funny and patient. Work makes him tired and hot.

          I love reading. My mom is helping me learn English.  We are proud to be Bedouin people. It is not always easy.  Other people who live in Israel look down on us.  They do not appreciate our customs. Sometimes they give us mean stares.  My mother says it is important to communicate with the world around us. My mother wants us to be able to live somewhere else if we want to.  I want to go to university one day.  I wish to speak lots of languages.

          The weather here is hot and dry. We cover over our heads because we are Muslim. We also cover our heads to protect our bodies from the heat. I am okay with this. One day I wish to feel my hair in the breeze.

We live in an apartment that has four bedrooms. We are Orthodox Jews.  We keep Shabbat every week. We keep kosher. We also follow the rules of the Torah very carefully.  Every Friday night we go to shul (synagogue) and pray.  My father and brothers go with me to the synagogue. My mother and sisters prepare our Shabbat meal. Saturdays are days of rest.  If we go anywhere, we have to travel within the eruv. An eruv is a hidden boundary around our neighborhood. The eruv allows us to carry food or children to other homes. If there was no Without an eruv, we would not be able to carry anything on Shabbat or use strollers for the babies. 

            I go to school with only boys. My sisters go to school with only girls. I like school, but sometimes I wish I had more time to play baseball. I really love playing baseball.  I wish I could play baseball more. When it is time for me to go to high school I will go to a yeshiva. This means I will stay at my school during the week. At yeshiva I will sleep in a dormitory with the other kids.  Each Friday I will come home for Shabbat. I will be with my family until Saturday night.  In Yeshiva we will learn math and science like other kids. We also will study Torah and Talmud.  

Someday I wish to come to America.  I know some people who have gone to yeshiva in New York.  That would be fun. 

Every day I wear a kippah to cover my head.  I also wear tzitzit every day.  Tzitzit are fringes tied onto a prayer shawl that I wear under my shirt.  Both the kippah and tzitzit keep me closer to God.

            I am 9 years old.  I live with my parents and my older brother who is 13. My family speaks in Amharic. Amharic is an Ethiopian language.  We also speak Hebrew and a little English.  We take buses to get everywhere because we do not own a car. My dad says that we don’t have enough money to buy one.  I have been taking the bus with my brother since I was four years old. I wish we had enough money to buy a car.

I go to a big school with other Ethiopian Jews and with Israeli Jews. Most of the time I feel very happy in my school. Sometimes kids tease me. They say I am not a real Jew or a real Israeli.  My skin is very dark. I have a strong accent when I speak Hebrew.  Some kids make me feel like I don’t belong. They say that I’m not as good as they are because I look different.  I try very hard not to let this bother me. Sometimes it does. I do have a nice group of friends.  We all go to the beach after school build big sandcastles. I wish I had more friends who accepted me.

            Our parents are very strict. We go home after playing for an hour. Then we do our homework, help our mother cook, and clean our rooms. I share a room with my brother. I do not mind it. I feel safe with him next to me.

            My parents are hard workers. They work on the beach selling meats and fish. We get fresh food a lot of the time. My parents smell like saltwater and seaweed. It is okay though. I am used to the smell of the sea. I wish to always be near the water.

 

My family is Muslim. We are very different from our Jewish neighbors.  Sometimes Israeli Jewish kids make fun of me. Sometimes I am shy because I do not understand what it means to be Jewish. What makes us the same is our families? We all have parents, siblings, and pets. I have one older brother and one younger brother. I also have 3 cats. They are all black with gorgeous green eyes. I love them. 

 

Being a Palestinian in Israel can feel normal sometimes. Being Palestinian can be frustrating at other times. My parents sometimes get upset when they talk about our town. They wish we could live in a better neighborhood with more restaurants and more places to buy things. We wish we could live in a nicer house. Some laws in Israel help Jews but they hurt Palestinians. The government does not give as much money to Palestinian schools or hospitals. I wish things were fairer between Israeli Jews and Palestinians.

 

One of my favorite things to do after school is play marbles with my friend Ma’ad.  Ma’ad goes to my school. He is Palestinian like me. He is really good and always wins. If the weather is really hot, we play inside until it is time to do homework. My dad is really strict. He says I need to be the best in my class at math. He says it is important to be good at computers. My dad works for a company that makes software. 

 

I love my neighborhood and my cats. I wish others would see how great my neighborhood is one day.

 

I started my life on a kibbutz. A kibbutz, which is a special shared community. The name of my kibbutz is Gesher Haziv. Everyone on the kibbutz shares things. We work together for the good of the community. We have input on what happens on the kibbutz. We agree on what we sell or grow on the kibbutz. What I love most is my close friends. We lived really close to each other, so we saw each other all the time. We walked to school every day. 

 

I am the oldest child in my family. I have two younger brothers. Their names are Aviv and Oren.  I have been in the army for about 2 years. My brother Aviv will join the army soon. I am stationed at the border of Israel and Lebanon in Northern Israel. My job is a night guard.  I stay up all night. I make sure the borders of Northern Israel are safe.  At first this job was very difficult and lonely. I had a hard time not falling asleep. I missed my friends. Slowly I got used to the job, but I am looking forward to being done with it.  Aviv wants to be a paratrooper.  This scares me because it means he will be trained to jump out of airplanes with a parachute.  My parents and I worry about that. It is what he wants to do. My brother Oren says he wants to be a paratrooper, too.

 

I wish to go to university after I finish the army. I wish to become a teacher. I want to work in a school near my family. Now, I am proud to guard Israel because it is my home.