The Importance of Genealogy and Family History for the Palestinian People: Part I: Personal Benefits
Contributed by Arab Educational Institute on 02.03.2006:
By Leyla Zuaiter
The study of family history and genealogy has many potential benefits for the Palestinian people at the personal, community and national level. While I don’t claim that studying your family history will cure all that ails you at any of these levels, it certainly has much to offer.
Personal Benefits: the personal benefits are similar to those for family historia(...)
The Lure of Family History and Genealogy
Contributed by Arab Educational Institute on 02.03.2006:
By Leyla Zuaiter
Every night after their “day jobs,” millions of men and women in the United States and other countries, sneak away from their spouses and turn on the computer, eagerly writing long, passionate letters, sending and receiving photos, and sharing juicy morsels. Wait a minute though. It’s not what you think. They are engaged in the SECOND- most frequent use of the Internet(...)
What’s special about Palestinian Genealogy?
Contributed by Arab Educational Institute on 02.03.2006:
By Leyla Zuaiter
Family historians around the world utilize a similar set of strategies in their research. They record what they know, collect documents and artifacts from their homes, search for diaries and letters, seek records and fellow researchers on the Internet, organize their findings with software, and attempt to understand the times and places in which their ancestors lived t(...)
Artas Folklore Center
Contributed by Artas Folklore Center on 01.03.2006:
(For more information, see www.artasfolklorecenter.net or click at left on "Our Partners"> "Artas Folklore Center")
Established in 1993, Artas Folklore Center was the first cultural center in the Bethlehem area to be licensed by the Palestinian Authority under the (...)
Of Olive Trees and Family Trees
Contributed by Arab Educational Institute on 25.02.2006:
By Leyla Zuaiter
This article first appeared in the November 2005 issue of This Week in Palestine.
A casual tourist passing the sign for the Badd Jaqaman Museum on Bethlehem's narrow Najajra Street may vaguely wonder what evil deeds were done by an Italian outlaw in America's Wild West to merit a museum named after him-- and why it is found in Bethlehem, of all places. If he is (...)
Exploring Your Personal and Cultural Identity through Family History and Genealogy
Contributed by Arab Educational Institute on 25.02.2006:
By Leyla Zuaiter
This article first appeared on AEI's Family History and Genealogy Page
Recognizing that the study of Family History and Genealogy has the power not only to enrich lives at the individual and community level but also to serve the interests of the Palestinian people, Arabic Educational Institute-Open Windows in Bethlehem (AEI) recently offered a 15-hour workshop i(...)
Paradox, Perversity and Promise: A Journey into Palestinian Genealogy
Contributed by Arab Educational Institute on 25.02.2006:
submitted by Arab Educational Institute 31.01.2006
By Leyla Zuaiter
First published in This Week in Palestine, January 2006.
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If I initially demurred when approached by Toine Van Teeffelen to give a workshop on Family History and Genealogy to the women’s group of the Arab Educational Institute (AEI) in Bethlehem, it's (1) not that I wasn't in(...)
Of Memory and Magic, Missionaries and Museums:more than meets the “eye” in Artas
Contributed by Artas Folklore Center on 25.02.2006:
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The magic of Artas begins soon after you leave Hebron Road a couple of kilometers south of Bethlehem. If the wind is just right, you can hear the clatter of hoofs and rumbling of chariots as Solomon comes into the Enclosed Garden to dally with the beloved of his Song of Songs. Cock your ear and you will hear the bark of a Tu(...)
Life at the Crossroads: A History of Gaza
Contributed by This Week In Palestine on 25.02.2006:
This Week in Palestine
May 2005
By Gerald Butt
Rimal Publications, Cyprus, 1995, 199 pages
It is perhaps a very appropriate year to re-read Gerald Butt’s 1995 Life at the Crossroads: A History of Gaza. The many milestones of this 360 sq. km strip of land and particularly the long and rich history of its capital city, Gaza, are at the epicentre of this precise and(...)
The Old Ladies of Nazareth
Contributed by This Week In Palestine on 25.02.2006:
This Week in Palestine
March 2005
By Naim Attallah Quartet Books, London, 2004,
This is a lyrical tale of powerful simplicity, which reads like a fable. It is the moving story of two wonderful old ladies who lived in the Holy Land, in the biblical small town of Nazareth in the 1940s. Wardeh and Jamileh are sisters – one is a widow, the other a spinster. They live frugally(...)
