The Olive and the Tree: The Secret Strength of the Druze

Ruth Westheimer · Gil Sedan

Jan 2007 · Lantern Books

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137

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About this ebook

All religious groups have codes to guide the lives of adherents, but the Druze, Dr. Ruth tells us, are especially interesting. She has observed the Druze's special art of adjustment in all walks of life, whether religious or secular, and for all people, young and old. Their key is an ancient custom called a-takiyya. During times of communal stress, the Druze refrain from accentuating their religious identity, thus reducing the possibilities of conflict with neighboring groups and allowing them to concentrate on internal community building.

According to Druze custom, they predate the Hebrew people in the area surrounding Palestine--particularly in Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. Thus, like many "native" peoples, they do not feel bound by the customs and religions brought into the area by later settlers. This, of course, has led to a long history of strife with their neighbors. Consequently, the Druze people have had to build an inner strength of individuals and community in order to survive as an identifiable ethnic group.

Through stories, personal encounters, and historical context, Dr. Ruth Westheimer describes with great warmth the roots of that strength, how the story of the Druze has played out over the millennia, how they influence today's situation in the Middle East, and what Westerners can learn from them and their way of life.

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About the author

Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer is best known for her pioneering work in the field of media psychology, specifically sex. Her doctorate from Columbia University, however, is in Interdisciplinary Study of the Family, and she has created several books and documentary films investigating the subject. The documentaries on which The Olive and the Tree and Shifting Sands are based aired on PBS stations across the country. Dr. Ruth teaches seminars at Yale and Princeton and is working on several new books to add to her collection of works on sex. Gil Sedan has worked for the past thirty years as the Arab Affairs correspondent of Israel Television Channel One and the Jewish telegraphic Agency Jerusalem bureau. He has filmed numerous documentaries on the Arab minority in Israel, most recently on the Arab town of Umm al-Fahem, controlled by the Islamic Movement. Sedan was editor and host of the Arabesque Middle East television magazine, the only bilingual (Hebrew-Arabic) regional program. Sedan majored in Middle East History at Tel-Aviv University, and earned an MA in journalism from the University of Missouri. He guest lectured on Middle East history at the University of Florida (2000) and presently teaches television reporting at two colleges in northern Israel.

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