They're All Not the Same

on March 12, 2011 by Walt Dilg

They're All Not the Same

I mentioned how surprised some of us were to realize there were Arab Christians.  As the travelers honestly acknowledged this with some embarrassment, we realized how easy it was to think in generalities of people. It cropped up again as we were surprised how peaceful Jordan seemed, how it seemed to have a religious tolerance that was totally unexpected.  In personal ways we were being reminded of lessons our moms had taught us long ago about how people were not all the same and it was most important to look to the person's character not some other identifying feature.  Clearly, all Arabs were not the same - couldn't lump them into one basket to describe them.  Our first Israeli guide and our Jordanian guide were both Arabs and both Christian, yet still they were dissimilar in their sensibilities and perspectives.  It made a difference to grow up in occupied Jerusalem or less restricted Amman.  Nor were all countries that were primarily Moslem the same - Indonesia is a far cry from Lybia, Iran from Jordan.  Contrary to our casual thinking on this, most of the Moslem world isn't Arab.  So to understand Moslem, we need to think more than Arab, and to understand the Arab, we need to think more than newpaper-presented Moslem.    

Of course this is the same for Israelis and Jews.  One of the delights of traveling to the Israel is the opportunity to meet people who have made it their home.  They come from a variety of backgrounds (Yemen, Russia, America, Ethiopia) and naturally they bring a variety of cultural patterns.  Interestingly, we learned of some noteworthy court cases in which the person's "Jewishness" was being determined.  In one legal contest, the court allowed a man who was reared a Jew and later became a Christian monk to have legal rights of return to Israel as a Jewish citizen, because he was by legal definition at the time a Jew (his mother was a Jew).  Amos Oz is an excellent Israeli author and current event commentator, who helps present the diversity of thought and lifestyle of the contemporary Jew in Israel.  The diversity is mind-bobbling to the person who wants a simple homogeneous picture and helps the sensitive reader discern the diversity of person and thought among the Israelis.  

All of this is so obvious, when we spend a moment to just think of ourselves.  We Americans are not all the same, in fact we take some great pride in our diversity of cultural backgrounds and points of view.  We know there are some divergent points of view in America on the treatment of our Native Americans, the cause of the Civil War, the value of FDR's New Deal, whether health care or public education are rights or privileges.  A people's identity is fluid and dynamic, and we are well served when we realize our generalities are just that, general defining brush strokes that seek to illumine yet painfully oversimplify.