105 יום Part ב

So I also want to mention a short experience I had in Turkey that really affected me. Our tour group on the second day had people from all over the world in it: Italy, Switzerland, the UK, us, India, and a Lebanese girl. I was really interested in asking the Lebanese girl about her country. It was the best I could do since I didn't get to go. So I asked her about politics and society and it was really interesting to hear her talk about all the religious divisions we talked about in class. Apparently they are very real. What really hit me though was when when she asked me "So your family has Jewish friends?" I had told her we were studying in Israel, so I guess that's why she asked. I told her of course, that Jews are some of my best friends. She told me she could never be friends with a Jew because you can't trust them. She told me there is this proverb in Lebanon "Eat at the house of a Jew, sleep at the house of a Christian" AKA, you can't trust Jewish people enough to let your guard down in their house. So I asked her if this is the general feeling in Lebanon. She said definitely among Christians (She herself is Christian) because the Jews killed Christ.

We've talked a lot about anti-Semitism in English classes growing up, reading Anne Frank and Elie Weisel's Night, In history classes talking about the Holocaust, and in my History of the Yishuv class here. That was the first time I stared it in the face.