Israeli emissary to offer Druze point of view at Feb. 6 JCC program

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More Druze have died fighting for Israel, proportionally, than any other ethnic group in Israel. Find out why the Druze community is so loyal to Israel when Gadeer Kamal-Mreeh speaks at the Dwares Jewish Community Center on Monday evening, Feb. 6. One quarter of Israel’s citizens are not Jewish, so it is difficult to really understand Israel without knowing something about them. As an Israeli Druze woman, Kamal-Mreeh will discuss Israeli society from her point of view. She will talk about minorities, their characteristics, differences, social changes, challenges and aspirations.

Kamal-Mreeh was the first Druze woman elected to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. In 2011, she began working for the Israel Broadcasting Corporation, where she hosted a program in Arabic for Arab-Israeli youth and then hosted Israel’s daily Arabic newscast. She became the first non-Jewish woman to anchor a regular Hebrew broadcast when she took over the Hebrew Saturday evening news. Kamal-Mreeh holds a degree with honors from Bar-Ilan University in Medical Imaging and Social Sciences and a master’s degree with honors in International Relations from Haifa University, specializing in negotiations and international relations decision-making. She is currently the Jewish Agency’s first Druze emissary to the United States.

In a departure from the regular second Wednesday of the month programs of the Israeli Culture Series, this program will take place on Monday, Feb. 6, at 7 p.m. in person at the Alliance’s Dwares Jewish Community Center in Providence. Please register online at www.JewishAllianceRI.org/ICS-feb. This free program is co-sponsored by the Consulate General of Israel to New England and by the Jewish Agency for Israel. For more information, please contact Elihay Skital at eskital@jewishallianceri.org.

LARRY KATZ (lkatz @jewishallianceri.org) is the director of Jewish Life and Learning at the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island.

Druze, Israeli Culture Series, Alliance