Andrew Guckes | Staff Writer
The war in Israel has made life difficult for the Jewish communities in the country, particularly those that are close to Gaza. However, the war has had far-reaching effects on the entire world: It’s not just Israelis that are feeling the pain, and it’s not just Jews. In Philadelphia, one family’s work with the local Jewish community is a testament to working across cultural lines in the name of peace.
At Tabouli Cuisines Mediterranean restaurant in Ardmore, the proprietors are reeling after a family member of theirs was killed in a Hezbollah rocket strike last summer. The owners, Mohammad and Mona Safadi, are Druze, members of a monotheistic ethnoreligion that originated in the Levant. The Druze people have had a tenuous relationship with other groups in the region, but have largely aligned with Jewish people since the establishment of Israel in 1948.
Mohammad Safadi’s father died when he was 10 serving in the IDF during the Six-Day War. More than five decades later, in July 2024, Mohammad’s niece died in a rocket strike in the Druze village of Majdal Shams, located in the Golan Heights. She and 11 other Druze children were killed while playing soccer.
Now, after working together with the American Jewish Committee of Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, the Safadis have helped contribute to a symbol of remembrance commissioned by the sheikh of Majdal Shams: a statue of a soccer ball.
The statue is a physical expression of the community’s hope, said AJC Philadelphia executive committee member Ronit Treatman, who traveled to Majdal Shams recently with AJC members. She also serves on the AJC board as a recipient of the Comay Fellowship.
Treatman added that the statue will stand forever, but the AJC had even more important work to do in Madjal Shams.
“I saw the marks of the shrapnel in the buildings. You could see how many people must have been hurt, and I discreetly asked one of the Druze guys who welcomed us if other people had been hurt too [in addition to the 12 who died]. He said that there are a lot of people who are wounded and still in rehab,” she said.
Because of the rural nature of the town, the Druze residents were in extra need of care. So, the AJC also worked to help provide medical care for those affected.
“They don’t live in Tel Aviv — they have less than ideal services up there,” Treatman said. “This money [we donated] was really, really appreciated in terms of helping them regain mobility.”
Treatman said that the connection between the Ardmore restaurant and a remote Druze village in northern Israel shows that these conflicts are not as far away as they may seem. Growing up the daughter of an Israeli diplomat in different parts of the world, Treatman saw firsthand how communities bond across lines on a map.
In fact, she said she even knew Druze people in Venezuela, the country in which she spent most of her youth. Just like in Israel, she said that they had small communities near the foot of Venezuela’s mountains. She shared these memories during dinner in Majdal Shams.
“Everyone flocked around the sheikh, but I wanted to meet his wife who was just working in the kitchen. I joined her for a little bit and we talked about the Druze communities in South America,” Treatman said. “Iberia at one point was a caliphate under Muslim rule, so many words in Spanish come from Arabic.”
She doesn’t speak Arabic, but was able to compare and contrast some common words that both she and the sheikh’s wife knew.
“We had a really fun conversation, and of course I was going over and eyeing all of the food [she was making],” she said.
Treatman said that the Druze have historically been marginalized and discriminated against, like their Jewish neighbors. While Jewish and Druze relations have included conflict, too, right now the Druze communities of Israel seem firmly in support of the world’s only Jewish state.
“I think they are appreciative of the fact that the Jewish community cares for them, and that we are there to support them. They told me that when the tragedy happened, people from all over Israel went there to give condolences,” she said. “That connection goes beyond borders — we’re both minorities connected to Israel that are living here.”
As the most progressive state in the Middle East since its founding, Israel has given many Druze opportunities they wouldn’t have in Syria, Lebanon or elsewhere, Treatman said.
“I see changes in their community. I see that women are educated — [the sheikh’s] daughter-in-law is a doctor. I was impressed by that. I think for the women of the community, it’s a really good thing to be in Israel and have those opportunities,” she said.
Treatman herself is new to the role of Jewish leadership, but she said that it has afforded her the chance to grow closer to her fellow Jews and advocate for Latino Jews like herself.
“I’ve been involved with the American Jewish Committee for about five years already. When I started getting involved with the Jewish Committee, I never heard of them before. One day, my friend told me that I should really come to a Jewish Latino coalition group,” he said.
She attended with her friend, Judge Nelson Diaz, and was soon involved. Then, she was offered a spot on the AJC board, where she continued to shine on her way to a post with the executive committee.
Treatman and the AJC’s work in Majdal Shams show the beautiful mosaic of Jewish life that exists around the world as well as Jewish people’s responsibility to care for other minority groups that have suffered discrimination. It also shows that those same groups have and will continue to stick up for Jews and Israel. Treatman said, for proof, you don’t have to look any further than the fact that Safadi’s father served in a Druze unit in the IDF and the willingness to earn Israeli citizenship among residents of Majdal Shams.
“The Druze in the Golan Heights have been scared to take citizenship because they’re scared that if the region goes back to Syria, they will be hated not just for being Druze but for being Israeli Druze,” she said. “Some people had taken it, and some had not. Now, the sheikh is encouraging people to take it.”
