Coffee and Books Arouse a Taste for Coexistence: Unique Jaffa Café Becomes First Recipient of Israela Goldblum Prize
January 2, 2008
Last week, at a moving ceremony at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, President Shimon Peres presented the Israela Goldblum Prize for “joint living” to Yafa, a small café and bookshop with a large reputation. Located in Jaffa’s Ajami neighborhood, the café barely has room for 50 customers at any one time. But as one of few bookshops in Israel specializing in both Arabic books and their Hebrew translations, the café has had an important impact in promoting dialogue between Jews and Arabs throughout Israel.
Michel El Rahab and Dina Lee receive their award from President Peres. “This café sounds unique, symbolic and very exciting,” says President Peres. “Every Jew and Arab must ask themselves why we are finding it so difficult to live together and every initiative is a blessing.”
Since its establishment, Yafa, the Arabic name for Jaffa, has become a by-word for coexistence. Yafa was established in 2003 by Dina Lee, a Jew from Jaffa, and Michel El Rahab, an Arab from Ramle. Activists from throughout the country arrange to meet in Yafa, while Jews and Arabs from Jaffa drop in for a chat in their local café. In recognition of their contribution to joint living, the café co-owners Lee and El Rahab received the Israela Goldblum Prize at the President’s Residence.
The prize was awarded on the first anniversary of Israela Goldblum’s death. A former NIF Vice-President, activist for human rights and social justice and one of the founders of Peace Now, Goldblum died at age 59. Israela’s husband, NIF International Council member Amiram Goldblum, her brother and other members of the family set up the prize fund to perpetuate Israela’s passion for promoting coexistence.
Professor Edna Margalit of the Hebrew University, who served as a member of the Goldblum Prize Committee and who was a lifelong friend of Israela, spoke at the award ceremony: “Israela was the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and this translated into an instinctive humanity and rejection of tribalism, discrimination and suspicion.”
“Yafa symbolizes joint living,” explains El Rahab, 45, who acts as both cook and Arabic book buyer for the café. He always dreamed of opening an Arabic-Hebrew bookstore with a Jewish partner as a forum for coexistence and dialogue. In 2003, activist friends introduced him to Dina Lee, a Jewish resident of Jaffa with the same dream.
“I had wanted to open the bookshop in Ramle,” recalls El Rahab, “to serve the Arabs of central Israel and provide a place where Jews could sample the beauties of Arabic literature and culture, but Dina persuaded me that Jaffa is a more appropriate location and that we should broaden our activities.”
Lee explains that Jaffa, which today has a population of 60,000 of whom 20,000 are Arabs, was once one of the major Arab centers of the region. The café represents an initial attempt to restore to the city the cultural status it once enjoyed. In addition to selling Arabic and Hebrew books, the café runs courses in Arabic, evening discussions on burning issues of coexistence and a range of other special events including lectures and exhibitions.
A Jew and an Arab engage in dialogue at Café Yafa.
“There have been so many highlights over the past four and a half years,” recounts Lee, 54, “but it is the little encounters that stick in the mind. I remember an immigrant from the former Soviet Union who came into the shop one day soon after it opened. He told me he had learned Arabic so that he could better understand the region and he had traveled all the way from the Negev because we were the nearest Arabic book shop to his home. He asked me to recommend some books and he returns regularly to buy the latest Arabic novels.”
Lee also recalls how the editor of a Jewish periodical and an Arabic publication met in the café and worked together on a book about Jaffa in both Arabic and Hebrew.
Eliezer Yaari, Executive Director of NIF Israel, which administers the fund for the Israela Goldblum Prize, says that NIF had always given top priority to promoting joint living in Israel’s mixed cities. “For example, SHATIL’s Mixed Cities project in Jaffa as well as Ramle, Lod, Akko and Haifa has achieved progress in bringing Jews and Arabs together.”
When asked how they would invest the $15,000 prize money, Lee said: “We would like to introduce more Arabic language and cultural courses, acquire some projection equipment and set up an archive of photographs and literature about Jaffa.”
Above and beyond the prize, the publicity generated by the ceremony in the President’s Residence has also increased the number of customers visiting the café for liquid and cultural sustenance.
Read more about Yafa Café in the (London) Jewish Chronicle.
