Welcome, everyone

It's not even been a busy day at the Domari Society Center, more an averate day but it gave me a good impression of what is done there for the community.
Until now I only saw children running to the arabic- and englishlessons, disappearing in the schoolroom or doing some paintings. From time to time some women dropped by, having a chat with Amoun in Arabic, appearently searching for her advice.
Today it was only me and her in the Center. No other Volunteer, no teachers. When I arrived a 10 year old girl asked me immediatly to help with her homework. She seemed to understand the text and was able to answer the asked questions immediatly but her pronounciation was plain guessing at some words. Since she didn't seem shy at all I assume that she just isn't involved in the oral part of her englishlessons at school so much. Perhaps a sign for discrimination, but we don't want to start searching until we find something, lets go back to describing:
After a delicious lunch a man, Amouns Neighbour J., dropped by to improve his computerskills. He cleans fish two days a week and paints houses on the other 3 days. When asked, why he wants to work with a computer and if those skills are needed for cleaning fish and painting houses he told me that just everyone knows how to use a computer and that he thinks it might be good for business. It became obvious that in his opinion the computer was not a tool for working at an office or a research instrument, but a modern-day statussymbol and that those who don't use it or even don't know how to missed an important ability which seems to be as common as being able to walk and to talk. Computerskills are just expected, it's not a question of "if" but "how good".
After this 10 year old girl and the 34 year old man who used the centers offers in such different ways for their own education someone dropped by to have a friendly chat with Amoun, which showed once again that the Domari Society Center is a point of socializing, too.
At the morning - too early for me - some gypsy women came by to drop of their newest beautiful embroidery which Amoun is supposed to sell in order to support those women. For them the Center indicates hope, financial support and a place were their abilities are valued.
And I suppose there are a lot of other reasons to visit the center apart from the mentioned examples and - of course - research!

Women help Women - everywere

On one of my walks through the Old City I discovered another women empowerment organization today. I had a brief conversation with the woman at the shop which sells embroided traditional palestinian clothes, similar to those Gypsy-designs that are up for purchase in the Domari Society Center.
She told me, that this Melia Initiative was founded 20 years ago and she in one of four regular employees. A voluntary Helper was there as well, a young American who wanted to support palestinian women. The Shop works with up to 500 women, buys their handicraft, sells them and offers a monthly income. And there is a Restaurant, an internet cafe and a clinic attached to the Oranisation. If a woman can't stitch, there will be workshops. If a woman prefers to cook she can work at the restaurant. The cost for medical care at the clinic depend on the womens income.
It's jut like something Amoun would like to have done.

I wondered why this initiative is so much more save and successful than Amouns Domari: Society of Gypsy in Jerusalem. Why does Amoun have to struggle for every tiny bit of support while this other organization which seems to have really similar strategies is wealthy enough to run their own hospital?
The woman at the shop said: "It's because of the community. We are a lot of women and we help each other. Palestinian women support palestinian women. We trust each other. They know that they will get the money from us and we know that they will make their stiching for us. If you have no people like you to rely on how will you get another community to support you?"

When I told her about my study and the Domari Society Center she figured that she had heard about Amoun Sleem. And she went on: "But thats not like us. We are palestinian, not gypsy."

A journey throug time and space

Today I visited an old photographer in the St. Francis Street. He owns his photoshop since 1949 and his father had a shop even before. The small room is stuffed with beautiful prints of Jerusalem in the 1920s-1950s. I hoped to get some information about the Dom prior to the six-day-war. Like: Did they really live in tents in the Old City? How many were there? How were they treated? Do you still know any of them? Who moved to Jordan? Who stayed?
But, unfortunately, apart from there presece next to lions gate he didn't know anything about them. He showed me pictures of Gypsy dancing which I have ssen in the Center before, he told me about how until the 1950s it was common for the population of Jerusalem to transport their belongings on camels. I saw photographs of Damaskus gate that are just half a century old but look like from another world.
It gave me an impression of how quick the world must have changed for the Dom. In just two generations the neccessary abilities and education changed completely. There was no opportunity to learn from your parents and the parents couldn't possibly understand their children. Perhaps even with those changes and new developements it's much more neccessary to stick together, to keep the community that was once built without effort and to take family relationships as the most preccious good since there is no or only little "common culture" among the different generations anymore.

Photos will be shown as soon as I figure out how to put them from the camera on the card...

Support a gypsy!

There are three bus systems in Jerusalem: One is Egged, wihich is the biggest and offers transportation to other citys, too. Then there is the Bus for orthodox jews were women have to enter via the back door and men and women do not sit together. And there are the Arab busses, which have their routes in east-Jerusalem.
To get to the Dom Center in Shu'afat Street I always take the Egged to Yafo Street, walk down the Old City wall, cross the street at Damaskus Gate and walk on to the police Station were bus No. 81 leaves.

Usually I sit on a single seat next to the window, but today only the double seats were left.
The seat next to me stayd free til the end, then some mid-50s man had to sit next to me, the only one who wore Jeans and a Shirt (with arms) at nearly 30 degrees and didn't cover her hair. He was uncomfortable. As soon as another seat was available he changed, but only after giving me an disdainful look.

It gave me a slight impression of what Amoun must have gone through and still has to experience for opening the Domari Center. A studied unmarried woman is not only a curiosity to all the women among her culture but it's also a threat to every man. And figuring out that even after 10 years running the center there still is a immense lack of support and that all the big foundations only support peace initiatives or are not active in Israel at all, prefer human rights violation or relief programs or support Roma and Sinti but nit the Dom or ... or ... or... It must all sound like a sad excuse and as if the world was mocking her efforts.

But the people that come to the center depend on her. Even though I wonder she ever hears a "thank you" or "good work". I guess it's the problem with "doing good" - you always have to "do better".
I wouldn't want to walk in her shoes...

Dear Amoun, if you read this: Your doing great work! You can be so proud of youself! Love, Katha

Back to the center

I was really looking forward to go to the center yesterday! After some days in this confused mood the idea of doing something that isn't new to me sounded really inviting.
I arrived around noon and started to write proposals to german foundations, talking a little bit about Amouns work and asking if they could consider a cooperation - aka: give money.

At the moment the Dom centers Budget ist very low. They still give arabic classes for the children which are well visited and there is after school tutoring and homework help too, but thats just a drop in the ocean. Even though it is amazing to see how excited the kids are after a day at school when they come to the center and learn even more. Yesterday there were about 12, from 7 to 13 years old, all chearful and ambitionous. Most of them came just for the classes, one girl arrived early and joined us for lunch ("It's good for them to be in an english-speakinh enviorment" Amoun said once) and L., Amouns niece who brought me to the center on my first day, helped with the dishwashing and general cleaning before and after class. None of them was brought to the Center by their parents, all of them could have stayed outside playing or whatever but they wanted to be at the arabic-class. So it's a pity that there are no other offers the Dom Society Center can make to the children, their mothers and fathers because they barely know how to pay the rent.

So I asked for help in germany where I'm from and where I can approach different organisations in my and their mother tounge. While writing I discovered more and more how easily you arrange the facts depending on your issues. Which I considered an understandable behaviour before seems now like something you can't omit. This brought me to some considerations regarding my final report: Sure I want to give something back to the Dom, or to Amoun Sleem and the Domari Society Center if she remains my only close contact, and of cours I support her agenda and political strategies - but I'd like to do this somewhere else than in the report.

At the moment I feel very strongly how getting to know other people really changes you. Thi bright, charismatic, trong woman Amoun Sleem - she got me already. Even before I was sure that I would never publish anything that could harm the people I needed to get those information but now I'm not sure if I will be able to write something without being morally involved.

Perhaps that's one of the problems why I had this concern about all the gathered information and Amouns direct connection to them: Maybe everyone who came to the Dom Research Center before went through the same developement and I will ending up like them: promoting what Amoun wants me to promote, trying to help, wanting to affect the way other people see the Dom. And now that I'm wirting this with a bit of fear to get too involved a little voice in my head already asks "what would be so wrong if that happened?"

Well, I will still try to stick to the plain discription in the report and volunteer at the center for two days a week now. So even though you experience there all the time that whatever is done it's never enough I might at least lead my mind to the conclusion that I gave more than I took and that after this I may write a non-tendencious report without betraying someone with it.

If I were a Dom... updated

Ok, here we are after one week of impressions, brief interviews, more reading material and some contact to other people who researched the Dom of Jerusalem and/or volunteered at the center.

I am still 27, I am still married with kids but my father isn't a tourist guide anymore. He is unemployed because my grandparents didn't see the need of getting him a proper education since two of his older brothers were able to read and to write anyway. So the family decided that my father should support them with making pans and other metal work since he is really creative, has a good feeling for design and pans are needed everywhere. It felt like a good and save way to earn money. But the times have changed since his youth and pans are now cheap and good design and handmade quality is not valued anymore. There is no factory where he could work and he doesn't have the money to start his own business. In my childhoodyears he was still trying, but after having to do the worst day labour jobs he finally gave up looking for work.
Most of the time he is at home with some of his friends, they smoke and tell each other stories about the good old times and how much they want the society to change. He knows the most amazing tales of Dom origin and even after listening to them for hundreds of times they are still funny, moving, wise and exciting!

My mother, on the other hand, doesn't speak english anymore and in the last week she lost her small shop at the market, too. Now she is a hairdresser. Some women that know her since she or they were born come to our flat, get a new haircut and their hair staightened. She thought about opening a salon with some of the other haridresser-women in the neighbourhood but since noone encouraged her to do so she was a too afraid of failure and the risk was to high for the little income we have. "Thats something you can do one day" she once told me "My live is this way, and yours can be different. But I am old now. Why should I change at this late point?"

Some decoration in our house still shows the families past: There are flowers everywhere: fresh and dried, paintes and sewed. But apart from that and the area we live in there is no big difference to other Arab families. We are muslim, but not in a extreme way. Our religion helps us to cope with our situation but we have no intend to say it's better than another one for everybody. Me and my siblings learned hebrew in school and on the streets, so we have to help our partens with filling out forms, requests and documents.

I still want to be a nurse but I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish my education. I'm already two years older than the other girls in my class because I had to earn money after finishing High School. The support we get from the government just isn't eanough: Our rent is 1400 NIS per month, a three room flat for 7 persons with a small backyard were we tried to grow a little garden but couldn't water it enough. One shwarma costs up to 30 NIS, a skalf to cover your hair is available from 5 NIS on. But it looks even cheaper. Thats the worst thing: When you aren't rich you are forced to look poor. I wonder why they don't make nice clothes that are cheap. Perhaps they just want to stigmatize us. And the quality isn't that good either. All of us had to wear the bigger kids clothes but sooner or later they fall apart and we end up paying more for clothes than we would have to if we yould afford some high quality shirts once in a while. Same with the food: When you have to count every singe Agora you only buy small amounts of everything instead of getting the "5 for the price of 3 value pack". So, ironically, it's really expensive to be poor. And with 4000 NIS national insurance money and the little income of my mothers job we don't get far.

From my early ages on I remember that I envyed the other Arab kids. I felt if I wanted to succeed in live I had to change from being "a gypsy" and become a regular Arab. Apart from some moments were I heard something discriminating against my community and it made me feel literarly sick it worked ot quite well. On the street and at school noone knows that I am Dom. And I hardly tell people, even the ones I know very well.
On the other hand this makes it more complicated to explain to strangers why my family isn't as wealthy as I wanted it to be. Because once I consider myself as "Arab and nothing else" everyone assumes I had the same upbringing, the same education and the same value sytem as all the other "Arab an nothing else"s...

Oh, and when I am talking about "family" here, I don't mean me, my husband and my children. It's my parents whom I owe everything I ever achieved and will achieve in this live, my siblings on whom I can rely more than on anyone else, my children who are my reason to do what I have to do even though it might me hard and uncomfortable and my husband who tries to make my live as good as he can.

I hope to be able to tell you next week about my neighbours and further relatives, about the way we help each other in our difficult situation and if there still is - apart from all the assimilation to the major culture and society - an inner bond that holds the Dom together. But at the moment I just don't know!

No comment...

Me: ... and do you know perhaps when the Dom-Center opens today?

Him: when what opens?

Me: The Dom Center... The Gypsy Society Center?

Him: Oh, yes, there is one close by. I heard about it. Don't really know which building, but it's close. But it's not really gypsy, it's for poor people.

Me: No, it was founded by a Dom woman, she wants to support the gypsy community with it.

Him: Nooo, the gypsys? I know there are some gypsys in Jerusalem, but they don't need support. They are rich. They have their own houses. You know the children that are selling candy here all afternoon? They are Gypsy kids. Their father, he is a lazy ass, you know what I'm saying. Doesn't work, does nothing and sends his children begging after school. That's what the gypsys do. And they get money from the state. Without working. They have the best live. It's not right that they want more support, there are really poor people in Jerusalem.

Me: But even if there are poorer ones they can still try to make their own lives better, right?

Him: What you mean? They have a good live. They have houses, they have food, they have children begging for them. Nonono. And the people at the center, they are not gypsys after all. They are just poor Arabs that say they are gypsy, because it sounds interesting.

Me: The woman that founded it is a gypsy herself. She comes from a gypsy family.

Him: How you know?

Me: I read it... She told me...

Him: See, she told you! I think she was lying to you. Thats what gypsys do. You know what I am saying.

Me: ??? so you don't know when it opens today?

Him: No, but have a nice day!

And now to something completely different

It's weekend in Jerusalem and I wish I could say that I didn't do anything on my research except from sending a few mails because of my respect for jewish customs and the importance of getting into the dynamic of the place you live at - but the real reason is that I had the feeling that it was important for me not to think about the way my study was going in order to get some distance to it and see it in a brighter light tomorrow. So I just went to the islamic art museum and met some friends of my host and flatmate.
Thats it. Have a good night and enjoy my favourite place amont the Dom area: -->

Goodbye simple truth!

Even though there is very little literature about the Dom the different sources contradict each other. Once it's said that there are no marriages between Dom and other Arabs, then an article points out the economical and social gain in several of these relationships. A third study counts 7 intercultural marriages and notes that they all got divorced some years later.
In some texts the Dom are presented of a sister-group of the Roma, in other they distance themself from this image.
And the number of Dom in the Old City of Jerusalem differ from 300 to 2000 Persons.
Sometimes the Dom are presented as regular Arabs who just get discriminated because of the ignorance of the people around them and other authors talk about the cultural uniqueness even in the present Dom population.
That wouldn't be suprising if there were different approaches at different times. But either the writings were publishes by the Dom Society Center itself or it is quoted within the text. Unfortunately the quotes and sources are almost never marked. That makes the research a bit frustrating because soon after the exitement of finding a new article by a new expert I have to read the same phrases and sentences as I read before at another scientists paper.

Now I get the proof of what I asumed earlier: There is no way around Amoun Sleem if one wants to know about the Dom. Which isn't bad at all. She does great work, without her probably noone who ever gets to read this blog would have heard about this interesting community and it's only natural, understandable and reasonable for her to protect her family, neighbours, friends and political interests.
Depending on the situation, the recipient and the aim of a certain research there are different results. When strengthening the communitys pride in the own heritage you don't want to write about illiteracy and unemployment. And when you hope to get funding for an educational program you for sure don't mention the great craftsmen skills and the long tradition of astronomics, healing and dancing.
But still, since I don't see a good opportunity to verify the given information I have to tread them more carefully than I could if I could see the tendencies for myself.

At the moment I'd like to do my final report rather on how I eperienced this whole field study than on the Dom and their economical startegies as planned. Because I don't feel able not to doubt the things I am supposed to present as "knowledge". On the other hand: Even if I'd do some dozen interviews with different persons I still couldn't be sure to have heard the truth and the whole truth. Probably I just have to be greatful for the insights I got from Amoun and the Dom Society Center, use them carefully and make sure that I neither harm the political ambitions with my uncertainty nor become an instrument that just repeats the "official" view on Dom live and work.

Well, that's my thoughts on this quiet day after a day at the desk, organizing my sources, reading new papers and trying to contact some of the authors.
Shabat Shalom & mazal tov!

Oh, Dom where art though?

I should have known!

I read a lot about the Dom and summed up most of the information in this blog so it's kind of strange that todays events suprised me at all.
I went for a walk in the muslim quater with the plan to see a little bit of daily Dom culture and to try to speak to some of the Dom, perhaps even find an informant who will allow me to follow him or her for one whole day. I asked the baker of my breakfast-pita if he knew the Dom, I asked the one who pressed my orange juice. I asked at the store where the sell plkastic rifles and pink dolls and I asked everyone on the street who asked me what I was looking for. Everyone pointed in the same direction, where I had met Amouns Sister and niece some days earlier. Another woman had invited me into her house back then so I got a bit of an understanding where to look already. But suddenly, as soon as I reached the area noone seemed to have ever heard about the Dom at all.
Even when I showed the two sentences of introduction, written in arabic by Amoun for me to make myself understandable more easy all I got were confused looks and headshaking. "No. Never heard abeout the Dom. Don't know what you want. Dome of the rock, perhaps?"
Well, what did I expect? When you are discriminated because of your heritage, when your ancestors adopted the religion and the language of the people arond them to be accepted and not to stand out anymore, when you live from state support, don't have an education and can't get a long term job because of your families culture and the prejustices of other people - then you probably don't want some unknown woman to ask you questions about your income, your lack of work and all the other things that cause all your problems.

So, this approach failed.

Still, my aim for today was to find out where the Dom live exactly. There is more than one area, as it seems. At least that's what one of the shopkeepers in the muslim quater told me. From my first observations, the pictures I say in the book and in the center I feel like getting a bit of a feeling for "Dom faces". This sounds racist, of course, but since there is a strong tendency to endogamy, even nowadays and the Dom I may have met on the streets don't want to present themselfs by this name, I had no other chance than to walk through the streets with this idea of similarity.
Well, one of my impressions was: As soon as there are more than two fat kids in a street it's not a Dom area anymore. How scientific!

I remembered the study I read and wrote about yesterday. It said, that some of the Dom had TV, nearly the half had solar powered hot water and a few also have airconditioning. The conclusion for me was to take a look from above. I felt I had to see the roofs to get a feeling for the rich and the poor. It indeed was impressive: At the christian quater every house has more than one Sattelite dish and Hot water system. In the muslim quater it's a lot less. Here you see chicken on the roof more often. And more laundry which seemed to get more functional at less "trendy" the further I went. In some demolished buildings ruins there was the attempt of farming/gardening to be seen and also the quality and quantity of childrens toys decreased on my walk on the Old Citys wall from Jaffa Gate to Al-Aqusa-Mosque while the piles of thrown away goods and garbage increased. At the area close to the northern end of the walk finally some of the houses even had corrugated iron roofs which must be very uncomfortable in the hot J-lem summers.

I will try to contact an real estate agent in Jerusalem to find out more about the welth and the living-quality of this area.

The picture above describes my day best: even though I had no real contact with the Dom and I felt like they were closing their doors in front of me (How selfcentered can I be? Until now I didn't give anyone a good reason to open up, except for metaphorically knocking impatiently...) I still got a better feeling for the live conditions. Those 8 pair of shoes in front of one small flat paint the same picture as the survey from 2004 does.

Tomorrow I'll try another thing I already started today. I will look for jobs in the muslim quater of the old city. I want know what needs to be done and doesn't afford a lot of investment like an grocery store or a bakery does. Hopefully I will get a feeling for the possibilities that a Dom person searching for work has and what aspects might ban them rom jobs.

"A population at risk"

In October 2004 the Dom Society Center and the Jerusalem Business Developement Center published a report on a survey among the Dom population of Jerusalem.
This report has been send with the proposals for funding womens business courses like sewing classes, cooking workshops and cosmetical education. Those lectures were no short-term evening classes but real educations that took up to one year and many women took part in them. It is impressive to see in the report that there was a percentage of 85% in the women and 90% in the men who wanted to learn a new profession but couldn't afford it or didn't know how.
Thanks to Amoun Sleems commitment to the community and to the center there are some women present who earn money with the skills they learned in the courses. But until today no woman and no man has founded an own business, shop, restaurant or salon because of the lack of financial opportunities.
Furtheron the report gives answers to my questions concerning the size of an household, the monthly income, the equipment in the flats and some of the formal economy strategies. Only 5% of the Dom owned a car, a TV is the most common "luxury item" and even a airconditioning system is not common among the Dom in 2004. The report devides between families with more than 6 members and those with less and points out that those expensive goods are more often to be found in lager families. This indicates that more people in one "economical team" lead to better conditions for everyone. But later it is said that in those families were adult children stay at their parents place those nearly never have jobs or a good enough education that they could bring an own income. As soon as children over 18 still live at the parents place they seem to be more of a burden than help. Nevertheless those families have access to TV, washing machines, oven and hot water most often. This indicates some intersting issues about informal economie and a selfregulating spread of money within the community. After all: The vast majority of the Dom families live from less than 3000 NIS a month wich is less than 1000 Dollars. With 5,6 children per family and the expensive rent in the Old City this is close to nothing.
So this report with its quantitative approach helps me a lot if I can rely on it - and it shows me the issues were a simple survey isn't useful anymore. I will have to get closer to the Dom to find out how they make this miracle of surviving under those conditions possible - but I wouldn't be suprised if that would be kept a secret.

A day at the Dom Research Center

After going to a really nice concert of a hebrew chanson singer yesterday I nearly overslept today. But with a little hurry I was right on time to meet N. who works as a volunteer at the center.
I didn't dare to ask Amoun about the old legends because I got the impression that she was leery about the intentions of some of my questions anyway. For example when I asked her what the other israeli groups could learn from the Dom I expected her to tell me something about cultural pride, keeping ones own roots alive, creativity and the ability to survive in a hostile enviorement. Well, she said: "What do you mean? Learn to be poor?" So, after this I really didn't feel like asking something like "Do the old legends reflect the Doms attitude to work and do you think this can be a problem?"
I just realized today that even though I've been reading and talking about the Dom for quite a while now they know nothing about me. Usually when you meet people you interact on the same level of trust, distance and interest. Doing a field study is very different. I hoped for quick answers but underestimated the trust that is needed to get even close to this kind of information.
Later the other volunteers were organizing and open house day at the center where some important and influential people from Jerusalem shall experience Dom live and art firsthand and they were working on proposals to get funding from international foundations. With me included there are currently three anthropology students and a couple who study ancient geology (? or something similar...) volunteering. Since I didn't bring my Laptop and the two computers of the center were used otherwise it was my job to tidy up and clean out the bookshelfes for the children. It was interesiting that there was just a very little amount of arabic books, even less books in hebrew (almost as many as in finnish) and the vast majority in english. From Books that explained the alphabet to small printet long tales, from neary untouched ones to books with more than just a few pages missing everything was there. There were picturebooks, too, but they were handmade scrachbooks with pictures cut out from magezines and put into a folder. And there were - for my taste - too many explicit christian books telling about gods love for children who belive in Jesus. The "worst" one showed cute blonde children wainting for christmas and getting a lot of presents. It made me wonder what kind of people donated these.
For lunch Amoun cooked a tasty soup with a lot of peas for us all. While still eating the first girl came from school, did her homework at the center with a bit of tutoring and left before the arabic-class arrived. Unfortunatly I didn't see how many kids joined from the beginning this offer because I was in the next room sorting childrens books in order of age but four kids arrived a little bit later and in the classroom is maybe eanough space for 15, maximum.
While writing the proposals the question occured how many children used the tutoring program and succeeded in their education because of this. After a short discussion "more than 50" seemed the most realistic answer. Regarding that the center was founded only ten years abo in Amoun Sleems own house, also works in the women empowerment and is constantly in the need for donation and money (the rent alone costs about 10000 $ per year!!!) that is an impressive number, I think.

So, even though my blog and my study will not be about the Center alone, let me just mention here that this for sure is a good and trustworthy project if someone wants to contribute:
https://www.paypal.com/il/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=-l-C3Ap76RlqDiXI2qtai_o6L3YwcHPsXPtMMBxtd4nXZAZ3d1IUajOcMIy&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1fc53a056acd1538874a43d73a07f26b2cc3a8a5dff46470e3

The Gypsy Community Chronicle

The Dom Society Center and the organisation "Dom Research Project" produced a book together which I bought yesterday at the Center. It consists of brief impressions of the history of the Dom, a lot of interesting pictures which show the Community in the change of times. Showing the traditional floral dresses on old black and white pictures of danceartists to the well known streetwear of the present youth it also describes the social and economical developement of the Community.
Some of the older pictures portrait men who lived in tents within the walls of the old city, and even though they decesed there are still many of the Dom who can remember them clearly. There were horsetrainers and boxers, dancers, singers, tatoo-artists and healers, rightrope walkers and all kind of craftsmen among the Dom. The women usually worked within the walls of the houses, the men outside. Typical female professions included helping in the field, telling fortune, shearing the sheep and spinning the wool and tailoring the families clothes.
Once the community setteled in stonebuild houses and didn't continue the nomadic live the children were able and had to attend school. This had a big impact on the economical situation of the families, since before the kids - even more the girls - brought in money or helped in the household from a quite young age on. To leave them in school for some more years meant not only having to spend money for books, pencils and paper but also the loss of the childrens hypothetical income. On the other hand the Dom who were now residents of Israel and had to fill out form or read documents. So the older generation had to depend on their offspring who could read and write. The book "The Dom of Jerusalem - A Gypsy community chronicle" introduces some of those children and tells about their dream to become teachers, policemen, doctors or bookkeepers. Their fathers usually seem to work at the municipality, as plumbers or on short term jobs while the mothers clean at hotels or jewish families houses, cut hair or work as nurses if they have the chance.
The present young generation, the future of the Dom society has more opportunities to chose which way in live they want to take but on the other hand has to face the older people telling them "You are trying to change your skin!" (p. 66)
In another context (convenience of not having to cook in the old fashioned way) there is written in the Cronicle "economic constraints are a major factor keeping more traditional methods in place" (p. 54)
I got the impression that this dichotomy of keeping the own culture alive and adapting new important skills is very strong in Dom culture. There seems to be no possibility to reach one through the other - exept from the Dom Society Center which uses donations, subsidies and modern media to present the Dom as a group and enhance the individuals power at the same time. But in every day live the mentality to live from day to day (as the Book puts it) and not to put money aside for younger generations or investing time and effort in the own future likely contradict these efforts.
In this context I found the old legends of the Dom very interesting: There are two legends about the origin of the Dom people, which I will discuss later in detail. For now I just want to have a closer look at one sentence of each legend.
But first let me point out that the judgement and interpretation coming are clearly coloured by my own upbringing and value system in a protestant, 1980s, small town household with financial security and a tradition of higher education for at least three generations. I don't want to offend anyone with my observation but just want to make sure that everyone knows that they are subjective.
In the first legend a woman is allowed to make a wish because her sheep got killed and puts three options on display. The answer is the following: "I cannot revive your sheep. Only God can revive her for you. And to fill your lap with stars," he said "that would be terribly difficult for me. But if you want Kleb's head, you are welcome to it!" (p. 10)
I really had to laugh at the "that would be terribly difficult for me". I had the impression that the king uses the appearance of not wanting to occure blasphemic when he neglects to undo the crime of killing the sheep. And he still wants to seem powerful so he doesn't admit that it is impossible to fill tha lap with stars and just says that it "would be terribly difficult for me". So he chooses to do the only thing possible for men - killing his own cousin. Because of this crime the Dom were doomed. But even more interesting: The woman who made the wish accepted the explanation that it's "terribly difficult" immediatly. It seems as if in this legend something that is difficult has no difference to something that is impossible.
And the second legend creates a similar image: Here the Gypsies get land and seed to become farmers. They boil the seeds and put them in the ground. Later they discover that nothing grew and the king who gave the land to them explaines how to farm correctly, and that "they must begin again. By this time the Gypsies were thoroughly disappointed with the live of a farmer and replied to the king "We will dance or do nothing."" (p. 13) I just can't help to think by myself: "Well, if you didn't succeed in the first time, just try another time. It will take a lot of experience to become good at it. So what's the problem anyway?" But as I said before - this shows the different ways of upbringing and cultural background. I guess, if these parts of the legends really reflect the attitude of nowaday Dom people it is quite difficult for them to provide what the labour market demands.
I will have to aks Amoun about this tomorrow!
Good night for now. Tonight I myself will only dance or do nothing. period.

From Lions Gate to the Dom Society Center

Imagine you come to Jerusalem. If you've ever been there you probably entered the city via Yafo Gate next to King Davids Citadell. If you don't want to buy pashmina, spices, pomegrate juice or pictures of Saints you will try to make your way through the backalley streets of Jerusalem with their shady corners and ramps on every single step of the many stairs. You will see the Fan of the airconditioning in front of every window, the sattelite dishes reaching over the roof and the famous light sandstone which turns a bit gold in the sunset. After wallking for a while you are close to the Dome of the Rock, the golden roofed icon of Jerusalem. turn left and go on. Now you are on Via Dolorosa, the street which marks the way Jesus had to take carrying the cross. And just a few meters after Station I you will see the lions gate. This is where I started looking for the Dom people today.

Here are no shops and no open doors. The streets appear almost like boulevards compared to all those areay where the shops specialities narrow the street into a slim walkway. The houses consist of walls, mostely. Right now I can't remember how the windows looked and if there were any but the doors were all made of heavy metall and without an possibility to look in. Some women were outside, three men unloaded a truck of softdrinks (even though there was no restaurant or bar) and a lot of children cruised the streets.
Some of them were curious about me and tried their english on me. With everyone understanding a little bit and a lot of arguing they finally decided to take me to Amoun Sleem, whose name I had mentioned. It took them only two doorbells to ring to find someone who knew the name and where to take me. Thats how I met C.

C is the sister of Amoun and invited me into her house immediatly. She offered a tea and her niece quickly changed into other clothes to take me to the Dom Society Center. Up to this moment I had always located the center in the old town, but it moved far up north, almost 20 minutes away by bus.
Amoun was very interested and polite but also a little bit afraid that I might take advantage of her generosity. I hope that I can proove in the time coming that I really have better intentions.
We decided to meet regulary for interviews and that I can help her with the work at the center perhaps. Finally I got the book about the Dom I wanted to read all the time but which weren't available in Germany. Thats what I'll tell about tomorrow!

All the new impressiones

This will be a short entry, because right now we are in our posh apartment with seaview in Netanya and are getting beautiful for the wedding this evening.

But yesterday I visited Jerusalem and the first impressions need to be written down. So, please, be kind if I tend to write in bulletpoint-style and the grammar is getting "german"...

We parked our car next to Damaskus gate and at the restaurant were we got our freshly squeezed breakfast juice next to the austrian hospiz the owner knew about the Dom and were their Society center is. Well, apparently everyone in the muslim quater I asked (approximately 7 Persons) knew them. In the jewish quater in the old city I had to add "you know, the gypsy peopla of Jerusalem" to get information about the direction. But my couchsurfing host who lives 10 minuits by car from the old cits has never heard about them.
This gives me the impression that the Dom work and live in a rather small area or at least don't present themself by this name when they are further away.

I got some pretty strange views once I told people about my plan to do a field study among the Dom. When I asked what the matter was, the people just laughed the question away. But in my interpretation the look on their face said something like: "Oh, these foreigners... Don't know what they are up to but have to find out alone..." Well, perhaps it said something completely different and on the other hand, perhaps they don't know what "field study" means, it's not an every day vocabluary, I guess...

From the pictures that I say on the Dom Reaseach Center Homepage and the Dom Society Centers Website and the things I know about the Doms work I probably say some of them on the streets close to Damaskus gate selling herbs and spices. They were sitting on the ground on the middle of the street and when I took out my camera to take a picture of some building a perhaps-Dom-woman next to me hided her face behind a bundle of green leaves even though the camera wasn't pointing at her. Don't know what to conclude from this experience jet but I hope the hiding is not symptomatic for the general way the Dom react on strangers. Then my study could turn out more difficult than I thought...

Although I asked some people I didn't find the Dom Center immediatly and our scedule of sightseeing made it impossible to search for it any longer. So either it is really hidden in some backally or the Dom Community is much more integrated in the city live than the research impressions made me think...

Well, thats it, I guess. Now it's time for my appointment with the make up artist and after that I will attend my first jewish wedding! Mazal tov!

Leaving on a jetplane...

My backs are packed, I'm ready to go!

One half of my backpack is filled with "typical german but delecious" presents for all the people I will have to rely on, the other half consists of much too few clothes, books and too many electronic devices. I will have to take pictures and notes, tape the interviews and type everything down every evening. I hope, it still will be fun and worth the efford!

These days Hamburg is coverd in snow and depending on the street you are in it reminds you of the images you have of Reykyavik or Sibiria. At temperatures far below freezing it crossed my mind from time to time how the Dom would react on a weather like that.
Even though Jerusalem is much warmer than Hamburg it can get bitter cold there, too. On my last visit in march some years ago it snowed and hailed and I remember putting all my summer clothes on, one layer over the other, even in my hostel bed it was too chilly to feel well. Some days after that I had to discover how an israeli hospital works (thats, if you don't want to say: doesn't work...) but that is another story.
From what I know about the Dom I this running water and electricity can't be taken for granted and heaters are expensive, too. The rent is horrible in Jerusalem and the Old Town flats cost even more.
A big part of the Dom community which lived in or near Jerusalem some dozen years ago left Israel after the six day war in 1967. There are Dom groups in Jordan and Syria, for example, and they are spread in the whole middle east up to northern egypt. Live in every one of those places is a lot cheaper than in Jerusalem.
I don't know how integrated and respected the Dom are in other places, but they seem to feel harshly discriminated in Jerusalem. In their selfpresentation it doesn't seem "fun" to be a Dom in Israel.
But there have to be good parts, too.
Otherwise those Families would have left a long time ago. Their ancestors lived a nomadic live and they are not as bounded to the holy city as other groups might feel. So I guess I want to know not only what keeps them there but also what enables them to live there even better than everywhere else?

It must be about Jerusalem itself. Everything you can say about this city, it's history and uniqueness, it's meaning and symbolism has been said so many times before that it just sounds like an empty phrase. It's a tourists place, thats for sure. The Old Town especially.
But tourists are everywhere and in other citys are sights, too. This alone doesn't explain why the Dom of Jerusalem chose this special place to stay. If this even is the truth.

All the information I have about the Dom comes from one source - the Dom Society Center. Without being too supersticious I have to know first what the Centers agenda is befor I can unse the given information properly. Perhaps members of the Community leave Jerusalem all the time? Perhaps the Center just wants to convince the Dom as much as the population of Jerusalem that this is the place where they belong? Perhaps this whole selfpresentation just aims at getting international and financial support, to get aknowledged as a minority that needs special support and protection? Perhaps being a Dom alone is meant to become a economical resource that makes live in Jerusalem possible?
This wouldn't be a bad thing at all but it would have a certain influence on the way I can use the Information I have at the moment. And it could make my work really difficult, because it is their right, of course, to hold the truth from me, to only give me access to those information that suit them and to use me for their puroposes. All I can do about it is being observative and enpathic eanough to see it if it happens.

Well, on the other hand - why always think about the worst case szenarios? I don't have any reason not to trust the people at the Dom Research Center - they seem to be really supportive, interested and generous. Probably it's just the slight fear of takin on this task and going away for a little long time that lets my thoughts drift into this complicated direction...

Note to self: sleep well, smile and don't worry! Stay open minded and everything will be fine.

Let's go!

If I were a Dom....

Today I want to put down some speculations regarding the economical strategies of the Dom with the information I got at my research in mind. I guess it will help me after returning home to remember what I thought about the Dom before I met them and make it easier to analyze if I pushed the results in a direction where I wanted them to be.
I really hope thats not how it's gonna turn out, but since I am very unexperienced in fieldwork all I can do to prevent "looking too hard for results where I expected them in advance" (hmmm, don't remember whom I am quoting here, but it felt familiar...) is reflecting, rethinking and remembering.

Well, if I were a Dom... I suppose I would come from a big, widely spread family. Some of my further relatives might live in Syria or Gaza, at least one or two aunts and uncles with their family in Assam, Jordan and me, my relatives and my nine siblings (four older, four younger, one twin) live in Jerusalem. I am 27 years old, so I am married for 10 years already. My husband is from the Dom Community in Israel as well, we grew up together and I really like knowing him that long because some of my sisters and a lot of the girls that were my closest friends had to move to other communitys when they got married. And my family is around, too. My father always told me, that family is the most important thing and he took care of our wellbeing for as long as I can remember.

It wasn't easy. He cannot read or write and in his youth he was a traveling smith like my grandfather. After the six day war it wasn't so easy to access the palestine villages anymore. And in Jerusalem Oldtown noone needed a smith. Luckyly my mother has always been very good at handicrafts and sold those pieces of art on the markets from a very young age on. So she was able to speak a little bit english. She was used to answer questiones about the most famous sights to tourists and to describe the way. Thats what she told my father. Like other children remember bedtime stories my oldest sister says she remembers english lessons, held as quiet as possible in the corner of our one room appartment.

Thats how my father became a tourist guide. The Dome of the Rock is quite close to our flat and every morning my father would go there and explain the history, the mystery and the architecture to tourists like he heard it from other guides and his wife, like everyone tells it in the Oldtown. He makes a good living out of this but we are a big family. Even though my older brothers work, too (one of them even has a contract with guaranteed earnings at the scavengery) and would contribute their income if anyone got sick or there was a marriage to hold we never were anything near rich.

And since the chinese market produces souvegnirs so much cheaper than my mother ever could with her own hands, handicraft isn't really an option for the younger generation anymore. I guess it's also because the dreams changed. When my mother was my age her family just setteled within the Old towns walls and gave up the live in tents. She just wanted a warm place to live, always enough healthy food on the table and a peaceful envoirement for her children.
But me... I see those kids just finishing the army going abroad for a year to travel in Australia and South America. Even the palestine youth has more freedom than I have with my four children up to now. But I don't complain. What all those independent people don't have, is the family to depend on! If my husband had an accident (g'd forbid!) or if the hospital I work in as a nurse had to let me leave or if we would suddenly need a large amount of money - I am sure that everyone in the family would give as much as they can afford. Even some far great-grand-relatives I might not even have heard of.

Because we stay to ourselfs, because we marry within the community we can be sure that everyone we get close to has the same value system and the same problems. There is no jeleousy within the community, and there is no reason not to trust anyone. And, just hypothetically, if someone really took advantage of the Dom Community - this person wouldn't have anyone in the whole world left, to rely on.
We made the experience that noone helps us and that noone is interested in our wellbeing - exept our own kind. Thats why we must preserve our culture and our identity. It's kind of a resource... While working for tourists or doing those jobs that noone else wants, we can stay away from their influences and their attepmts to change us. They sure are tempting, sometimes. And me being a nurse was unbelievable for my mother at the time of my birth... of course, things are changing and time works on us, too. It just yould be nice, if it would change the Dom of Jerusalem a little bit slower so we can be sure that we still are the Dom and not anyone in Jerusalem."

The Domari Society of Gypsys in Jerusalem

My first source of information about the Dom of Jerusalem was this Website: http://www.wix.com/domarisociety/domari-society-website

It's the representation oft the Domari Society Center, founded by Amoun Sleem. Once I started looking for further information it was quite impressive how much knowledge about the Dom comes directly from the center - a newspaper article was signed by a coworker of Amoun Sleem and another scientist thanks her in the introduction to his work on the Domari Language. She published some Essays about Dom history, live and beliefs, too.
Even though I have the impression to know a lot by now, my interest ist growing and I look really forward to meet this woman who seems to be one of a kind in her society and so amazingly open and trusting with facts about herself and her relatives.

Since there are so few Dom in Jerusalem I would expect them to be more secretive about their habits, rituals and customs. Because it might occur to them that involving strangers into those private parts of a culture, it becomes like a "show" in a museum. Or it might be difficult to keep the next generation still identify as "Domari" when there are other ways of live to choose from. At least those things come to my mind when I try to imagine how live must be like to a cultural minority...

But within the Domari Society Center there tend to be two directions: One ist to empower individuals, especially women and children with special schoolings that make it easier for them to get a good job and to earn their own money. This seems to be quite a modern idea within the Domari Society because otherwise it wouldnt be neccessary.
On the other hand the Homepage of the Center shows the Dom identity as something to be proud of: The language and traditional preparation of food, handicraft and special holidays are mentioned. So the center preserves as well as it modernizes.

Amoun Sleems memorys of her own family, childhood and upbringing reflect the same image: She is greatful for getting the opportunity to learn and study and she sees the need of adapting to certain structures, but still she respects the "old" ways to organize live, family and relationship. After all - those are the things that made the Dom a strong community living in the whole middle east and northern egypt today.

I'm looking forward to get the first impression of the Dom houses, streets and the Center in a week from now. And I hope I can be open and observing eanough to not offend anyone with any assuptions, images or prejudices my culture uses to pretend to be facts...

Preparation and Nervousness

Two days ago I bought the most amazing dress for my friends wedding, yesterday I met with my Professor to discuss my field study on the Dom of Jerusalem and today I am quite tired because I didn't sleep well.

All the things I have to prepare and to buy, to know and to carry out in the next few days kept my mind busy.

Right now I am working on a scedule for the study: What do I want to know, how and where will I get this information and is there eanough time at all to get to know even the smallest aspect of this fascinating culture?

There is little known about the Dom of Jerusalem so far... They live in Jerusalem for about 100 years now, the population is about 600 people in more or less 50 households. The traditional way of live expects endogamy, virilocality and arranged marriages at an age from 15 years on. Education is not very high and in the older generations are a lot of illiterate persons, but the most of them can speak two or more languages. At home the Domari people speak arabic (which I can neither speak nor understand, what a pity) and some of them still know Domari, the traditional language a lot of the young ones haven't even head of. What cheers me up is the fact that the majority of the Dom are good english-speakers, this will make my study a lot easier!
In former times the men of the Domari Society worked as craftsmen like smiths and tinners. The women produced beautiful handicraft and the children sold postcards. But still they seem to have to live in poverty. Discrimination and marginalisation both from the israeli and the palestine population keep the Dom in this low status, even though they seem to be better off than some of the other Dom groups which come to Jerusalem and beg there - which reflects on the image of the Dom of Jerusalem...
To brighten the future of her Community and to enable the women and the younger generation to help themselfs to a better live Amoun Sleen founded the Domari Society Center in 1999.

Thats where my studies will start. Part of me is looking so forward to meet Amoun, the helpers at the Center and a lot of the Dom people - but the other part is a bit mad at myself for choosing such an adventourous way to spend my holidays. But I guess you have to be a bit nervous in advance to end up with something good...

We'll see!

Ten days to go!

On January the 30th I'm going to visit Israel for the third time.
First there was a holiday with the family, a lot of sightseeing and really not eanough icecream for us children considering the hot desertweather.

About ten years later I returned to visit some friends, to see the most impressive spots with the eyes of an adult and to get a first impression of the daily live of Israelis.

This time my friends will celebrate their wedding, I will show my favourite places to another friend who hasn't been to Israel so far - and I will visit, live among and study the Domari Society of Jerusalem.

Coincidence and my friend Julie brought me in contact with the Domari Society Center which was founded in 1999 to establich a better live for the Dom people - the gypsys of Jerusalem.
Thats how I started my research and with every word I read, with every book that didn't mention the Dom of Jerusalem and with every question I couldn't answer my interest in the Dom grew.
I decided to stay for five weeks in Jerusalem and I want to get to know them their traditions and ideas, the way they live and - and this will be the subject of my study - about their economical strategies.

But this blog is not about economy at all. I will need a lot of help, information, patience, openness and other things I don't even expect today from the Dom people to fulfill my task. This diary is my thank-you-gift for them where I want to share my experiences and my fascination, where I will tell about my impressions and - if they allow me to - about some of the people I meet. This blog is supposed to make the Dom people and their issues a little bit more popular.
So: spread the word, please.

Join me on my journey and don't hesitate to ask questions or comment.