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.