{"id":1652,"date":"2014-06-26T18:09:14","date_gmt":"2014-06-26T18:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/?p=1652"},"modified":"2018-04-04T14:08:24","modified_gmt":"2018-04-04T14:08:24","slug":"meet-the-druze-a-unique-community-in-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/meet-the-druze-a-unique-community-in-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Druze: A Unique Community in Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Tom Brennan<\/a>
\nThe Druze occupy a unique position in Israel, not only as a people but a religion. The Druze do not accept converts, send missionaries or consider themselves a part of any other faith. They are a genuinely separate group that combines key elements of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and adds things found in Greek and Egyptian philosophies and even Hinduism. Their numbers and population are kept intact by their separateness and families. Their religious tenents are secret and are not open to nonbelievers. They number about one million worldwide and there are about 104,000 in Israel. Their home ground in Israel is mostly in the Galilee and Golan region. They also serve in the IDF and are genuinely a unique people. The Knesset has granted a modicum to their unique structure by allowing them their own courts for certain legal processes such as marriage issues.<\/p>\n

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Druze-Scouts<\/p><\/div>\n

Who are the Druze and who are they not? For one, they are not \u201cChrislam\u201d. This movement is as much rumor as fact and stems from some attempts by a number of churches to reach a type of accommodation by seeking common ground with Islam. Admittedly, some churches have had Quran reading and study at services. The renowned Society for Biblical Literature has helped to launch an initiative for Quran study and comparison within its ranks but the Druze are outside this. The Druze did begin as Islam but since the 700\u2019s a gradual development of their ideas had begun to bring them to their current state. Various factions and movements spring up within Islam that dispel any sense of monolithic structure or themes. The Druze began by adding elements of Islam, Christianity from and Eastern Rite source of traditions (Coptic, Syriac, and Maronite) and traditional Judaism. Moses\u2019 father in law, Jethro is one of the individuals considered a model for many of the core beliefs and his burial place along with tombs of other Biblical persons is honored within the religious structure. There is no priesthood, hierarchy, rabbinical or other type of ordained clergy. There are writings, most gleaned and combined from the three faiths, and Classical Period philosophy as well. The very age of their traditions make the Druze stand apart.<\/p>\n

\"druze-in-IDF\"<\/a>

druze-in-IDF<\/p><\/div>\n

Socially, the Druze can best be described as more the result of movements. After a period of proselytizing the movement settled into an existence of generating its own members and followers within itself and still maintained a sense of growth through families. There are Druze in many other countries and live within their own communities, no converts are allowed.<\/p>\n

Meeting the Druze at home will be a very unique experience to learn about a very different people. Daliyat-el Carmel is a town which combined two separate places in 2003. Visitors step back in time and can see a souk and shop, visit and worship in several churches and a Druze house of prayer (they have no formal mosque, church or synagogue structure), and stay at homes or guest houses. The Druze honor the very ancient art of hospitality very well. The foods are spicy Middle East and the dress will be different from the Arab dress of the southern areas around Jerusalem, a turban of white for males and head coverings and long dresses and no veils for women.
\nNearby Mt.Carmel witnessed the challenge of Elijah to the priests of Baal. The mighty prophet confronted the whirling, frantic idol worshippers whose sacrifice was left ignored when the idol seems to have missed his appointment on the mountain that memorable day. Instead they witnessed as the Mighty King consumed the burnt offering of His prophet Elijah although soaked in fireproof heavy doses of water. There is so much to see and experience in Israel a visitor can be easily overwhelmed. The friendly Druze will help you adjust with a good meal and fellowship.<\/p>\n

The Druze are Israeli patriots and have served as members of the IDF for years. Their relationship has been very solid although outside forces have made overtures to their loyalty and occasionally neighbors in Lebanon and other counties attempt to lure the population away.<\/p>\n

Visiting the Druze will open up a world of a unique people who do not fit into a convenient sound-bite type box. Their faith is combined religion, philosophies of the past and political movements of centuries ago into a cultural experience they are willing to share. These friendly people are respected and honorable citizens of the State of Israel. Israel is a textbook example of how real tolerance can work in the light of constant outside and occasional interior pressure. It is a remarkable place and the Druze will testify to that and more.<\/p>\n

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By Tom Brennan The Druze occupy a unique position in Israel, not only as a people but a religion. The Druze do not accept converts, send missionaries or consider themselves a part of any other faith. They are a genuinely separate group that combines key elements of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and adds things found more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[131,28],"tags":[268,75,135,267,631,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-1652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israeli-life","8":"category-israeli-life-culture","9":"tag-druze","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-israel-news","12":"tag-israeli-druze","13":"tag-israeli-life","14":"tag-news-from-jerusalem","15":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1652"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3821,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1652\/revisions\/3821"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thejerusalemgiftshop.com\/israelnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}