Weaving together traditions in Jerusalem's Old City

Syrian silks and a talented tailor bring together leaders from Muslim, Roman Catholic, and ultra-Orthodox Jewish religions.

• A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.

Even as Syria suffers violent internal turmoil, in Jerusalem’s Old City Syrian silks from Damascus and Aleppo continue to bring together leaders from three religions.

Fabric vendor Bilal Abu Khalaf outfits ultra-Orthodox Jews with white striped cotton and silk for their caftans. Some traditional Muslims wear his black-and-white striped fabrics for their kumbaz, a knee-length robe. In the days before Easter and Christmas, local nuns sew Mr. Abu Khalaf’s gold damask cloth into the regal vestments of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox clergy.

Abu Khalaf is a third-generation salesman who follows the customs of his grandfather’s time more than he does those of today. He wears a kumbaz to work. He buys his morning tea from a vendor down an alley and sends out sewing assignments to tailors nearby in the walled city. The rainbow of nearly 200 delicately woven fabrics piled onto shelves in his shop come from Syrian looms where damask silk weaving was first perfected.

Abu Khalaf says he has not been back to Syria in the past year because of the political upheavals. But he still has some Syrian goods to sell, including one eight-color woven depiction of the Muslim general Saladin waging battle in the Crusades. Real gold thread runs through its pattern.

“The Syrian silks have a special touch and artistic design,” he says. “I try to use my clothes to show the old touch of Jerusalem.”

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Weaving together traditions in Jerusalem's Old City
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2012/0227/Weaving-together-traditions-in-Jerusalem-s-Old-City
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe