In January, our Newsletter started a new series, Crossroads. At Magdala, Crossroads is not a happenstance nice-sounding slogan but a gift we cherish and a lifestyle we cultivate. Many people who visit or work relish this experience. We intend to process this reality in our Newsletter, throughout this year.

We discover Crossroads in our archeology, art, people, activities, etc. The first article we presented a month ago considered the ecumenical Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Here we offer you the first half of a commentary about the people who help make Magdala what it is.

In addition, we begin an ongoing feature to introduce some of Magdala’s people in a more concrete way. We thank Maya for blazing the trail and gracing our Newsletter with this brief sketch of her personal story.

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Magdala’s People I

This week one of our employees, who is an Arab Christian Israeli, told me he was introduced to Magdala by a Druze friend with whom he had worked some years prior. Not only that, but this Druze man emphatically encouraged him to re-enter the tourism sector because “Magdala is something different! You will love it.” Then it transpired that this Druze man came to work in Magdala having been introduced earlier by a Jewish employee!

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Welcome to the people at Magdala!

When I arrived to the Holy Land some seventeen years ago, I heard Fr Juan Solana explaining to some pilgrims that one of the motivations to develop Magdala was to develop opportunities for Christians in Galilee. This corresponded to our experience at the Pontifical Institute Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center, where our work force consisted primarily of Arabic–speaking residents, most of whom were Christians, a minority within the Palestinian minority population which often needed extra support. This is still a major concern of our confreres in Jerusalem as everyone is suffering particularly from the present very painful circumstances.

But Galilee is a different milieu and environment, which we grew to discover over the years while developing Magdala. The 2006 purchase of the first property in Magdala further enriched the project by the development of the Women’s theme due to the connection with Mary of Magdala, first witness of the Risen Christ. But in 2009, with the archeological discovery of a first century synagogue, our site grew in its significance as a place of encounter expressed in our brand, Magdala, Crossroads of Jewish and Christian History. Gradually many more elements matured and now the social impact was cast in terms of a culture of encounter and mutual appreciation, rather than in the particular laudable desire of support focused on the Christian population, as such.   Our goal morphed toward striving to build a potentially exemplary program of encounter, mutual appreciation and cooperation across all religious and ethnic boundaries.

Magdala’s workforce is blessed with very diverse ethnic and religious identities. Since Jewish, Christian and Muslims are quite familiar to most of our readers, I offer a few notes primarily about our Druze and Bedouin employees. Among our Jewish workers, we find mostly secular, local-born Israelis, but Argentina and England are also represented. The Muslims here are mostly Sunni and often they are secular, cultural Muslims.

Our Christian employees include Melchite, Maronite, Roman Catholics, Orthodox, and Christians in the Reformation tradition. Both the Melchite and the Maronite are fully united to Rome. The Melchites stand in the tradition of the Eastern Churches and share much of their liturgical richness and disciplinary procedures. The Maronites are the traditional Church of Lebanon. From Magdala we see the mountains which form the boundary between Israel and Lebanon. In living memory, these borders were still completely open, and families lived across the Lebanese – Upper Galilee area. Since this whole region was under Ottoman rule until World War I, until just over a century ago, people could easily move between the areas of all the present-day neighboring countries.

‍Druze:  For most of the outside world, the Kurdish people are probably more recognizable than Druze. Druze are a unique religious and ethnic group, numbering over a million members, primarily in Syria and Lebanon but also present in Jordan and Israel.  Their tradition dates to the 11th century and incorporates elements of Islam, Hinduism, and even classical Greek philosophy. The Druze are Monotheists and quite religious. They consider their Holy Place near Tiberias, beside the Horns of Hattin, as the burial place of Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law. They respect Moses, Jesus, John the Baptist, and Mohammad, besides the great Greek philosophers. They espouse reincarnation and are famously reserved about sharing their beliefs with outsiders. They are very tolerant of others and are politically loyal to the country in which they live. They enjoy significant esteem for their ethics and for their academic and professional accomplishments. The majority of Druze in Israel live in the Galilee and the Golan Heights. Magdala is very grateful to our Druze employees, some of whom fill managerial positions, here.

Next month we will continue with an introduction to the Bedouin people and some notes about the atmosphere between all our staff, visitors, and pilgrims. We will also touch upon the blessings experienced in this very challenging period which we are presently traversing. Stay tuned!

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Get to know…

Maya Nazal, Reception Deputy Manager and Evening Duty Manager.

“I have friends all over the world, now.”

Maya’s Polish Jewish grandparents survived the Holocaust and met in Germany. Her mother was born in Frankfurt. Grandmother wanted to move to spend her final years in Israel and came with her daughters. Maya’s German speaking mother met her Arabic speaking husband from Tiberias but his family had had to evacuate and begin life in Wadi Hamam, a village created for displaced Bedouin families, after the 1948 conflict. So Maya grew up in this Muslim Bedouin village and went to Jewish Israeli schools. She studied accounting at Haifa College of Administration. Maya married a man from Wadi Hamam and wanted to spare her children the unpleasant challenges of double identity and now her three children are Muslim. She has directly experienced the sufferings of war on both sides of her family and radiates compassion for everyone. Maya gets top reviews from our staff and all our visitors. She was the first to be awarded Employee of the Quarter at our Staff celebration in 2022 Maya loves Magdala because of the people and the spiritual atmosphere. “Since visitors come back year after year, I have friends all over the world, now.”

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