Why My Jewish Daughter is Learning Arabic

Editor's Note: This commentary was written and submitted by an honest-to-goodness and very real friend of Tonic who has requested anonymity.

I was raised a Nice Jewish Boy; my wife is a Nice Jewish Girl from the Midwest. Our political leanings are socially liberal; financially conservative. We have been active in the Jewish community in the Bay Area, our kids go to the Jewish Day School and other than poor cellphone infrastructure, we have few axes to grind.

With all of that duly noted, we enrolled our daughter in Arabic studies two years ago. Arabic. The other team. The enemy.

Many of our friends thought that we were crazy, masochists or had a drug problem.

In fact, we have none of those more-exciting-than-our-lives things. We suffer the same terminal optimism that all entrepreneurs/investors suffer. And we don’t believe Arabs are "the enemy."

We believe that a few lunatics, coupled with decades of mediocre politics and world economic pressures of various flavors have created a climate that has reinvigorated historic pressures on the various Arab-Israeli conflicts.

It would be easy to be reactionary, to pull inward and "defend ourselves" in a bunker. But that strategy hasn’t been all that successful for a few decades. (And it should be noted that my perspective is that Jews and Arabs have gotten along relatively well for close neighbors for a very long time – the Balfour Declaration and a few other structural issues around the formation of Israel were gasoline to wood that had only been smoldering for a while.)

Instead, we hope to reach out. What does that mean? The precepts begin with the view that there is no such thing as "Arab." It’s like saying a "European" or an Earthling. Many shades and subtleties exist which we need to learn more about. And, this isn’t just with the fear: "Who hates us? Who doesn't?"

Second, we are trying to learn more about the culture – admittedly much of the "Arab world" is closed to Westerners, especially American Jews. Good luck trying to get the double-decker tour of Riyadh with an Israel visit stamp on your passport. But for what we can learn, we will learn. Dubai looks amazing on the mash-up and Tiger’s new golf course resort should be done in 2011. I plan to go.

Third, and vastly most important, we have made a "bet" with our most precious asset – our children. The elder has, along with her Hebrew studies, begun to learn Arabic, having taken lessons from a few different teachers now, all of whom call Israel "Palestine."

This is a big bet for us. Many of our friends think we are nuts to make such an effort in such an arcane area with few resources, time pressure for other activities etc. But we are a hopeful family. We do startups and we invest in risky companies so we are… hopeful. And logically, SOMEBODY must reach across the chasm and shake hands and connect and find that rhythm.

We hope our kids can help bridge those gaps…