Which Arabic-speaking media outlet is the most empathetic to the Holocaust? What are the differences between kosher and halal food? And what stigmas do Arabs carry regarding Jews from the Middle East?
Rabbi Elhanan Miller, a 43-year-old Jerusalem [Al-Quds in Arabic] native, content creator, media commentator, and social media personality, can answer all of the above – and in fluent Arabic.
In a world often divided by political tensions and cultural misunderstandings, Miller has charted an unconventional path. A former Arab and Palestinian affairs correspondent, who began speaking Arabic at the age of 13, he made a dramatic career shift nine years ago when he returned to his studies to pursue rabbinic ordination at Beit Midrash Harel in Jerusalem.
“I switched from media to education,” Miller explained, describing his transition after being ordained as a rabbi in 2019, “but ironically found myself back in the media – this time as a content creator and commentator.”
Following a year in Australia that coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, he returned to Jerusalem and entered the field of education, teaching at the Pardes Institute and the Hartman Institute.
Rabbi Elhanan Miller. (credit: Mustapha Kharouf)But the world had a different plan for Miller, whose seeds for the current work in the Arabic-speaking sphere were planted during his rabbinic studies. He was invited to lecture to Palestinians and Israelis as part of an initiative by the NGO Shorashim (Roots) in Gush Etzion, where he taught introductions to Judaism for Palestinians and introductions to Islam for Jewish Israelis.
“Teaching about Islam was easier because I had studied it,” Miller noted. “But how does one create an introduction to Judaism?” He discovered that his Palestinian audiences weren’t particularly interested in theoretical religious lessons – they wanted to know practical information like what his kippah represents, the differences between halal and kosher dietary laws, and what Miller described as the “choreography of Jewish prayer.”
THIS REALIZATION sparked an epiphany. “I thought: ‘There’s a tremendous untapped potential here. If these are the questions Palestinians who interact daily with Israelis are asking, then there’s probably an Arab world of half a billion Arabic speakers who have the same questions without anyone to ask. And perhaps even two billion Muslims gl...
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