Rabbi Elhanan Miller, the Founder of the People of the Book initiative and a Middle East Expert, spoke to Arutz Sheva – Israel National News about a special video series that he has been producing in Arabic, to bring a message from Jerusalem to the Arab world.
“I started People of the Book seven years ago when I was actually hired to teach Israelis about Islam and Palestinians about Judaism. The Israeli part was easy but how do I teach the basics of Judaism to Palestinian Arabs living in Judea and Samaria? That was a big challenge and the questions that I got, which were very basic, ‘What is a kippa?’ ‘What is tefillin?’ ‘What is kosher food?’ ‘How does that relate to Halal food?’ were the questions that inspired the series. I said that if these are the questions that our neighbors near Efrat and Bethlehem are asking us, then there must be millions or hundreds of millions of Arabs with the same questions,” recounts Rabbi Miller.
He continues: “That's how the idea started. I started producing cartoons about kosher food, prayer, clothing, fast days, etc., and today seven years later, I have 400,000 subscribers and millions of video views in the world. This showed that the gamble was right and that there was huge interest and curiosity about Judaism in the Arab world.”
Rabbi Miller says that the reactions are mixed. "A lot of people mix politics and religion or attack me as an Israeli. But as they got used to me and saw that I do this regularly and that I deal with their religion with respect, they started realizing that I have an educational project here and I think the reactions improved. Today, with the exception of the war, which set us back a little bit, I’ve received overwhelmingly positive reactions.”
On the war between religions, Rabbi Miller says: “I'm trying to challenge the perception that religion is only an impediment to peace, that religion is an obstacle. In my personal experience doing dialogue with Arabs in Israel, I always felt that I had a common language with people who were religious, not only because I spoke Arabic, but also because we shared a certain worldview and I really believed that trying to ignore or eliminate the religious aspect of the conflict is what really blocked the possibility of resolving the conflict. It was the elephant in the room that everybody just wanted to ignore. By tackling it and talking about it and bringing it to the surface, I believe we can have a more honest conversation with the Muslim world, with the Arab world.”
“But, beyond that,” says Rabbi Miller, “when I speak Arabic, I'm not just speaking to Muslims, I'm speaking to Christian Arabs, I'm speaking to Druze Arabs, to Yazidis, to Kurds and to people who are Muslims, but are secular or migrants in Europe and in North America. So it's a really broad audience and it's a much more diverse world than we sometimes portray.”
Following October 7th, 400 days later, many people feel that ‘there is no one to talk to.’ Rabbi Miller says: “We're all grappling with a new reality. I'm questioning a lot of truths that I held very dear. But I really believe that because of the volume of my audience and because of the curiosity and the reactions that I sometimes get, that are very positive, people will tell me, ‘We thought X about Jews and about Israel and you've completely changed our worldview.’ Those are the reactions that I get now and then give me a lot of motivation. I get recognized on the street in Jerusalem by Arab viewers. I'm sure if I went to Jeddah or to Riad, a quarter of my viewers are in Saudi Arabia, I would get recognized on the street. My goal is really to create cognitive dissonance, in other words, to confuse my Arab viewers. They were taught X about a Jewish Israeli, they are now experiencing Y, and that causes confusion.”
“That confusion,” says Rabbi Miller, “can sometimes manifest as anger, rage, rejection, but sometimes it can be self-examining. They can say, ‘Everything I was taught was wrong. These people are human. They're interested in me. They're respectful and maybe all the huge theories that we built about Jews and Judaism, and their role in the region, are just false, so maybe we'll learn more. Even if it's a small proportion of my viewers – 10%-15% - it's still worth it, because that's hundreds of thousands or millions of people.”
With Trump coming back into the White House, Rabbi Miller hopes that the "spirit of the Abraham Accords" will come with him, “Sometimes there’s a paradox, where people who seem to be more hardline can actually have achievements that we didn't expect. We saw this with Begin. We saw this with other leaders here, even in the US, with Reagan. We saw it with Nixon, with China and Trump bringing the Abraham Accords and opening up Israel and Jews to countries that they never expected they could reach. He broke down this barrier of animosity and hatred, which I think was actually blocking the Palestinians also from reaching peace. If we could expand this to include more countries in the region and perhaps allow for more dialogue with those willing, then this could be a good thing. I'm suspending my judgment. I don't know what will be. We don't know what his cabinet is, but let's hope for the best.”
Rabbi Miller also appears on Arab TV, speaking in Arabic, which he describes as: “When I do Arabic interviews on TV, I have a different persona. I'm not the rabbi who explains Judaism, I'm the Israeli analyst, Elhanan Miller, who's talking about politics. I do try to make my kippa very noticeable because I want the audience to notice that there is a religious observant Jew speaking honestly about Israel, but there I am much more in the hasbara [advocacy] role. I try to explain Israel's policies. I don't always agree with everything the government says and I'll be honest about that because in the Arab world, you can't go against your government's line. This is maybe a more sophisticated form of hasbara, I want to show my viewers that you can be critical of your government and still not suffer the consequences. That's the true meaning of democracy of free speech, of free media, which most Arab countries don't have.
“It's an uphill battle. It's not easy. The questions can be very aggressive, especially when there are panelists from the Arab world – Egyptians, Palestinians, Qataris – and I'm usually in the minority, as an Israeli, but it's a battle worth fighting because even if you sway a few viewers, that's a great thing,” says Rabbi Miller.
Rabbi Miller is challenging the notion that ‘despite teaching them our story, in their hearts, they simply hate us, by saying, “I know that that's not always the case, even though sometimes it is and it's worth a try because it's a new avenue that we haven't tried enough. I think if there were more people explaining the variety of views in Israel in Arabic, we would be much better placed in the Arab world. We would have much better chances of peace and I think the world would understand us better. So I think it's really worth the shot and, as Israeli Hebrew speakers, we can learn Arabic easily, so why not?”
In conclusion, Rabbi Miller feels that “Israel could use many more civilian Arabic speakers, because right now the face of Israeli advocacy or outreach to the Arab world is Avichay Adraee, who's a fantastic spokesman and a very talented officer, but he's a military officer and military personnel can't be the ones explaining policy. They can talk about tactical things on the ground, but Israel needs more civilian spokespeople and professional spokespeople in the Foreign Ministry and elsewhere, to be doing the diplomatic work. Unfortunately, we're not doing that enough.”