זה היה הרכיבה המפנקת ביותר. קבענו תחבורה של שלוש תחנות... מברוקלין עילית למטה לשכונה שלו... ואז לשדה התעופה.
בטח שיכולנו לקחת את הרכבת.
אבל לא היום.
כשא' היה במכונית דיברנו על לימודי תואר שני, תוכניות הקיץ, רעיונות לאוקטובר.
כשהוא יצא, אחרי הנשיקה והחיבוק ופרידה וה"אל תטרוק את הדלת" אמרתי לנהג...צהריים טובים, איך עובר היום שלך?
“זה קריר, אביב, יָפֶה,” הוא אמר. ואז הוא הציע, “אה, החופש הגדול שלך הסתיים זה עתה.”
“אני יודע את זה”, הוא אמר, “כי כל נהגי המוניות יודעים שהעסק שלנו נופל בחגים יהודיים... אז אנחנו יודעים מתי הם.”
'מעניין', חשבתי...לא יודע מה יקרה אחר כך.
“להקשיב -” הוא אמר לי. “לבני ישראל היו שנים עשר שבטים, תקין?”
“כן”, אמרתי.
“ועשרה אבדו”, הוא אמר.
“כן”, אמרתי.
“אני מוסלמי,” הוא אמר. “כל חיי. אני פקיסטני.
אני 50 years old.”
“But I came to New York ten years ago. And I think I am from one of the lost tribes.”
“How do you figure?” שאלתי אותו.
“In my history,” הוא אמר. “In my people, in my family…there is this idea that one of the lost tribes was in Pakistan — another in Afganistan. The way I grew up, as a Muslim, I knew that there was a family secret. That there was something to do with our religion and the lost tribes.”
“It wasn’t until I came to Brooklyn that I realized that my family cemetery — on the old stone in Pakistan…that I realized those old gravestones have Stars of David and Hebrew on them.”
“I don’t speak Hebrew,” הוא אמר. “Only Pashtu.”
“But they were symbols I never understood.”
“Until I came here.
Until I saw in Brooklyn the same letters in some neighborhoods —
That I understood that my family — only a few generations back — were Jewish — and that they considered themselves one of the ten lost tribes.”
And that, although he was Muslim, he considered that the Brooklyn religious neighborhoods were filled with his close cousins.
With his family.
Just imagine.
I told Sajid that I wished he had told this wonderful story when my son was still in the car.
By this point I had tears in my eyes and we were at the airport.
הודיתי לו, shook his hand, wished him well and thanked him for his beautiful story.
יפה!
I wish he’d told that story when A was in the car, גַם. i wish that more people would learn and tell their stories – and that more of us would hear them — which I believe would ultimately show that more things unite us than divide us.
כן.