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Massaro: New citizen works to fight old divide

By Gary Massaro, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published June 21, 2007 at midnight

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When Shaul Gabbay was a kid in Israel, he and his pals would sing a song about peace on the way to summer camp at the beach.

"The notion of peace is what I grew up with," he said.

So he has made it his life's work to make peace in the Middle East.

Today, though, the son of immigrants will become a citizen of a nation of immigrants, sharing dual citizenship with Israel. Gabbay, 46, will join scores of others in a naturalization ceremony.

His parents were both refugees. His father fled Iraq in 1951. His mother was born in Aden, Yemen, then a British protectorate.

Gabbay first came to the U.S. in 1991 to earn his doctorate in sociology from Columbia University. He studied further in Chicago before going back to Israel to teach college.

He returned the U.S. in 2001. He married an American. It didn't last.

But it is love that keeps him here, specifically his two children.

Gabbay sees himself as a bridge builder who is trying to build an ideological connection between cultures in the Middle East.

He's head of the Institute for the Study of Israel in the Middle East at the University of Denver.

"People are people," he said.

He told a story of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. He was an infantry officer, fighting against Palestine Liberation Organization fighters.

Shortly after arriving in Denver, he met a man who had been a child in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.

"He lived one block from where I was a commander," Gabbay said. "Today, we are friends."

They don't agree on some things, but don't get into fist fights over their disagreements, either.

He supports the current state of Israel as well as one for the Palestinian people.

"The only way to have peace is to have two states. I am optimistic there could be peace. And it will be the warmest peace possible because they are so connected," he said. "The problem is, there are extremists on both sides. In the Middle East, there is peace between people. We can work together."

Gabbay said he belongs to three synagogues in Denver.

There's another element to his faith - a baby grand piano.

"I taught myself to play as a child," he said. "I can't read notes. But I can improvise quite good. There are so many venues for spirituality. There is religion. I pray every morning. But you can express spirituality through art. Music, the piano, is a way of inhaling your spirituality."

As a professor, he helps organize discussions among other academics. They are writing a book on how to rebuild trust in the Middle East. He said he owes it to his children and others.

"I have seen war. I have seen battle," he said. "I will do everything possible so there is no battle for our children. We can't stop turning over every possible stone in the pursuit of peace."

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