Life as a centenarian and the only Jew in an Arab town in Israel

Margalit Zinati is almost 100 years old. She has lived in Peki’in, a Druze town in the north of Israel, all her life. Now she is the only Jewish person left. As a child, she was given a key by her father that explains the whole situation.

Today, Peki’in is a small town of just over 6,000 people in the northern Galilee region. The population is Arabic-speaking Druze, and Zinati lives there in peace with her neighbors, but it wasn’t always this way.

Peki’in holds some significant Jewish history and was considered a Jewish town until the Arab riots in the 1930s. Some 50 Jewish families fled between 1938-1940, leaving the town completely devoid of Jewish presence for the first time since the first century.

Properties were sold to Arab families by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) in the 1940s, which considered the area unsafe for Jewish people to live. They used the proceeds to build a new village, “Peki’in HaHadasha” (“the new Peki’in”) and encouraged Jews to relocate there.

However, one family was determined to maintain the Jewish presence in the historic Peki’in. In 1940, the Zinati family, direct descendants of one of three priestly families that moved from Jerusalem after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 A.D., decided to move back.

“Of all the Jews, only we returned,” Zinati told Aish. “The other families were too scared. We’re not afraid of anyone. We fear only God above.”

And there was good reason to be afraid. Initially, things did not go well. A gang of Arabs took the father of the family to the town square to lynch him, but one Muslim neighbor intervened and saved his life.

The children were sent to boarding school in Jerusalem, and after the son married and left, it seemed that their valiant attempt to continue the line of Jewish history in Peki’in would come to an end. If Margalit were to marry, she would inevitably end up leaving as well. It was at this point that she made the brave decision to remain single and stay.

And here’s where the key comes in. Peki’in is home to an ancient synagogue from 3rd-4th century AD, connected to early Jewish sages Rabbi Yehoshua ben Haninah and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. According to tradition, the building included two stones taken from the walls of the Second Temple.

The original structure has been replaced by a newer synagogue in the same place, which was built in 1843. There are still several artifacts from the original structure there today.

In the 1940s Zinati made a promise to her father that she would keep the key and look after the synagogue, and she has been faithful to her word until this day.

When explaining her story to Luai Ahmed, a Yemeni Muslim who has been a vocal advocate of Israel, she emphasized living without fear. She shows Ahmed an ancient carved menorah that had been part of the synagogue for 2,000 years, when her ancestors first moved there after the temple was destroyed. Her family simply never left the land and has never been part of a community outside of Israel. 

Residents of Peki’in have come and gone, and today the town is predominantly Druze rather than Muslim or Christian Arabs, but throughout the centuries, Zinati has kept up her duty as the caretaker of the historic synagogue. The Druze villagers are very friendly and supportive towards their Jewish neighbor. A number of them have expressed their appreciation and respect for the history that she represents.

“God is the creator of everything; He created us all as brothers, right? And we still are brothers and sisters, even today we are still brothers and sisters,” she said.