Why are you going to Tamra?”, the head of security for El Al Airlines at Pearson International Airport in Toronto, Canada asked of me as I was en-route to Tel Aviv. That question, and the forty-five minutes we were interviewed at security, were done for security reasons. I understood the need for increased security prior to boarding a flight for the Middle East as there had been a recent increase of violence in the Gaza. The question, however, had an undertone. Why were ‘you’ - as in me, a Canadian Jewish man and his twelve year old daughter, going to Tamra, an Arab city in Israel. What could I possibly be doing there, and how would I know anyone from there well enough such that we would be welcomed guests in their home during our visit? The answer was truthful and innocent: we were going to see our friends, who are Arab, and I was to continue working on using astronomy education as the focal point for breaking down societally imposed barriers. This presentation will share experiences of using ethnoastronomy as a means to connect people across cultures and religions, and highlight the often racially charged challenges that manifest when walking this path.
