On this week's episode, I spoke to Mona Hajjar Halaby about her memoir, In My Mother's Footsteps. Mona's mother was a Palestinian refugee, who fled Palestine in 1948 at the time of the Nakba and the creation of the state of Israel. She lived in Egypt with her husband and two daughters until 1961, when the family became refugees once more, and moved to Switzerland. In her book, Mona shares her mother's experiences of growing up in Palestine, being forced to leave her home, and her Palestinian identity. Mona spends a year working at a school in Ramallah, teaching children about communication and conflict resolution. During this time, she makes the journey to her mother's home village, uncovering deeper layers of her own identity.

In this episode, we talk about identity, belonging, returning home and the refugee crisis. 

Mona Hajjar Halaby is a Palestinian-American educator, writer and social historian. In order to preserve Palestinian culture and heritage, she has created "British Mandate Jerusalemites Photo Library" on Facebook, and "The Palestine Ethnographic Society." She collaborated on an interactive documentary "Jerusalem We Are Here," which takes participants on a walking tour of a neighborhood in Jerusalem past and present, and presents a map that documents the houses in the neighborhood with their documents, photos, and stories. Hajjar-Halaby has written a parenting book, a book on her classroom practice and has a new book coming out in May entitled, "In My Mother’s Footsteps: A Palestinian Refugee Returns Home."

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