Episode 86 – The Palestinian Refugee Who Became A Yeshiva Boy

Mark was born in Kuwait. His father was a Palestinian refugee, who was born in 1945 in Bet Shean (now a city in Israel). When his father was 3 years old, the family fled to Jordan, and eventually ended up in Kuwait. As a kid, Mark attended activities conducted by UNRWA, the U.N Relief and Works agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East. What they taught him there about Israel, and about Jews, profoundly shaped his views.

But a decade later, when Mark moved to Canada to study at university, an unexpected encounter changed his life forever. This is the story of how Mark became Mordechai.