A Passion for Learning

About the Book

Khalil Totah’s life spanned the waning days of the Ottoman Empire, the British Mandate in Palestine, and the foundation of the state of Israel. His passion for education drove him to leave his native Palestine for the US in 1906 to complete his education, which culminated in a PhD from Columbia University. His next adventure, in France during World War I, was followed by a return to Palestine with a beautiful American wife. Having achieved his education and successfully navigated life transitions, he set out to serve as principal of a teacher-training college in Jerusalem. Later he became principal of the Friends Boys School in Ramallah, the Quaker school that had taught and mentored him. In spite of work-related struggles and a family tragedy, he built and developed the school throughout the Arab Peasant Revolt and the British Mandate. He was esteemed and venerated by his people for his leadership. In 1944, Khalil and his family returned to the US, where he continued his career in education as director of the Arab information office in New York. He lectured, wrote, and became an activist on behalf of the Palestinians as partition was debated at the UN. Told by his daughter, the story of Khalil’s life sheds light on the history of Palestine of that period and of the Quakers in Palestine. His journal, diaries, articles, photographs, and her mother’s letters to family in the US have formed the foundation for this story.

About the Author

About the Author A Passion for Learning by Joy Totah Hilden Joy Totah Hilden was born in 1935 in Jerusalem to a Palestinian father and an American mother, both Quakers. Her family immigrated to the United States when she was a child of nine years. Joy’s Arab heritage has deeply affected her outlook and pursuits and laid the foundation for her deep interest in Arab culture. She graduated with honors from the San Francisco Art Institute with a bachelor’s of fine arts degree in 1958 and received general and special secondary teaching credentials in 1964 from San Francisco State University. She taught art and English in secondary schools for eighteen years, continuing to practice fine and textile art. From 1982 to 1994, Joy and her husband lived in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, where he taught at the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals. During that time, she did independent primary research in Bedouin weaving, traveling throughout the kingdom and surrounding countries. The resulting book, Bedouin Weaving of Saudi Arabia and Its Neighbours, was published in 2010 by Arabian Publishing Ltd. in London. Since returning from Arabia, she has focused on speaking about Bedouin weaving, organizing her family’s archives, and writing this biography of her father.