Salman Falah

Salman Falah was born in 1935 in Kisra-Sumei

Salman Falah was born in 1935 in the village of Kisra-Sumei. His father Hamud was a religious man who farmed tobacco and raised goats and sheep. His mother cared for sick people and helped their families.

He went to elementary school in Peki'in and then to the Terra Santa School in Nazareth. In 1953 he began studying at the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa, where he was the first Druze student. He earned a BA in Middle East studies in 1959 and an MA in Islamic culture in 1963 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and later a PhD at Princeton University in 1997.

In 1954 he founded the Druze Scouts Association, and the first troop was set up in his village. In 1959 he worked as a parliamentary reporter for the El-Yum newspaper and later reported for Kol Israel in Arabic. After the Six-Day War he became national inspector of Arab education and developed school curricula.

From 1975 until he retired in 2000 he chaired the Druze Education and Culture committee. In this role he separated the Druze curriculum from the Arab one, creating an independent Druze school system. He taught Druze heritage at Gordon College and at the University of Haifa, and wrote more than 80 books.

He married Kamilia, and they had 6 children. He died in 2016. In 2017 a Druze heritage center was opened in his name in his home village.