This week in Israel there was a terror attack where two Israeli policemen were killed. Both policemen were Druze, so I’m going to tell you about who the Druze are. The Druze are not Muslims, though the religion is an outgrowth of Islam that originated in the 10th century in Egypt. It also has elements of Judaism and Christianity, influences of Greek philosophy and Asiatic thought. Due to having relatively progressive ideas for the time, such as the abolition of slavery and the separation of church and state, they were considered to be outliers and unorthodox, and were persecuted, so they became very secretive with their religion, which is still true to this day. Even to many Druze themselves, the religion is secret and mysterious. Only special clergy called Uqqal, can study and learn all of its aspects. Basically, their rules are: they believe in one god, they have to reject all non-Druze tenets, and they must be very loyal to the Druze community. You cannot convert to become a Druze. And if you marry somebody who is not Druze, then you are also no longer Druze. They believe in reincarnation, so that they believe that everybody that is alive today is a reincarnation of somebody from when the religion was revealed. The Druze don’t have a country, but they do have a flag. They live mainly in Israel, Lebanon and Syria, and they are very loyal to the countries that they live in. In Israel, the Druze men serve in the Israeli army (whereas the Arabs, or Palestinians, do not serve in the Israeli army). The Druze in Israel are highly respected and integrated within several political parties, even though there are only about 150,000 Druze in Israel. The names of the two policemen murdered this week are: Advanced Staff Sgt. Maj. Hayil Satawi, 30, who was married with a 3-week-old son; and Advanced Staff Sgt. Maj. Kamil Shnaan, 22, May their memories be blessed. Now we’ll tell a different kind of story: A story about a storyteller who tells story. Noa Baum tells her own story in a wonderful way, She uses storytelling as an artform, as a powerful tool in education,and in business. Noa talks about how we can use storytelling in our businesses and as leaders, to make a bigger impact and have people follow your lead. Resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druze http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/03/21/5-facts-about-israeli-druze-a-unique-religious-and-ethnic-group http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Bu-Dr/Druze.html http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/history-and-overview-of-the-israeli-druze www.noabaum.com