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Subhi (1908–1975)
Subhi (also known as Abu Jarir) is the eighth of the nine brothers. I can see him in this 1943 photograph. But he cannot see me. And decades later his granddaughter Ureib will sit on his lap the same way her mother Naela is sitting on her father’s lap in this picture. Ureib will say to her grandfather: open, open your eyes! You will see! I will help you!
As a child, I used to sit on my grandfather’s lap and say ‘open your eyes and you will see!’ convinced that I can help him see if he only opened his eyes.
- Ureib Zuhair Amad
Back to the 1943 photograph where Subhi is surrounded by his young family: his Swiss-German wife Lisa Störi stands next to him and their two children. Jarir stands in front of his father (in 22 years Jarir will marry his cousin Rihab, who in this photo is carried by her father Abdel Mohsen). Naela sits on her father’s lap.
Subhi is born sighted. But this child will lose his sight around the age of four. Jerusalem, particularly its overcrowded Old City, faces outbreaks of epidemics and foreign infectious diseases brought in by the alarming influx of Jewish migrants to Palestine. The city’s sanitary infrastructure is inadequate and healthcare is dire: very few hospitals exist and these can barely deal with such levels and kinds of illnesses.
Dr. Tawfiq Canaan writes in his book ‘The hygienic and sanitary conditions of the Arabs of Palestine’:
‘Several epidemics raged before the years of 1914–1919. The most important were scarlet fever and cerebrospinal meningitis. Both were imported with greatest probability by immigrants. Meningitis was known all over the country as the ‘Jewish disease’. These two diseases carried thousands of young and old away.’
Canaan, T. (1946) The hygienic and sanitary conditions of the Arabs of Palestine. Jerusalem: Palestine Arab Medical Association, p.3.
As meningitis spreads in Jerusalem, Subhi contracts the disease and falls seriously ill, ultimately losing his eyesight. The family is devastated. His mother Khadijeh is beyond devastated. And shortly after this tragedy (perhaps because of this tragedy) the family moves out of the Old City to the German Colony neighbourhood in New Jerusalem, where Subhi spends the rest of his childhood.
My uncle (and father-in-law) Subhi lost his eyesight but never lost his love for life. He lived a full life; there was nothing that a sighted person could do that my uncle Subhi could not.
- Rihab Abdel Mohsen Dajani
Uninhibited by his disability, Subhi is a keen learner from a young age. He briefly joins the House of Orphans after which he is sent to study at Blindenheim, a boarding school for blind children at Schneller School, also called Das Syrische Waisenhaus, the Syrian Orphanage House (see map: Syrian Orphanage). It is difficult to ascertain how many years Subhi remains at Schneller, but approximately during the years between 1917 and 1925. The school offered both vocational training and academic education and had its own press where books were printed in braille. The school shapes Subhi’s character and instils in him a lifelong love of learning, and an affinity with the German way of orderliness and discipline. There, Subhi learns German, unbeknownst to him that he was destined to marry a Swiss-German with whom he would converse in German.
In 1925, Subhi’s father Daoud passes away and soon after, Subhi leaves Blindenheim to continue his education at the Islamic College in Jerusalem (and I wonder whether this change of Subhi’s schools is connected to his father’s passing). In any case, Subhi does not stay long at the Islamic College and enrols in the English College in Jerusalem, joining his brother Ali. And this is where he completes his secondary schooling in 1929. Subhi then studies at the American University of Beirut (AUB), graduating in the summer of 1932, becoming the first blind student in the history of AUB.
Upon his return to Jerusalem, Subhi, along with his friend Jamil Hashweh and other educated blind acquaintances, establishes the Organisation for the Welfare of the Blind in Palestine (OWBP), with the aim of improving the lives of the blind by creating job opportunities through placing them in suitable workplaces.
Subhi is under no illusion that he is an anomaly. Blind people in Palestine have little chance of achieving higher education and landing decent jobs because of the lack of government support and the society’s reproachable view towards sightless people. Subhi shares his thoughts in an article, ‘The Blind In Palestine’ published by the American Braille Press.
It seems that the British Government had heard Subhi’s lamentations. Not long after, he is sent by the Department of Education to Britain to study the methods of teaching the blind. Subhi first travels to Edinburgh in October 1933 and earns a teaching certificate from Edinburgh Provincial Training Centre (now Moray House) in 1934. Between September 1934 and January 1935 Subhi takes up a residency at the Royal Normal College and Academy of Music for the Blind (now the Royal National College for the Blind) in Norwood, South London, successfully passing the examination for the Teacher’s Diploma of the College of Teachers of the Blind. And thanks to the efforts of the college’s principal Mr. W. M. Stone, Subhi travels to Switzerland for further training at the Zollikofen School for the Blind, which was then located in Spiez near Thun in the Canton of Bern. It is there that Subhi meets his future wife Lisa. And when his time at the institute comes to an end in 1936, Subhi returns home, and Lisa follows him and they marry in October 1938.
After his return to Jerusalem, Subhi works towards establishing a school for the blind, which starts operating from late 1937 in Hebron under the name of ‘Ala-iya School for the Blind. Subhi immerses himself in the running of the school while Lisa takes charge of many administrative aspects. And in Hebron the couple’s children are born: Jarir (1940–2005) and a year later Naela (1941–2020), affectionately called Jerry and Nelly (and Lisa is called Lizzie, but Subhi remains Subhi).
In 1945 the family moves to Ramallah as the school relocates to a bigger campus in the town of al-Bireh. During the Catastrophe of 1948, Subhi, Lisa and their children remain in Ramallah, which after Palestine’s partition falls under the Jordanian rule. The family takes to life in Ramallah in the 1950s. The kids are enrolled in two prestigious local schools: Jarir at the al-Amirieh School (renamed Hashemite School of al-Bireh) and Naela at the Ramallah Friends School. During this time Subhi works relentlessly on projects for the education of the blind. Lisa is, as always, helping Subhi and driving Subhi.
But all changes in 1967 when Israel occupies further territories in Palestine including Ramallah in the West Bank. Shortly after, Israeli authorities spitefully insist on relocating the ‘Ala-iya School for the Blind to Beit Jala in Bethlehem. Subhi, a much older man now, does not have it in him to leave the familiarity of Ramallah and start anew. So Subhi begrudgingly relinquishes running the school. He is forced by the occupation to let go of his life’s work, but Subhi, as his student Reja’e Busailah said, ‘never indulged in self-pity’. So he dedicates his time to translating and publishing in Arabic braille in the years that followed.
Subhi continues working incessantly until a terminal illness takes hold of his body, and his eyes close forever on 3 January 1975. And Lisa falls into an inconsolable depression and passes away in November 1976. And whilst Subhi is buried in Bab al-Asbat Cemetery (see map: Bab al-Asbat Cemetery) amongst his brothers and his schatz is buried amongst her Christian denomination in a cemetery in Beit Jala, I like to think that their spirits are eternally dancing together in the skies of Jerusalem.
Blindenheim
Blindenheim (home for the blind) was a boarding school for blind children at Schneller School, also called Das Syrische Waisenhaus (the Syrian Orphanage House). This was where Subhi received his primary education. Image: a group of students in front of Blindenheim building. Jerusalem, 1918. Source: Library of Congress.
The blind in Palestine...
‘The blind in Palestine’, ...And there was light, 2(7), June 1933, p.34. Source: American Foundation for the Blind.
Continuation of the article. ...And there was light, 2(7), June 1933, p.35. Source: American Foundation for the Blind.Continuation of the article. ...And there was light, 2(7), June 1933, p.36. Source: American Foundation for the Blind.
Subhi’s student record card from Edinburgh Provincial Training Centre. Source: Edinburgh University Archives.
Principal’s report which mentions the arrival of Subhi at the college in September 1934. The Royal Normal College and Academy of Music for the Blind (now Royal National College for the Blind) annual report 1934–1935, pp.18–19. Source: the Perkins Archives, Perkins School for the Blind, via Internet Archive.
Royal Normal College and Academy of Music for the Blind (now Royal National College for the Blind) annual report 1935–1936, report of the board of governors, pp.10–11. Source: the Perkins Archives, Perkins School for the Blind, via Internet Archive.
New beginnings
The announcement of the opening of the ‘Ala-iya School for the Blind in Hebron. The Palestine Post, 8(3475), 21 October 1937, p.3. Source: National Library of Israel Newspaper Collection.
Subhi, Lisa, Jarir, and Naela among date palm trees, possibly in Jericho. The children are dressed in winter attire; Naela cradles her doll, and Subhi wears traditional headgear, which he occasionally wore while off duty, particularly during the winter season. Place unknown, circa 1949. Source: Naela Subhi Daoud Dajani family photo collection.
Subhi reading a book in braille, either at home or at the ‘Ala-iya School for the Blind. Al Bireh, mid 1960s. Source: American University of Beirut Archives and Special Collections.
Subhi and Lisa surrounded by their children and grandchildren. From left to right: Zuheir Amad (Naela’s husband), Janan Zuheir Amad, Naela Subhi Daoud Dajani, Joumana Jarir Subhi Dajani, Subhi, Rihab Abdel Mohsen Daoud Dajani (Jarir’s wife), Lisa, Ureib Zuheir Amad and Jarir Subhi Daoud Dajani. Ramallah, 1968. Source: Naela Subhi Daoud Dajani family photo collection.
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