By Hillel E. Silverman

      When the Old and New Cities of Jerusalem were reunited in
1967, a recently widowed Arab woman, who had been living in Old  Jerusalem since 1948, wanted to see once more the house in which  she formerly lived. Now that the city was one, she searched for and found her old home. She knocked on the door of the  apartment, and a Jewish widow came to the door and greeted her.
     The Arab woman explained that she had lived there until 1948 and  wanted to look around. She was invited in and offered coffee.  The Arab woman said, "When I lived here, I hid some valuables. If they are still here, I will share them with you half and half."
     The Jewish woman refused. "If they belonged to you and are  still here, they are yours." After much discussion back and  forth, they entered the bathroom, loosened the floor planks, and
found a hoard of gold coins. The Jewish woman said, "I shall ask  the government to let you keep them." She did and permission was  granted.
      The two widows visited each other again and again, and one  day the Arab woman told her, "You know, in the 1948 fighting  here, my husband and I were so frightened that we ran away to  escape. We grabbed our belongings, took the children, and each  fled separately. We had a three-month-old son. I thought my  husband had taken him, and he thought I had. Imagine our grief  when we were reunited in Old Jerusalem to find that neither of  us had taken the child."
      The Jewish woman turned pale, and asked the exact date. The  Arab woman named the date and the hour, and the Jewish widow  told her: "My husband was one of the Israeli troops that entered  Jerusalem. He came into this house and found a baby on the  floor. He asked if he could keep the house and the baby, too.  Permission was granted."
      At that moment, a twenty-year-old Israeli soldier in
uniform walked into the room, and the Jewish woman broke down in  tears. "This is your son," she cried.
      This is one of those incredible tales we hear. And the
aftermath? The two women liked each other so much that the
Jewish widow asked the Arab mother: "Look, we are both widows  living alone. Our children are grown up. This house has brought  you luck. You have found your son, or our son. Why don't we live  together?" And they do.