Calling himself a "peace artist," El Kaim recalls an incident in 1967 when he lived in Jerusalem at the Petra Hotel, near the Jaffa Gate: "Around 4 in the morning I heard the so-called enemy, an Arab man, crying in the hallway.   An Arab child about 12 years old was slapping him;"   says El Kaim, adding, "I went to his defense."   The boy told El Kaim, "I'm the son of the [Jordanian] owner.   He's a Palestinian.   He's a dog,"

Since that time, "I've been pro-peace" says El Kaim.   "I tried to tell everyone the Palestinians were not Jordanians, were not Syrians.   They're refugees like I am after leaving Morocco.   Remembering Israel's "euphoria after winning the [Six-Day] war" El Kaim says "it was a miracle.   And because Israel prevailed," he adds, "we should be susceptible to the plight of others."   Another major influence in El Kaim's outlook on life occurred in Israel in 1967;   he lost most of his fingers in an accident that left him unconscious for many days.   Prior to his accident, in 1966, El Kaim was a member of the Israeli national wrestling team.  

He later was a songwriter and singer in a rock band "The Volcanoes," and also owned the Soramelo nightclub in Jerusalem.   Wealthy Palestinians and other Arabs, he says, "would come to my bar.   In 1973, Israeli police didn't like that I lived in the old city and had a bar in the new city.   They started harassing me;' says El Kaim.

  At the time, his wife, Mya, an American he met while she attended the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, was in New York visiting her parents with the couple's baby.   "Stay there.   I'm coming to New York," El Kaim told her, which, he says, "she didn't forgive me for till now."   The couple lived in New York until their children went to the university of Arizona, and they felt they had enogh of east coast weather.

Within a month of their move to Tucson, El Kaim became friends with a real estate broker who was intriqued by El Kaim's artwork; the broker asked him to help remodel houses.   At first the work was suitable, says El Kaim, but "people wanted more and more to say" in his designs.   "I felt more like a contractor," he says.   Coming from a family of artists   --his father is an artist and his brother is a well-known artist in Israel--   El Kaim says that artists like to have 'carte blanche' to explore their creativity.

El Kaim's work ranges from hand-crafted Judaic artwork in silver, stone, wrought iron and clay, to contemporary murals of Jewish and universal themes, as well as hamsas, symbolic depictions of the hand of God; which he uses in amulets, charms and jewelry that "protect against the `evil eye.'"

His practice of Judaism, says El Kaim, is "traditional. We celebrate all the [Jewish] holidays, every Shabbat, at home. It's my heritage." In society today, he says "people have become so infatuated with religion, they're not listening to the message of religion." People should be encouraged to interact, says El Kaim. In religion, "the only enemy is radicalism. When religion doesn't, allow the intermingling of people," he says, "it restricts our growth. That's my philosophy."

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