Cranberry family venture brings pieces of Bethlehem to U.S.

Every day feels like Christmas in the Cranberry home of Fadeel and Afaf Salsa.

Each week, new boxes of Nativity sets and other figures made of olive wood from Bethlehem arrive in the couple's garage.

“The Salsa family in Bethlehem, we are very famous in the art of olive wood, and also, the mother of pearl,” said Fadeel Salsa, 73, of Cranberry, a U.S. citizen and Palestinian Roman Catholic who grew up in Bethlehem.

To help other Christians who still live in Bethlehem, the Salsas spend many weekends visiting Roman Catholic parishes in Western Pennsylvania — and other states — in a van packed with handcrafted rosaries, crosses, Nativity sets and religious figures, all made of olive wood from Bethlehem.

They sell the goods through Bethlehem Christian Families, the Salsas' venture to help the estimated 250 Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian families who still live in Jesus Christ's birthplace.

Roni Salsa, 42, one of Fadeel and Afaf Salsa's five children, and his wife, Anan, helped start Bethlehem Christian Families when they moved to Cranberry in 2003. They first sold olive wood items at St. Angela Merici Parish in White Oak.

The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh allows local pastors to decide whether to permit the Salsas to sell their goods after weekend Masses.

“It's the policy of the diocese not to endorse any one, particular group for solicitation in our parishes, because there are multiple groups worthy of our support,” said the Rev. Ronald Lengwin, diocesan spokesman.

Proceeds from sales of the Salsas' goods benefit Bethlehem Christian Families and Land of Peace, a nonprofit group committed to aiding the Christian community in the West Bank region of Palestine.

“Our mission is the same — to have Christians in the Holy Land,” said Noel Chris Arthur Alshomali, 41, director of Land of Peace, founded five years ago and based in Warren, Mich. “In the last three years, we sent over $30,000 to help the poor.”

Bethlehem Christian Families is among multiple groups and vendors affiliated with Land of Peace that aid Christians in the Holy Land through the Patriarchatus Latinus of Jerusalem, Alshomali said. Roni Salsa designs a lot of the olive wood items sold through Bethlehem Christian Families.

“We benefit from the sales, but we also help a lot of people,” said Roni Salsa, executive director of Bethlehem Christian Families and a board member of Land of Peace. “We support our families in Bethlehem. Recently, we've been helping Syrian and Iraq Christians.”

Roni Salsa also serves on the board of directors of the Holy Land Handicrafts Society in Bethlehem.

Bethlehem Christian Families sells about 500 items priced from $5 to $1,000. Wood carvers in Bethlehem handcraft the items, and the Salsas' receive weekly shipments from the Holy Land.

“They're authentic and beautiful and inspirational,” the Rev. Regis Farmer, 69, of Bloomfield, said about the olive wood items.

“They're inspirational when you think about where they come from and why,” said Farmer, pastor of St. Maria Goretti Parish in Bloomfield and former pastor of St. Catherine of Sweden Roman Catholic Church in Hampton.

Sales of olive wood goods to Holy Land tourists once helped sustain local families, but fewer tourists now visit the Salsas' war-torn homeland, Fadeel Salsa said.

Deborah Deasy is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 724-772-6369 or ddeasy@tribweb.com.