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Do you hear what I hear? Christians in Holy Land revive the language
of Jesus
Students in town of Galilee learn Aramaic at school thanks to this
man's dedication to preserving it
By Derek Stoffel,
CBC News Posted: Dec 24, 2017 9:00 AM ET Last Updated: Dec 24, 2017
In the hills of the Galilee, the lush region in the Holy Land where
it's said that Jesus Christ grew up, residents of the town of Jish
are preparing to celebrate Christmas Mass in the language Jesus
spoke.
A handful of people from Jish are at the centre of an effort to
revive the Aramaic language — centuries after it all but disappeared
from the Middle East.
"It moves me very much when I hear Aramaic," said kindergarten
teacher Neveen Elias. "When I pray in Aramaic, I am feel I am so
near Jesus."
St. Maroun Church in Jish holds services in both Aramaic and Arabic.
(Derek Stoffel/CBC)
Maronite Christians in Jish celebrate part of their liturgies in
Aramaic during services at St. Maroun Church, which takes its name
from the fifth-century monk who founded the Maronite movement, which
is still active in the Middle East, mainly in Lebanon and Syria.
Jish, which sits just a few kilometres south of Israel's border with
Lebanon, is a mixed town where 60 per cent of residents are
Christian. The rest are Muslim.
'We still pray in it'
In the hills of the Galilee, the lush region in the Holy Land where
it's said that Jesus Christ grew up, residents of the town of Jish
are preparing to celebrate Christmas Mass in the language Jesus
spoke.
A handful of people from Jish are at the centre of an effort to
revive the Aramaic language — centuries after it all but disappeared
from the Middle East.
"It moves me very much when I hear Aramaic," said kindergarten
teacher Neveen Elias. "When I pray in Aramaic, I am feel I am so
near Jesus."
St. Maroun Church in Jish holds services in both Aramaic and Arabic.
(Derek Stoffel/CBC)
Maronite Christians in Jish celebrate part of their liturgies in
Aramaic during services at St. Maroun Church, which takes its name
from the fifth-century monk who founded the Maronite movement, which
is still active in the Middle East, mainly in Lebanon and Syria.
Jish, which sits just a few kilometres south of Israel's border with
Lebanon, is a mixed town where 60 per cent of residents are
Christian. The rest are Muslim.
'We still pray in it'
Shadi Khalloul is the man behind the revival of Aramaic. While he
remembers hearing the language in childhood, Khalloul said he didn't
really take notice of it until he was studying Bible literature at
the University of Las Vegas.
"My instructor was a Catholic instructor, and he said to us as
students, 'Don't think that Jesus spoke Spanish or English or French
or Latin … he spoke Aramaic, a language that disappeared," Khalloul
said.
"So I felt offended. I immediately raised my hand and said, 'Excuse
me, instructor, but the language still exists. We still speak it, we
still pray in it.'"
Shadi Khalloul has spent more than a decade in Jish, in northern
Israel, fighting to revive the Aramaic language. (Derek Stoffel/CBC)
Khalloul said he did not blame his instructor for thinking Aramaic
was dead, adding that it's "the fault of the people who still carry
this language" for not letting the world know Aramaic is still alive
and well.
That set Khalloul on his mission — now a decade old — to raise the
profile of Aramaic.
The school in Jish is the only place in Israel where students are
taught in Aramaic. Khalloul established the language training in the
school, where about 120 children receive several hours of language
instruction every week.
"We are also doing a Sunday school. We have Aramaic summer camps,
and we also help do recitals or concerts in Syriac Aramaic," said
Khalloul, a former Israeli army captain who founded the Israeli
Christian Aramaic Association.
About 120 students in Jish are enrolled in Aramaic language classes.
(Courtesy Shadi Khalloul)
The Maronites hail from Mount Lebanon. After world powers carved up
the Middle East in the aftermath of the First World War, Maronites
were meant to be given a homeland in modern-day Lebanon. But civil
war and sectarianism have spread adherents around the world, with
large communities of Maronites now calling Brazil, Argentina and
even Canada home.
About 11,000 Maronites live in Israel.
While Khalloul estimates that only two families in Jish — his and
his brother's — speak Aramaic as a first language, what he really
wants is to establish a town in Israel populated solely by Aramaic
speakers.
That would help, he said, deal with a dark chapter in the
community's past.
Jish is a mixed town in northern Israel with a population of about
3,000. Sixty per cent of residents are Christian, while the rest are
Muslim. (Derek Stoffel/CBC)
Many Maronites living in the Holy Land called the village of Biram
home. But they were displaced by the Israeli army during the
country's war of independence in 1948. The military ordered
residents to leave Biram, telling them they could return in two
weeks.
Unable to return home
That never happened. Many resettled in the nearby Arab town of Jish.
But Khalloul said he's optimistic the Israeli government will give
the go ahead for a new village, where they can "preserve their
language and their identity."
The more immediate focus in Jish is getting ready for Christmas.
The church is decorated with a glowing tree that towers over the
town, where streets are lit up in festive colours at night. On the
main road there's a thriving Christmas store — a rare sight in
Israel and the Palestinian territories, outside of Bethlehem.
Neveen Elias reads from an Aramaic text to her children Sharbel, 8,
and Teressa, 6. (Derek Stoffel/CBC)
Neveen Elias has been practising her Aramaic, as she'll be singing
in the church choir during the Christmas mass. At home, she leads
her three children in traditional Aramaic songs.
"It's the language of Jesus, and it makes the prayers so special,"
she said.
'Language is also culture'
Shadi Khalloul and his children, wife and parents will also attend
midnight mass at St. Maroun Church this year.
He'll be looking up at the dome, where the Lord's Prayer is
inscribed in Aramaic — a reminder of the accomplishments of the
people from his town.
"Language is not only a way of communicating with others," he said.
"Language is also culture, it's identity. If I don't preserve my
language and don't respect it, how you would be able to respect me?"
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/aramaic-language-revival-israel-stoffel-1.4460080
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