MAR ELIAS EDUCATIONAL INSITUTIONS

Father Elias Chacour came to Ibillin as a young priest in the mid 1960s. Quickly he realized the lack of educational opportunities for Palestinian youth beyond the eight grade. A vision of a school for all children of Israel began to take shape in his mind. Today this vision has become a reality in the village of Ibillin, Galilee.

In the early 1980s, on a empty hillside now known as the Mount of Light, a classroom building was begun. The newly formed high school moved from temporary quarters in the community center to the new building as soon as it was ready. As enrollment grew, adequate educational facilities became very strained.

To help alleviate the crowded situation, work on a gymnasium was begun in 1986. The refusal of government officials to grant a building permit brought construction to a halt. Work was finally resumed in late 1992 due to the personal intervention of James Baker, Jr., then Secretary of State, U. S. government. The gym houses classrooms as well as facilities usual for such structures.

The Mar Elias Educational Institutions (MEEI), a consortium of six schools, was founded by Father Elias Chacour in Ibillin, in the Galilee region of Israel. The Mariam Bawardi Kindergarten was the first school founded in 1970 and now enrolls 241 students.

In 1982 the high school was established with 80 students and 1,160 are enrolled in 2007.

That was followed in 1994 by the forming of the technical college (150 students in 2007).

In 1996 a regional teacher training center was formed to train teachers of Arab children throughout Galilee (240 teachers are enrolled).

In addition, an elementary school was begun with two first grade classes. A grade level was added each year so that in 2007 there are 686 students in grades one through eight.

In 1998 the school for gifted children was formed. It meets one day each week and has 92 students enrolled in 2007.

The last of the schools to be established in 2003 is the Mar Elias University (202 students in 2007), in partnership with the University of Indianapolis.

MEEI is a Christian institution that embraces students and faculty from Christian, Muslim, Druze, and Jewish traditions who study and teach together as one community of learning and service. The amazing growth of MEEI from a few students to more than 3,000 in just a few years reminds us of Jesus’ miracle of transforming a few loaves of bread and fish into enough for 5,000 to be fed.

The diverse background of students at Mar Elias indicates a partial realization of Father Chacour’s dream to develop the much needed inter-religious relations, and to create an ethos of freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. Father Chacour believes it is better to know your neighbor than to fight with him because to fight is to ignore his reality or form a wrong image about him.

This school hopes to strengthen the spirit of unity with diversity, of common sojourners. It is vital for democratic societies to overcome the attitude and the status of minority versus majority. People must begin to deal with each other as partner citizens.

Mar Elias Educational Institutions welcome visits of solidarity from friends around the world. They need your presence, your prayers and, yes, your financial support. International volunteers are a much appreciated source of help, of witness, and of encouragement. The usual length of stay tends to be one week with a few volunteers remaining for one to three months.

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To contact Father Elias Chacour or the Mar Elias Educational Institutions (MEEI)
Rev. Dr. Abuna Elias Chacour
Mar Elias Educational Institutions
P.O. Box 102
Ibillin 30012
Galilee - Israel

Phone 972-4-8432105
Fax 972-4-8432106
Email office@m-e-c.org
Office hours Monday - Friday 8:00 - 16:00, Saturday 8:00 - 12:00

Please make donations to the Mar Elias Educational Institutions.