To see the full article,
click here,
accessible to Premium Zone subscribers. A journalist congratulates Shadi Khalloul in Arabic on the birth of his second
son, Yaakov, with the salutation, “Mabruk!”
“In Aramaic,” Khalloul says with a
smile. “You say ‘
Brihu.’” A Maronite Christian from the Galilee village of Jish,
37-year-old Khalloul became hooked on reviving the traditional Maronite language
of Aramaic after taking a three-month course for adults offered by Father
Bishara Suleiman, the Saint Maroun parish priest. Today the elderly clergyman
regularly teaches Aramaic as part of religious classes for the children of the
parish, an option that was not on offer when Khalloul was growing
up.
With 65 percent of its residents belonging to the Maronite Church,
Jish is the only village in Israel with a majority Maronite population. Muslims
constitute about 35 percent of the residents, with a smattering of Melkite
Christians making up the tiny remainder.
When Father Suleiman’s course
ended, a small group of students continued learning the language on their own.
Soon they connected with Aramaic-speaking communities in Sweden and Holland,
seeking guidance and learning materials.
“This is our Maronite Aramaic
heritage,” Khalloul tells
The Jerusalem Report. “A nation without a language and
without his forefathers’ language has no future.”
Like Eliezer Ben
Yehudah – considered the father of modern Hebrew for his efforts in the late
1800s to transform the ancient language of Jewish prayers into a modern spoken
language – Khalloul only talks to his 2-year-old son, Aram, in Aramaic (Ben
Yehudah communicated with his son solely in Hebrew). Khalloul is also quick to
point out that others, such as the Welsh and the Catalans, have also had varying
degrees of success in reviving their traditional languages.
To see the full article, click here, accessible to Premium Zone subscribers.