While Pilgrims of Ibillin supports multiple organizations, activities, and initiatives to help bring peace and reconciliation to the Holy Land, one of our signature efforts has been continuing support of the Mar Elias Educational Institutions in Ibillin, Israel.
Mar Elias has become a shining beacon of hope for all people of the Holy Land – and around the world. MEEI was the inspiration of Abuna Elias Chacour, who also served as the Archbishop of the Melkite Catholic Church of Akko, Haifa, Nazareth, and all Galilee from 2006 until his retirement in 2014.
In 1965, when Abuna Chacour became the parish priest of St. George Melkite Catholic Church in Ibillin, he realized that the future of the villagers in Ibillin, the citizens of the state of Israel, and indeed all of God’s children in the Holy Land, would depend on educating the young in the ways of peace, reconciliation, respect, and justice.
Father Chacour thus began his life work to build schools to educate children of all ethnic and religious backgrounds, based upon these principles. That vision is now alive in the schools of Ibillin for more than 3,000 students and faculty of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Druze heritage, 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.
Scholarship assistance is always needed for students whose families are unemployed or underemployed in these difficult economic times. $650 provides a year’s tuition for one elementary or junior high student, and $400 provides a year tuition for a high school student.
In 2020 Pilgrims of Ibillin granted the Mar Elias Educational Institutions a total of $456,033. $60,000 of this was for grants and the rest was from the Jean Hopson bequest and went towards renovations in the high school and junior high. Make a difference and give the gift of education! Donate Today!
The Kindergarten at Mar Elias Educational Institutions was founded in 1970 by Abuna Chacour with the invaluable help of nuns from Nazareth. Today two hundred children, ages 3 and 4, play and learn in a three story building on a site in Ibillin village near the church. In addition, one hundred 5-year-olds attend kindergarten in the old high school building on the Mar Elias Campus. The children get an excellent start on their educational journey in the Mariam Bawardi Kindergarten.
Every June about one hundred children “graduate” from kindergarten to first grade. The smiles of proud children are matched by the smiles of their parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles. At a recent graduation a staff person said, “Today we are planting seeds. The children need to know that when they strive for excellence they can achieve important things in their lives.”
The elementary school was founded in 1997 with two first grade classes. A grade a year was added with 2 or 3 classrooms for each grade. In 2013-14 there are 1100 students enrolled in the elementary school (grades 1-8) with nearly 40 students per class.
When the elementary school began, its classrooms were located temporarily in other buildings on the MEEI campus. In September 2004 the new elementary school building opened, but the school has quickly outgrown even this space.
Classes for 7th and 8th graders are now held in the old high school building on the Mar Elias campus. Even with expanded enrollment and space, more students continue to apply to this highly-regarded school. The Principal of Mariam Bawardi Elementary School, Ms. Johaina Mattar, says that the hardest part of her job is saying no to still more families whose children are on the waiting list.
Students in the elementary school come from many villages in a 30-mile radius of Ibillin. They come to school by bus or their parents drive them in their cars. The students and teachers include Christians, Muslims, Druze, and Jews. Special exchange programs throughout the year bring Mar Elias students together with Jewish students from nearby schools, to help achieve the goal of building friendships and understanding across all religious lines.
Mariam Bawardi students work and play together in a safe environment where they learn to appreciate and respect each other and their different religious traditions. The students are learning to live together in peace and to become peacemakers. They are trying to put into practice what Jesus taught in the beatitudes at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
In 2006 the first class of eighth graders graduated from Mar Elias Elementary School in a great celebration involving the entire community. The school is truly a beacon of hope on the Mountain of Light.
The Middle School As Mariam Bawardi Elementary Students move from 6th to 7th grade, they also move across the campus from the elementary school building to the old high school where they especially enjoy access to upgraded computer and science labs.
Three additional classes of 7th graders are added each year, with students from other elementary schools throughout the Galilee transferring in to benefit from the Middle School’s high-level preparation for high school.
More than four hundred fifty 7th and 8th graders do increasingly advanced work in math, science, history, arts, and three languages: formal Arabic, Hebrew, and English. Virtually all of them enter Mar Elias High School after their 8th grade graduation.
Mar Elias High School In September 1982, the first 80 students assembled with four teachers to begin a wonderful story of excellence in education for the youth of Galilee. The high school has grown to almost 1,200 students from forty-five villages scattered throughout the Galilee and even from Jerusalem and the Negev. They travel great distances to attend Mar Elias because of the high quality of education the students receive.
The students gather outside the high school at 8:15 several mornings each week. One of the High School Faculty Members speaks to the gathered students for fifteen minutes about their common values and aspirations as well as about their distinctive traditions. As a result of these regular presentations the students are inspired to believe and live by very basic truths. “God does not kill. All are born as babies created in the image and likeness of God. Christians, Muslims, and Jews are blood brothers, children of Abraham. Peace with justice is the dream and the right of all human beings.” Such truths provide the students with guiding principles that will last a lifetime.
Support Scholarships! $340/year (or $34/month) will support a student enrolled at Mar Elias High School. Even though tuition is kept very low compared to other private Israeli schools, more than 65% of MEHS students receive scholarships based on financial need.
Gifted Enrichment: In 1998 the School for Gifted Children in grades 4 through 8 was formed. It meets every Friday and has 90 students enrolled who are the brightest and best pupils from schools all over the Galilee region.
Teacher Training: In 1996 a regional teacher training center was formed to train teachers of Arab children, improving their teaching of mathematics in schools throughout Galilee (240 teachers are enrolled).
Student Exchange/Peace-training: Youth exchange programs between students of Mar Elias and students from different countries is one of the intensive informal activities which was initiated by the administration of Mar Elias Comprehensive school soon after the school was founded in 1982.
The efforts gained fruits and Mar Elias developed youth exchange with different schools and organizations in the U.S.A, Canada, and Europe, particularly Germany and Italy. The most longest-running continuous exchange began in 1997 with a youth organization in Bavaria, south Germany called KreisJugandRing – MunchenLand. An exchange between Mar Elias and this program has taken place every year since then.
