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How Aramean Christians Are Integrating into Israel

(Wall Street Journal) Rebecca Sugar and Michael Freund - Israel is home to 185,000 Christians, including 15,000 Arameans, whose ancestors lived in the Levant before the Arab conquest and were early followers of Jesus. In 2014 Israel recognized the Aramean Christian community, an important step toward their fuller integration into Israeli society. Shadi Khaloul, 48, founded the Kinneret pre-army program at Kibbutz Beit Zera in 2017, where half the students are Aramean Christians. His uncle served in the Israel Defense Forces, and his father was an Israeli policeman. Khaloul joined the IDF and became a paratrooper at 18. "I was taught that the Jews are our brothers and our allies. This state is our state. We need to defend it too." Moreover, "joining the IDF opened many doors for me," he said. "Jews and Aramean Christians are the indigenous people of the region. We developed from Jews. If we deny Jewish existence here, we deny our own." "Only in Israel are Christians safe. They want to keep the country strong. They saw what Hamas did, and they say that this threat will follow them too." The Kinneret program teaches Hebrew to Christians, prepares them for IDF entrance exams, and connects them with Jewish peers.
2024-03-15 00:00:00
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