Elias Zahlawi

Elias Zahlawi , also Zahlaoui , ( Arabic إلياس زحلاوي, DMG Ilyās Zaḥlāwī ; * 1932 in Damascus ) is a Syrian priest of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church who preaches in the Church of Our Lady of Damascus . As the leader of the “ Choir of Joy ” for many years , he is one of the most famous church musicians in Syria .

Life

Elias Zahlawi was born in Damascus in 1932. He attended the Melkite Greek Catholic seminary of Saint Anne in Jerusalem , where he studied philosophy and theology when the old city was still under Jordanian administration. He was ordained a priest in July 1959. In 1962 Zahlawi moved back to Damascus, where from 1968 he was responsible for church youth work at the university. When the Melkite Church of Our Lady of Damascus in this very city was completed in 1975, Zahlawi became one of its three priests and was also responsible for youth work and church music . In 1977 he and 50 children founded the " Chorus of Joy ", which made its first appearance at a church service on December 24, 1977. The choir became one of the most famous and popular in Syria and grew to 500 members between the ages of 7 and 70 from different Christian churches of different denominations in Damascus by 2010.

From 1975 to 1980 Elias Zahlawi taught Latin and translations at the University of Damascus and from 1978 to 1979 theater history at the College of Theater Arts. In 1973 he became a member of the Arab Writers' Association .

Social and political activities

The church choir, led by Zahlawi for a long time and still identified with him today, has made the priest and church musician one of the most well-known figures in public life in Syria, who is given a lot of attention in the state media. The concerts during the Advent season are among the highlights. The tickets for the lavishly staged concerts in the Damascus Opera House in December 2009, which ran for several days and presented a mixture of Christian Advent and Christmas carols as well as winter songs, sold out quickly. It was similar at the following appearance in Aleppo .

Zahlawi, who studied for several years in the then Jordanian city of Jerusalem, represents positions of secular Arab nationalism , as represented by the ruling Ba'ath Party , and repeatedly speaks out in articles and speeches for the cause of the Palestinians . When the People's Committee to Support the Intifada was founded in May 2011, he was selected as a member. Politically, he supports the government of President Bashar al-Assad's Syrian Ba'ath Party . According to the Danish sociologist Andreas Bandak, his speeches against Western interference and for the government hit the nerve of Christians in Syria , who were increasingly interfering with Western powers after the US army invaded Iraq in 2003 and the massacres of Christians there and thus feared a repetition of the crimes against Christians in Syria that took place in Iraq. He underscores the necessary unity of the Syrian Arab nation by stating that the Christmas message of peace applies to all people, i.e. both Christians and Muslims. In an interview with Bild am Sonntag in August 2012, Elias Zahlawi expressed this as follows: “Where the radical Muslims come to power, Christians are driven out. What is currently happening in Iraq will also happen in Syria when they come to power here, later also in Lebanon. ”At the same time, he emphasized the harmony in which the Christians in Syria lived with their compatriots of other religions, and also described Muslims as his "brothers". The Syria conflict is being carried into the country from outside.

In July 2011, four months after the protests began in Syria, Elias Zahlawi took part in a government-convened “national dialogue” in Damascus, from which most of the well-known opposition members stayed away after the death toll among demonstrators. The aim of the talks was to make Syria a “pluralistic, democratic state”. Even after 2011, Elias Zahlawi organized performances of his “Choir of Joy” in Syria and various countries in Europe, where he repeatedly campaigned openly for a secular Syria in the spirit of the Baath Party government.

In June 2017, Zahlawi received a government award for "Reviews, Studies and Translations," while the Arts Prize went to singer Mayyada al-Hennawi and the Literature Prize went to writer Hassan M. Yousef .

Riad Moawad is now the director of the “Choir of Joy”. However, Elias Zahlawi has recently performed alongside his choir, for example at a concert in the Church of Mary Queen of Peace in Homs on December 20, 2019.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Chapter 5. Interview with Fr. Elias Zahlaoui, An Apostle of Soufanieh. In: Robert Joseph Fox: Light from the East Miracles of Our Lady of Soufanieh. Fatima Family Apostolate, 2002. Waite Park, Minnesota, 15–15.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} الكاهن المؤسس لجوقة الفرح , 2010, accessed on June 1, 2020.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Andreas Bandak: (7.) Performing the Nation. Syrian Christians on the National Stage. In: Leif Stenberg, Christa Salamandra: Syria from Reform to Revolt: Volume 2: Culture, Society, and Religion. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse (New York) 2015. pp. 110-129.
4. ↑ Alexander Rackow: Interview with Father Elias Zahlawi (82) from Damascus. Picture taken on Sunday 5th August 2012.
5. ↑ Tough start for national dialogue in Syria. Focus, July 10, 2011.
6. ^ Georges Fahmi: The Future of Syrian Christians after the Arab Spring. European University Institute (Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies), Badia Fiesolana, San Domenico di Fiesole (FI, Italy) 2018. p. 9 (in PDF: p. 11).
7. ↑ 2017 Appreciation State Awards go to Zahlawi, al-Hennawi, and Yousef. Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), June 12, 2017.
8. ↑ أمسية تراتيل ميلادية لفرقة جوقة الفرح في كنيسة سيدة السلام بحمص. Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), December 20, 2019.