Swiss association for the faster schools in the Middle East

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The Swiss Association for the Fast Schools in the Middle East (SVS) is a registered association. The association is based in Zurich .

The SVS supports and accompanies the work of the Johann Ludwig Schneller School in Lebanon (Khirbet Kanafar) and the Theodor Schneller School in Jordan ( Amman ).

history

In 1860 Christian Friedrich Spittler from Switzerland commissioned Johann Ludwig Schneller , who came from Württemberg, to found an orphanage in Jerusalem. Christian children who had lost their parents in the religious unrest in Lebanon and Syria should be accepted. Schneller traveled to the then province of Syria and came to Jerusalem in November 1860 with nine children. This was the beginning of the Syrian Orphanage .

With the help of donations from Germany, the United States and Switzerland, the orphanage could be expanded further. In Switzerland, the Swiss Aid Committee for the Syrian Orphanage collected donations and through contact with Christian Friedrich Spittler , some graduates of the St. Chrischona pilgrimage mission were sent to Jerusalem as teachers.

At the end of the 19th century, the Syrian orphanage was already housing over 200 children. After Johann Ludwig Schneller's death in 1896, his son Theodor and later his grandson Hermann continued the orphanage. As the scope of action of the German organizations in Jerusalem before and during the Second World War was severely limited, the Swiss Aid Committee took on important tasks, such as the transfer of money to keep the company going. However, the German institution in Jerusalem was closed in 1940 and was not allowed to continue after the re-establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.

Theodor Schneller's sons decided to continue the work in the neighboring Arab states. In 1951 Hermann went to Amman with seven children and then to the Lebanese Bekaa plain . Not far from Zahlé , in Khirbêt Qanafâr (Khirbet Kanafar), the Johann Ludwig Schneller School (JLSS) was opened on March 24, 1952 . When the school was re-established, representatives of the Swiss Aid Committee were on site. Today it is worn by the National Evangelical Church of Beirut (NECB).

Ernst Schneller was one of the initiators of the Theodor Schneller School (TSS), which was founded in Amman, Jordan on November 11, 1966. Today the TSS is sponsored by the Bishop of the Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East .

In 2008 the Swiss Aid Committee became the Swiss Association for Fast Schools in the Middle East. The association currently has around 80 members .

Areas of activity

The SVS supports and promotes the work of the Schneller schools in the Middle East. For this purpose, fixed annual amounts are passed on to the schools and individual projects are also financially supported. The members of the board regularly visit the local schools. The association is not affiliated with any church and does not operate a mission. From history, however, there is a closeness to the Evangelical Reformed parishes in Switzerland.

The non-profit association promotes the pedagogical and educational work of the Schneller schools and provides information about the activities of the two schools, arouses interest in them and collects support money. More than 1000 interested individuals, parishes and parishes are informed about current developments four times a year by the association's board.

The association coordinates its support with the Evangelical Association for the Schneller Schools eV in Germany and the Friends' Groups in the United States of America.

literature

  • More quickly. Magazine about Christian life in the Middle East. Edited by the Evangelical Association for the Schneller Schools eV in the Evangelical Mission in Southwest Germany eV, Stuttgart, ISSN  0947-5435
  • Evangelisches Missionswerk in Südwestdeutschland eV (Hrsg.): The Schneller schools. Beginnings in Jerusalem, three generations - three tasks, Levantine panorama. Evangelical Mission in Southwest Germany, Stuttgart 1993.
  • Jakob Eisler: The Syrian Orphanage and the Schnellers "Dynasty" . In: German Association for the Study of Palestine (ed.): Treatises of the German Palestine Association. Volume 36. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-447-05826-1 .
  • K 8 - Syrian orphanage (files) 1825, 1853–1996, State Church Archive Stuttgart

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Swiss Association for the Fast Schools SVS. Retrieved January 4, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b Jakob Eisler: Syrian Orphanage Jerusalem. In: Württemberg Church History Online. Retrieved May 24, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b Löffler, Roland .: Protestants in Palestine: Religious Policy, Social Protestantism and Mission in the German Evangelical and Anglican Institutions of the Holy Land 1917-1939 . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-17-019693-3 , pp. 252 .
  4. ↑ a b Rev. Ursus Waldmeier: Guidelines for the association's work. February 14, 2009, accessed January 4, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Jakob Eisler: The Syrian Orphanage and the "Dynasty" of the Schnellers . In: German Association for the Study of Palestine (ed.): Treatises of the German Palestine Association . tape 36 . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-447-05826-1 , pp. 58-70 .
  6. ↑ Jakob Eisler: Germans in Palestine and their share in the modernization of the country . In: German Association for the Exploration of Palestine. (Ed.): Treatises of the German Palestine Association . tape 36 . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-447-05826-1 , pp. 68 ff .
  7. ↑ Swiss Association for the Fast Schools SVS. Retrieved January 4, 2020 .
  8. ^ Statutes of the Evangelical Association for the Schneller Schools (EVS) eV (PDF) November 13, 2016, accessed on May 24, 2019 .
  9. ↑ K 8 - Syrian orphanage (files) (1825, 1853-1996). Retrieved January 4, 2020 .