Elias Chacour
| Elias Chacour | |
|---|---|
| Archbishop of Akko, Haifa, Nazareth and All Galilee | |
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|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
29 November 1939 Kafr Bir'im |
| Denomination | Melkite Greek Catholic Church |
Elias Chacour (Arabic: الياس شقور, Hebrew: אליאס שקור, born in Kafr Bir'im on November 29, 1939) was the Archbishop of Akko, Haifa, Nazareth and All Galilee of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church from 2006 to 2014. Noted for his efforts to promote reconciliation between Arabs and Jews, he is the author of two books about the experience of Palestinian people living in present-day Israel. He describes himself as a "Palestinian-Arab-Christian-Israeli."
Elias Michael Chacour was born in the village of Kafr Bir'im in the Upper Galilee, Mandatory Palestine to a Palestinian Christian family of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. His family took refuge in the neighboring village of Gish after Bir'im was occupied by Yishuv forces. Chacour and his family became Israeli citizens in 1948, after the establishment of the state. He attended a boarding school in Haifa and then a high school in Nazareth. He studied theology at St. Sulpice Seminary in Paris. Returning to Israel in 1965, he was ordained a priest by Archbishop George Selim Hakim of Akko, Haifa, Nazareth and all Galilee, who became Patriarch Maximos V two years later. He later studied Bible and Talmud at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as well as Aramaic and Syriac, becoming the first Arab to gain a higher degree there.
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