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Published by The Hellenic
Voice, July 30, 2003
Greek American
Strives to Ensure Orthodox Christianity Remains in
the Holy Land
By Stacie W. Galang
Senior Staff Writer
Her family’s trek to the war torn
Palestinian territory is one she never imagined
doing. Maria C. Khoury, a Greek American and
Hellenic College graduate has lived in Taybeh, a
Palestinian village with her husband David and
their three children for eight years.
“I never thought I’d go there,” she
said. “No, I fought my husband 100 percent.”
The couple traded I their
comfortable middle-class New England lifestyle of
hockey and soccer lessons for danger and countless
unknowns. Her love for her husband, a Palestinian
Orthodox Christian whom she met at Hellenic
College, and the conviction that her children’s
future lies in the Holy Land because of their
Palestinian heritage keeps her there. Her husband
wanted to return to Palestine after the Oslo
agreements to be with his family and help rebuild
his homeland.
“I felt because I loved him so much
I had to help him make his dream come true,” she
said. “I wanted to be on his side.”
Khoury also said was devastated
about leaving a “cosmopolitan city and middle –class
activities and just being in the middle of the
desert.”
David went into business with his
brother Nadim. Together they developed the first
microbrewery in the region and produced Taybeh
Beer. When the second intifada began in September
2000, the tourism industry collapsed, leaving
businesses reliant on pilgrims and tourist
devastated. Despite an 80 percent drop in sales,
Taybeh Beer has weathered that collapse, in part,
by franchising their product in Germany.
Their decision was not without its
benefits. David’s extended family welcomed their
American counterparts with open arms.
In spite of the danger of incursion
by Israeli troops and the effects of the conflict
in their midst, their village has been spared the
most lethal ravages such as direct bombings. But
when curfew is imposed throughout the Palestinian
territory, Khoury and her family too must bear the
effects. Their movement in the region also
increases the hazards of war.
“I feel that sometimes, not
sometimes, all the time, it is a very dangerous
place to live but how that has helped us as a
family is to realize that we live every day by
God’s grace and we’re going to be here on Earth as
much as God gives us life,” she said. “And so it
has strengthened our faith to really, totally give
our lives to God whereas we’re not trying to
protect ourselves. We’re asking for God’s
blessing constantly.
The family also has access to the
rich Christian history and churches of the Holy
Land. She said it was thrilling to her that 2,000
years before Christ walked on the same ground and
came to her village. Their village is the only
all-Christian village left in Palestine. Taybeh
is 20 minutes outside Jerusalem.
Her children have adapted well
because of the extended family, she said. However,
they pray that the violence stops so they will not
have to leave. The family has invested much time
and effort to stay, including waiting five years
for their house to be completed while they stayed
with family.
“We spent five years our of
suitcases waiting for our home to be built and I
mean to say that it’s hard to leave where you’ve
spent time building your business and building
your home and your loved ones.”
Khoury, who holds a master’s degree
from Harvard and a doctoral degree form Boston
University, has coped with her dramatic setting
change by working on projects including writing
books like Christina Goes to Church, her most
recent book Witness in the Holy Land and now the
home building project.
“I mean I just really had a hard
time.” She said. “That’s why I picked up
producing more Orthodox literature and I picked up
helping the Church in the Holy Land because it
just gives me a purpose to be there. And it makes
me feel like I’m contributing or else I would just
really go crazy.”
She said she tries to be productive
and her books are her small way of helping
children grow closer to God and also just
preserving Orthodox values and Orthodox traditions
and trying to document them on paper for
generations to come.”
Khoury recently introduced Witness
in the Holy Land at St Demetrios Church in Weston,
MA. She returns to the States annually and said
she tries to bring an awareness of the Christian
presence in the Holy Land and to get people
stateside to show solidarity and support to the
dwindling Christian community and especially the
Christian Orthodox community that exists in the
Holy Land.
“I find it to be a very precious
spot. I mean I love Jerusalem.” She said. “I
love the Holy Land because it’s the place where
Christ walked and taught us his peace and love for
our salvation.”
It was her father-in-law’s dream to
build houses in Taybeh to stem the tide of
departures of Orthodox Christians in the Holy
Land. Khoury has taken up her deceased
father-in-law’s cause. She hopes to first raise
awareness of the plight of Christians in the Holy
Land and appeal to parishioners across the nation
for $1. Her fist goal is get that message out to
100 churches. To complete their first phase of
112 homes she hopes to raise $350,000.
Her parish, St George Church,
received permission form the Greek Orthodox
Patriarchate of Jerusalem to use land owned by the
Patriarchate to build the homes.
Khoury’s quest has not been without
its obstacles. The first launch of the project, a
much more ambitious campaign that hoped to build
30 homes and raise $1 million, faltered because of
its size and lack of resources, she said. Fear
among donors that the money would be used by
terrorists also stifled fund raising. She also
spent time searching for an umbrella organization
to assuage the fears enhanced by the events of
September 11.
The Metropolis of Boston issued a
letter July 23 in support of the project and
solicited priests in the metropolis to participate
in the campaign. In it, Fr, Athanasios Demos,
chancellor of the metropolis, asked the priests to
advocate for $1 during advent. Khoury found an
umbrella organization and has raised $20,000 thus
far. She said she hopes other metropolises will
follow suit.
With this project, she hopes to
better the community of St. George. The homes are
slated for people who don’t already have homes and
for people that don’t own land, she said. Her
father-in-law asked why the Church could not do
the same for its parishioners that other
Christians could.
“He was very loyal and very devoted
to the Orthodox Church because his father was the
Orthodox priest in the village and his brother was
the Orthodox priest in the village,” Khoury said.
She realized that time was against
them. Deterred by the impositions that come with
living in the Palestine territory such as
seemingly innumerable checkpoints and the harsh
conditions, many other families who returned to
Palestine form aboard have since left.
Enticed by the offering of other
Christian denominations and faced with the
devastation of was and a broken economy, many
Orthodox Christians leave region seek a better
life oftentimes by giving up Orthodoxy.
“This is what I'm trying to the
Orthodox churches here [U.S.] – to try to help
them be aware that if we don’t do something about
it, our Orthodox Christian presence in the Holy
Land where our mother church was founded is simply
just going to die out 50 years from now,” she said.
“Because in my village alone, we only have 1,000
people living there and we have about 9,000 people
[from the village] living outside in Detroit, in
South America and in Canada.”
Khoury said she and her family are
optimistic about their success in the Holy Land,
and their ability to stay and for other families
to do the same.
“We still have great hope that…the
economy will turn around and peace and democracy
could come to the land. And you know we could
continue,” she said. “He [David] could continue
making beer and I can continue making books. So
we haven’t left.”
Editor’s Note: Dr. Khoury has been
a frequent contributor to Orthodox News. We look
forward to posting her commentaries in the future.
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