The Arab Orthodox Society is an Eastern Orthodox charitable organization located near the New Gate in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. A part of the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, it provides its local community with medical care, employment, a cultural center, a museum, an embroidery shop, a bakery, and a coffee shop.
St. Benedictos Medical Center provides medical care to the needy. Payments for services are adjusted to the patient's ability to pay. The medical staff includes an on-site x-ray technician, a full-time dentist, and other specialists. The center also provides a doctor, nurse, and social worker to do home visits for elderly patients.
The Melia Art and Training Center provides employment for Palestinian women who hand-embroider traditional Palestinian designs and sell the finished pieces through the shop. [1]
The "Bint al-Balad" bakery (literally, "Daughter of the Country"), prepares traditional Palestinian dishes including pies, pastries, and salads. The shop also offers catering services for parties and celebrations.
Wujud (literally, "existence") is a cultural center and museum celebrating Palestinian heritage housed in a historic building donated by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate. [2] The museum overlooks one of the two Old City dry pools, Hezekiah's Pool, also known as the Bath of the Patriarchs. Built during the Mamluk period, used by the Ottoman military, and then as a residential home at the end of the British Mandate, the building was neglected for 42 years before it was renovated and restored on May 14, 2010. Wujoud includes an ethno-museum, cultural center and a cafeteria. [3]
Bethlehem is a city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank of the State of Palestine, located about ten kilometres south of Jerusalem. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate, and has a population of approximately 25,000 people. The city's economy is largely tourist-driven; international tourism peaks around and during Christmas, when Christians embark on a pilgrimage to the Church of the Nativity, revered as the location of the Nativity of Jesus.
Nazareth is the largest city in the Northern District of Israel. In 2022 its population was 78,007. Nazareth serves as a cultural, political, religious, economic and commercial center for the Arab citizens of Israel. Known as "the Arab capital of Israel", it is also a center of Arab and Palestinian nationalism. The inhabitants are predominantly Arab citizens of Israel, of whom 69% are Muslim and 30.9% Christian. The city also commands immense religious significance, deriving from its status as the hometown of Jesus, the central figure of Christianity.
Palestinian Christians are a religious community of the Palestinian people consisting of those who identify as Christians, including those who are cultural Christians in addition to those who actively adhere to Christianity. They are a religious minority within the State of Palestine and within Israel, as well as within the Palestinian diaspora. Applying the broader definition, which groups together individuals with full or partial Palestinian Christian ancestry, the term was applied to an estimated 500,000 people globally in the year 2000. As most Palestinians are Arabs, the overwhelming majority of Palestinian Christians also identify as Arab Christians.
Ramallah is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank or Ramallah Bank, that serves as the de facto administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, 10 km north of Jerusalem, at an average elevation of 872 meters (2,861 ft) above sea level, adjacent to al-Bireh.
Gaza, also called Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip. Before the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, it was the most populous city in the State of Palestine, with 590,481 in 2017.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch, also known as the Antiochian Orthodox Church and legally as the RūmOrthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, is an autocephalous Greek Orthodox church within the wider communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity that originates from the historical Church of Antioch. Headed by the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Antioch, it considers itself the successor to the Christian community founded in Antioch by the Apostles Peter and Paul. It is one of the largest Christian denominations of the Middle East, alongside the Copts of Egypt and the Maronites of Lebanon.
Beit Jala is a Palestinian Christian town in the Bethlehem Governorate of Palestine, in the West Bank. Beit Jala is located 10 km (6.2 mi)10 km south of Jerusalem, on the western side of the Hebron road, opposite Bethlehem, at 825 meters (2,707 ft) altitude. In 2017, Beit Jala had 13,484 inhabitants according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. About 80% of the population were Christians and about 20% Muslims.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, also known as the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, is an autocephalous church within the wider communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Established in the mid-fifth century as one of the oldest patriarchates in Christendom, it is headquartered in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and led by the patriarch of Jerusalem, currently Theophilos III. The patriarchate's ecclesiastical jurisdiction includes roughly 200,000 to 500,000 Orthodox Christians across the Holy Land in Palestine, Jordan and Israel.
Emmanouil Skopelitis was, under the name Irenaios, the 140th patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, from his election in 2001, when he succeeded Patriarch Diodoros, until his dismissal in 2005, when he was succeeded by Patriarch Theophilos III.
Katamon or Qatamon, officially known as Gonen, is a neighborhood in south-central Jerusalem. It is built next to an old Greek Orthodox monastery, believed to have been constructed on the home and the tomb of Simeon from the Gospel of Luke.
Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem is the current Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem since 2005. He is styled "Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem and all Palestine and Israel."
Augusta Victoria Compound is Community hospital and Church complex on the northern side of Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem and one of six hospitals in the East Jerusalem Hospitals Network. The compound was built in 1907–1914 by the Empress Augusta Victoria Foundation as a center for the German Protestant community in Ottoman Palestine, in addition to the slightly older Church of the Redeemer from Jerusalem's Old City. Apart from the hospital, today the complex also includes the German Protestant Church of the Ascension with a c. 50 metre high belltower, a meeting centre for pilgrims and tourists, an interreligious kindergarten and a café, as well as the Jerusalem branch of the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology.
Antiochian Greek Christians are an ethnoreligious Eastern Christian group native to the Levant. They are either members of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch or the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, and they have ancient roots in what is now Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, the southern Turkish province of Hatay, which includes the city of Antakya —one of the holiest cities in Eastern Christianity, and Israel. Many of their descendants now live in the global Near Eastern Christian diaspora. They primarily speak Levantine Arabic, with Maaloula near Damascus being one of the few places where a Western Aramaic dialect is still spoken.
Bethany, locally called in Arabic Al-Eizariya or al-Aizariya, is a Palestinian town in the Jerusalem Governorate of Palestine, bordering East Jerusalem, in the West Bank. The name al-Eizariya refers to the New Testament figure Lazarus of Bethany, who according to the Gospel of John, was raised from the dead by Jesus in the town. The traditional site of the miracle, the Tomb of Lazarus, in the city is a place of pilgrimage.
Christianity, which originated in the Middle East during the 1st century AD, is a significant minority religion within the region, characterized by the diversity of its beliefs and traditions, compared to Christianity in other parts of the Old World. Christians now make up approximately 5% of the Middle Eastern population, down from 13% in the early 20th century. Cyprus is the only Christian majority country in the Middle East, with Christians forming between 76% and 78% of the country's total population, most of them adhering to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Lebanon has the second highest proportion of Christians in the Middle East, around 40%, predominantly Maronites. Egypt has the next largest proportion of Christians, at around 10% of its total population. Copts, numbering around 10 million, constitute the single largest Christian community in the Middle East.
Christianity is the third largest religion in Israel, after Judaism and Islam. At the end of 2022, Christians made up 1.9% of the Israeli population, numbering approximately 185,000. 75.8% of the Christians in Israel are Arab Christians. Christians make up 6.9% of the Arab-Israelis.
Freedom of religion is the freedom to practice religion, change one's religion, mix religions, or to be irreligious. Religion in the State of Palestine plays a strong role in society, including in the legal system and the educational system.
The Armenian Quarter is one of the four sectors of the walled Old City of Jerusalem. Located in the southwestern corner of the Old City, it can be accessed through the Zion Gate and Jaffa Gate. It occupies an area of 0.126 km², which is 14% of the Old City's total. In 2007, it had a population of 2,424. In both criteria, it is comparable to the Jewish Quarter. The Armenian Quarter is separated from the Christian Quarter by David Street and from the Jewish Quarter by Habad Street.
Georgette Rizek was a Palestinian philanthropist and activist from Jerusalem. She founded the Infant Welfare Center in the Old City of Jerusalem.
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