Easter Sunday, according to the Christian Science Monitor, commemorates the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In Syria, about 10% of the population is Christian. With Easter Sunday in Syria, in “a region largely swept by the Arabic of Islam,” there has been a “bid to preserve its ancient heritage” and revive the “3000-year-old” language of Jesus’s time: Western Aramaic, “the closest modern descendant to the language spoken by Jesus and his disciples.” Thus, the founding of an Aramaic institute in the village of Malula, about 35 miles northwest of the capital city, Damascus. Interestingly enough, Aramaic was the language used by one of the most famous Jewish Torah commentaries, Rashi, or Rabbi Shlomo Yitchaki; in almost every printed copy of the chumash, (Pentateuch: 5 books of the Torah) the bottom third of each page is reserved for Rashi’s commentaries which are still in Aramaic, and in my old school we learned to read and translate Rashi’s Aramaic which was quite similar to biblical Hebrew. This very resemblance in the two languages’ characters was recently pointed out by a Syrian newspaper and sparked worry “that a flagship heritage scheme might in any way be associated with the country’s neighboring enemy, [Israel; so] the government-run University of Damascus, which established the institute, acted quickly to freeze the Aramaic program.” Many citizens of the surrounding villages and proponents of the Aramaic institute, however, hope that classes will resume soon, especially because “Aramaic is a constant reminder of the international importance of Syria in the ancient world, when it was a beacon of learning and culture that had a profound impact worldwide. It mirrors the cultural, linguistic and religious diversity that has always been of such great importance in Syria and is key to its long-term success.”

Question: How does this, if at all, speak to the degree to which the (far) past holds back cultural activities, modernization, and/or globalization in the Middle East?

Link to story