The Zionist Monk Who Teaches Arabic to Israelis

Two weeks shy of 90, Yohanan Elihai is feverishly working in his Jerusalem study on updating his Arabic-Hebrew dictionary, published by the Ministry of Defense over a decade ago. That dictionary contains 5,000 words and 10,000 sentences; but he would like it to conform to his famous Arabic-English Olive Tree Dictionary, published in 2007, which contains 8,000 words and 17,000 sentences. Widely acknowledged as the most authoritative Arabic teacher in the country, Elihai is also the author of numerous textbooks and dictionaries on the colloquial dialect of the Palestinians. He is also a Catholic monk.