Alumni The alumni of Johann Ludwig Schneller Schule are dear friends and partners to the ministry of Schneller Schule. If you are a JLSS alumnus then this section of the website is made especially for you.
Alumni Announcements
Schneller Alumni and Friends Association (SAFA)
“TO THEM THAT MUCH HAS BEEN GIVEN MUCH IS REQUIRED”
February 21, 2008
Dear Brother/Sister in Schneller: I am glad to inform you that June 20th to 22nd, 2008 has been set for our 7th get together in Niagara Falls, Canada. Rafik Alfar will be making accommodation arrangements for the group. His phone number is 416-536-6031. Please contact him by May31st for suggestions, information and details. Thanks Rafik for all your hard work.
I want to take this opportunity to wish you a healthy, prosperous and successful 2008. Here is some good news to share:
Rev. George Haddad, General Director, is progressing apace in improving/replacing the old facilities for the children, creating a vocational training school for the girls, working on revitalizing the farming at the school, and keeping expenses down by installing solar panels on the school buildings. Please visit the school web site www.jlss.or and check the needs list. This is a great comprehensive list. The school is truly progressing by fulfilling its mission in education, which is badly needed in the Arab World.
An Endowment for Peace in the Middle East was established in Germany by the “Evangelische Verein fuer die Schnellerschulen”. The endowment started with a capital of 1,085,000 euro. “This is a great moral support for the continuing work of both Schneller Schools in the Middle East, this makes us very happy” said Rev. Andreas Maurer.
The newly elected EVS board includes Hartmut Brenner, Basil Rischmaui, Klaus Schmid, and Andreas Maurer.
John Hamzo , President of the Lebanese Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Ottawa, recognized Rasheed Fakhr for excelling in business.
Nasser Dahdal published an Arabic book “Poems from the Heart” The poems are dedicated to Schneller personalities who have had a profound influence on our lives. Let me know if you are interested in buying a copy of the book.
The School awarded nine scholarships, established by Hanna and Katerina Aghabi and Al Roberts Memorial Award, to nine deserving and high achieving students in academics and citizenship. Thanks and congratulations.
We wish Happy 85th Birthday to Ohan Durian aka Hanna Khashou from all of us and especially from his schoolmates Yeghia (Elias Halawany) Yeghiayan, Yousef, (Butrus) Mourad, and Ursula (Schneller) Schultz-Vida.
New/old issues we can discuss in our upcoming get-together: Structured organization (see remarks), Volunteering, New and better ways to support the school. Please think about these issues and let us have, as usual, a lively get-together.
Structured Organization:
This issue was discussed in our last meeting. Here are the facts. The bylaws stipulates for chapters in different Regions: America, Australia and Canada is a region, Europe is a region, The Middle East and the rest of the world is another region. We currently have one chapter for the US, Canada and Australia. Each chapter should have a Deputy Director, Treasurer, and Secretary. In our chapter we have: Deputy Director/Secretary: Aziz Shalaby, Treasurer: John Naim (fund raising) Social and Events Coordinator: Rafik Alfar, and Historian: Nimer Haddad. Please supply me with some suggestions whether you agree with the current structure. If you want to change the structure either through elections or nominations and elections, please let me know. If anyone is interested in performing any of the current functions, please let me know as well. All our contributions go to either the school or to LBMS.
See you in Niagara Falls.
Sincerely _____________________.
Aziz B Shalaby 61, Tel.: 360.260.3070, 16205 SE Evergreen Hwy, Vancouver, WA, USA, e-mail: ashalaby@comcast.net
O
n his last trip to Lebanon from the USA alumnus Jean Naim kindly carried with him two blood testing machines for diabetic persons and a lot of medications for use in our school clinic. We express our gratitude to Mr. Jean Naim for carrying the medicines and the blood testing machines, and we also thank Dr. Ziad Daweh who kindly sent them to us.
Minutes of Schneller Alumni and Friends Association (SAFA) June 22nd- 24th get-together in Niagara Falls, Canada
1. We started the meeting with a moment of silence and reflection upon those who have departed: Taroub Neaimi George Haddad Rev Al Roberts.
2. Aziz Shalaby thanked the attendees for coming and cited the history of our gatherings with the added dimensions: from a start of 12 men, then adding our families to our meetings, so we can foster the ties between the families and Schneller, to our international settings of getting attendees from Australia, Germany, Lebanon, Canada and the United States. Our latest dimension is a group of highly accomplished individuals in medicine, theology, sciences and education, in addition to many successful business men in transportation, finance, real estate, insurance, restaurants, beauty salons, employees of international organizations and retired individuals.
3. Aziz Shalaby communicated the written and verbal messages form Rev. George Haddad, Ghassan Shehadeh, Samir Akel, Samir Sayegh, Abdo Khanashat, Hans Schneller and Rev.Klaus Maurer. Copies of the written messages were distributed.
4. Aziz Shalaby pointed out jlss.org as the schools web site and encouraged the attendees to visit it and learn about the school, its mission statement, employees, students and activities. Samples of the news were distributed such as Dr. and Katerina Aghabi’s visit to the school and the handing out of the scholarships. Aziz talked about the new completed projects in the school such as the guest house.
5. The short term thrust for fund raising is the science lab. As of now with the donations and the pledges for the science lab we have US$4,300, AUS$500 and CA$400.00. Our objective is $30,000. The endowment fund is our long term project. We currently have over $10,000 in this fund. We hope with bequests and donations we can grow this fund to where it’ll make a difference in the school’s budget. Aziz informed the attendees about the German endowment fund and indicated that, after discussions with Klaus Maurer, for legal reasons the two funds need to stay separate. Donations drawn on banks outside the US need to be in cash. Checks have been very expensive when deposited for collection.
6. 2008 get-together will be in Niagara Falls. 2009 get-together will be in Lebanon Inshallah. Many thanks to Rafik Elfar and his wife Angie for doing a great job in coordinating and hosting the alumni and friends. Sydney was suggested as a get-together location thanks to Charles. Hopefully one year we’ll be there.
7. John Naim fell ill. He could not attend the meeting where Aziz highlighted the financial situation relative to the contributions, from US and Canada, to the school, about 50% of which are coming now from the alumni.
8. Nimr Haddad made a slide presentation that took us all back to the school, bringing wonderful memories. We all looked young and handsome at that time, in comparison to the white hair of today, or for some, no hair at all! Nimr has been kind enough to make a short oral history for every alumnus. Most of the attendees shared in a three minute oral presentation: who they are, where they are now and how Schneller contributed to their success. 
9. Dr. Basil Rischmaui discussed the Schneller-geist- the Schneller spirit-. When you meet a Schnellerite, there is no guessing, you know exactly their true character, their caring, their loyalty, their commitment and their love for the Schneller institute.
10. Yeghia Yeghiayan, a rarity, I stood corrected by Charles, Charles’ Mom, at 94 years old is the oldest Schnellerite alive from Jerusalem, Yeghia is 88 years old. We are assuming he is number two. Yeghia brought laughs and smiles to our faces. He told us about the Jerusalem buildings and the history of Schneller in Palestine.
11. Nick Neaimi delighted us, as usual, with his Qasidi. Nick reflected with a lot of fun about how we were fed, treated and raised during his days at Schneller. “Watch out for the keys.” Every verse elicited a long laugh.
12. Dr. Hanna Aghabi encouraged us to volunteer for the school, have a structured organization, treat Schneller Amman and Schneller Khirbet as one entity, and do more fund raising in the main stream.
13. We had open discussion about many issues. The three dominant issues were Schneller Amman, structured organization and board members. We will be exploring more ways to make some progress in these areas.
14. Dr. Hartmut Brenner closed the meeting with an Arabic hymn, thanks to attendees and God’s blessings.
15. Donations: On the social side we want to thank Dr. Hanna Aghabi and Katrina for the breakfast, their generosity in opening their Suite for photo opportunities and above all opening their hearts and their commitment with sincerity and dedication to the children of Schneller. Katrina’s words were moving. I hope I covered all major points.
See you next year in Niagara Falls.
Aziz 
