Men's Teacher Seminary in Nazareth

The Nazareth male teacher’s seminary was founded as part of the development of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society from 1882 to 1914 in Syria and Palestine, acted as a male guesthouse and was designed for 35 pupils.

Pupils of the senior class of the male teacher's seminary in Nazareth. 1907

The Nazareth seminary did not have a permanent building, so the Society was forced to rent a separate two-story building in the Muslim quarter of Nazareth (now the house of Siif ad-Din Zouabi) ^[1] . The long-term head of the teacher’s seminary in Nazareth was a native of Damascus, Alexander Gavrilovich Kesma (1860-1935). According to the report of the trip of D.V. Istomin from 1895/6, the inspector of educational institutions of IOPS in the Galilee was A.I. Yakubovich, the senior teacher A.A. Spassky, also teachers E.F.Druzhinin, D.F. Bogdanov and H. M. Alla Verdi ^[2] .

In the lower floor of the building there was: a common dining room, bedrooms, an office for the head of the seminary, a pantry kitchen, on the second floor: classes, a teacher’s room, an inspector’s office and a special room, which housed instruments for studying physics, anatomy and a small botanical collection.

The seminaries taught: Arabic, Turkish, Greek and Russian, as well as the Law of God, arithmetic, geometry, history, geography, Russian and pedagogy. In addition, seminarians were taught church songs and Russian and Arabic folk songs ^[3] . After the death of the Secretary of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society, V. N. Khitrovo , the seminary is named after him - the male teacher’s seminary in Nazareth, named after Vasily Nikolayevich Khitrovo ^[4] .

The school ceases to exist in connection with the outbreak of World War I , and then with the revolution in Russia in 1917, when funding for school activities of the IOPS completely ceases.

• Mikhail Japheth (Yaphet) (1888)
• Rafail Tarazi (1888)
• Seraphim Btishrani (1888)
• Konstantin (Konstadi) Kanase (1890)
• Khalil Baidas (1890)
• Panteleimon Krestovich Jousse (Bandali al-Jawzi) (1890)
• Taufik Gavrilovich Kesma (1896) ^[5]

The building is privately owned by a family from Nazareth - Siif ad-Din Zouabi.

• Russia in the Holy Land. Documents and materials. Volume 1. Moscow. Ed. "International relationships". 2000 ISBN 5-7133-1063-9 (v.1)
• Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society on the 130th anniversary of its founding. // Materials of the International Scientific Conference “ Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society in the Holy Land. To the 130th anniversary of its founding. ” M., 2011. ISBN 978-5-91674-192-6
• Institutions of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society in 1895 \ 6. Report on a business trip D.Vl. Istomina. 2nd Edition. St. Petersburg 1897
• Educational and medical institutions of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society. Report of a member of the Board of the Company. N.M. Anichkova. Part II St. Petersburg. 1910 // Publication on the official portal of the Jerusalem branch of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society. July 19, 2014
• Yuri Poltorak. Nazareth and surroundings. Kafr Cana, Mount Tabor, Nain, Zippori. - Publishing house of Evgenia Ozerova, 2013 .-- 272 p. - ISBN 978-965-92156-0-7 .

• N. N. Lisova. School activities of IOPS in Palestine
• School activities of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society // Publication on the official portal of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society
• School activities IPPO. Letters to the Nazareth Men's Pension // Publication on the official portal of the Jerusalem branch of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society