The Eleven · Lebanon · 1984—1987
Dr Elie Hallac
Pediatrician known as the “doctor of the poor”
Life and remembrance
Dr Elie Hallac was a pediatrician and vice president of the Lebanese Jewish community. Patients and relatives remembered him as the “doctor of the poor” because he treated children across religious and political lines and did not turn away families unable to pay.
He was abducted on 30 March 1985. Schulze records a reported death in February 1986. His body was never recovered, leaving his family without a grave and the historical record without a final physical confirmation.
Memorial record
- Community role
- Vice president of the Lebanese Jewish community
- Kidnapped
- 30 March 1985
- Reported fate
- Reported killed in February 1986; his body was not recovered
- Record status
- Burial place unknown
- Also recorded as
- Elie Hallak, Eli Hallak
Research note: Accounts of former captives place a Jewish doctor among hostages during this period, but individual captivity details remain difficult to corroborate.
Sources and research notes
Primary source: Kirsten E. Schulze, The Jews of Lebanon: Between Coexistence and Conflict, 2nd revised and expanded edition (2009), printed pages 170–175; PDF pages 103–106.
Kirsten E. Schulze attributes the campaign to the Organization of the Oppressed of the Earth, a group that claimed links with Hizb'allah. Contemporary accounts differ on some dates, occupations, spellings, and the fate of individual victims; those differences are preserved rather than silently resolved.