The Eleven · Lebanon · 1984—1987
Elie Youssef Srour
Merchant entrusted with preparing the dead for Jewish burial
Life and remembrance
Elie Youssef Srour is described by Schulze as a merchant who carried the responsibility of preparing the community's dead for Jewish burial. It was quiet, essential work that joined religious duty to care for families in mourning.
He was abducted on 30 March 1985 and was later reported killed in December 1986. His body was not recovered. Conflicting contemporary reports appear to describe two men with the same name, so age and occupation should not be treated as fully settled.
Memorial record
- Community role
- A guardian of a final communal rite
- Kidnapped
- 30 March 1985
- Reported fate
- Reported killed in December 1986; his body was not recovered
- Record status
- Record disputed
- Also recorded as
- Elie Youssef Sarour, Eli Srour
Research note: A 1985 JTA report distinguished the captive from a 68-year-old pharmacist of the same name living in Paris. This wall follows Schulze while preserving that unresolved identity conflict.
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.