During the week covered by this review, we received 13 articles on the following subjects:
Messianic Jews
Political Issues/Jewish-Christian Relations
Bible
Archeology
Christian Sites
Academic Issues
Christians and the Holocaust
Pope and the Vatican
History
Messianic Jews
BaEmek veBaRama, May 20, 2013
Osnat Lev-Ari interviews several Messianic Jews in honor of the Shavuot holiday, which invites “the stranger in our midst” to participate in the celebrations. And yet, says Lev-Ari, the Messianic Jews “are actually an inseparable part of the people of Israel.” Lev-Ari gives a brief explanation about Messianic Jews before she launches into her interviews. She writes that Messianic Judaism “is a religious stream that is based on Messianic Evangelical-Christian elements, at the center of which is the acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah of Israel described in the Old Testament and as the ‘son of God’ as he is described in the New Testament.” Messianics see themselves as Jews, like Jesus’ first disciples, who were also Jewish. “According to estimates, there are about 10,000-15,000 Messianic Jews in Israel today and about 150-200 congregations.” The status of Messianic Jews in Israel is far from settled, as the government does not feel obligated to grant them citizenship.
Lev-Ari focuses her attention on the Messianic community in the area of the Sea of Galilee. Her first interview is with Eric and Terry Morey, founders of one of the Messianic congregations in Puriyah. Terry was born into a secular Jewish American family, but she became a Messianic Jew after experiencing a “divine revelation” during her first visit to Israel in 1967. She returned to the States where she married Eric, who comes from a nominal Christian family but who had his own divine revelation in 1977 when he understood that “Jesus is the only way to God and he is the truth.” After they married, Eric and Terry moved to Israel, where they have been living for thirty years.
Lev-Ari asks Eric and Terry a variety of questions regarding their congregational life, including what kind of prayers they use, if they are permitted to marry people, and what holidays they celebrate (Eric: “We celebrate all the holidays mentioned in the Bible . . . We do not celebrate Christian holidays – not Christmas and not Easter”). Most poignant, perhaps, is Lev-Ari’s question of whether or not the congregation is involved in missionary work. “Not exactly,” says Eric, “but reality acts in its own way, and we have the concept of the evangelist. If you see someone who is in need of salvation, you will be his evangelist, because the antidote for his troubles in Jesus, so it is Divine intervention.” Lev-Ari also mentions the case of Ami Ortiz (who was severely injured when a Jewish fanatic planted a bomb in a gift basket he sent to the Messianic family’s home), and when Eric says that the Ortiz family has forgiven the perpetrator, she asks how this is possible. Says Eric: “You have to see the enemy from God’s perspective, to see him first and foremost as a human being, and to treat him in like-manner – forgivingly.”
The second interview is with Yaniv Kampi, a Messianic Jew who lives on a kibbutz with his wife and three children. Yaniv explains to Lev-Ari how he became a Messianic Jew: “Before I ever read the New Testament, I believed every word that I read in the Bible. I accepted the existence of God. I still didn’t know Jesus, and I felt terribly empty, so that even though I believed in God, I didn’t really have any connection with him. When I was 22 . . . I came across some verses in the New Testament that changed my life.” It was a “personal revelation,” says Yaniv. Since then, “God has become the center of my life and I orientate myself according to his will.” When Lev-Ari asks Yaniv if he is raising his children in his faith, he says that even though his children participate in their congregational life, “being a Messianic is first and foremost a personal choice and an experiential process that is deeply personal.”
Political Issues/Jewish-Christian Relations
The Jerusalem Post, May 26, 2013
A pro-Israel caucus is being formed in the Russian parliament after a delegation from the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus (KCAC) and the World Jewish Congress met with Christian leaders across the country. According to MK Shai Hermesh, “Russia is an integral player in the Middle East and has the power to influence the nations that threaten Israel . . . The formation of a Russian Israel Allies Caucus will be an important addition to the 20 pro-Israel caucuses around the world run by the Israel Allies Foundation.” The delegation was welcomed by one of the largest churches in Russia, who held an event in their honor. Speaking at the event, MK Hermesh said that “the World Jewish Congress is committed to strengthening ties between Christians around the world who share our commitment to Israel . . . Our visit to Moscow has strengthened the bond between our people and we were able to tell the Christians in Russia that Israel will help protect their communities and holy places in the Middle East.” The event was co-sponsored by the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem.
The Jerusalem Post, May 29, 2013
MK Ibrahim Sarsour has submitted a legislation to “outlaw cursing, defaming and publishing pictures or caricatures of holy books and prophets, including Mohammad, Moses and Jesus.” This includes “any offence in any form – speaking, drawing – that harms people’s religious sentiments, whether directly or indirectly.” Sarsour claims that the current law is not strong enough and that “the time has come for the punishment to be greater, in the form of high fines and jail sentences, so it deters people from insulting religion.” However, according to The Jerusalem Post, the bill is unlikely to pass “as it does not have support from any [other] MKs.”
The Jerusalem Post, May 31, 2013
The United Church of Canada has decided to boycott three Israeli firms as part of a campaign for “economic action” against businesses operating out of the West Bank Jewish settlements. The companies include Keter Plastic, SodaStream, and Ahava. In response, SodaStream released a statement pointing out that the company employs hundreds of Palestinians, and that “the Church’s position, ‘which claims to advance Palestinian aspirations by increasing the number of unemployed Palestinians, can only be described as intellectually dishonest.’”
Bible
Nachon LeHayom, May 29, 2013
The oldest scroll copy of the Torah has been discovered in the library of Bologna University in Italy. The parchment probably dates back 800 years. Even though there are older copies of sections of the Torah, this is the oldest complete scroll of the first five books of the Bible.
Archeology
Haaretz, May 27, 2013
A Palestinian family is still holding up to 20 fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Israel’s Antiquities Authority is keeping an eye on the Kanado family’s attempts to sell the scrolls, which are locked in a safe in Switzerland. According to Haaretz, the IAA is in “outrage” over this, claiming that the fragments are an Israeli cultural asset. The Kanado family is asking up to $40 million for a single fragment.
Maariv, May 28, 2013
Archeologists are in uproar over plans to expand the Western Wall plaza on the Temple Mount, claiming that the archeological digs in the area will be permanently affected if the expansion plans are carried out. “Archeologists estimate that under the plaza there are still remains from the Second Temple period.” Says one archeologist: “This kind of construction could be a death blow to history.” Israel’s Antiquities Authority has said in response that the expansion plans are being carried out with utmost care and under constant supervision.
Maariv, May 28, 2013
A ten year-old girl found a Crusader arrowhead on a school trip to the Emek Tzurim archeological site. The arrowhead was found in a pile of dirt that was dumped in the Kidron Valley several years ago by the Muslim Waqf and has since become an attraction for anyone wishing to experience what it is like to work on an archeological dig.
Christian Sites
Yavniton, May 10, 2013
Eli Ben-Gur sings the praises of Christian sites in the northern area of the “beautiful Sea of Galilee.” These sites, he writes, mark the life of the Christian Jesus, “the one we call ‘Yeshu,’ because ‘Yeshua’ is a Hebrew, Jewish, biblical name and some of our sages didn’t really want to give him that credit, even though he was born a Jew, worked as a Jew, and died as a Jew, probably never even conceiving that after his death a new religion would arise – Christianity – while what he strove for was simply a social upheaval within the Jewish nation.” However, “the Christians who came after distorted history and claimed that the Jews had killed him, even though it was really the Romans. From here the road to anti-Semitism was short . . .” Ben-Gur then details the historical Church’s abuse of the Jews throughout the centuries, until Pope John Paul II declared that the Jews were not to blame for the death of Jesus.
Academic Issues
Haaretz, May 28, 2013
The University of Haifa announced this week that its senate has decided “on three new days off for the student body, on the dates of the most important Christian, Muslim and Druze holidays – Christmas, Eid al-Fitr . . . and Eid al-Adha.” In so doing, the university will be setting a precedent in Israel. “Muslim and Christian students have often found it difficult to keep up with their studies when classes and exams are held during their holy days,” says Haaretz. Haifa University president Amos Shapira explained to the paper that “academic excellence in research and teaching is our primary goal and we aim to accomplish this in a culture of tolerance and openness. Our students study together, they do research together and it seems only natural to us that they will also be able to mark the holidays that are important to them together.”
Christians and the Holocaust
Teva HaDvarim, May 14, 2013
Travel magazine Teva HaDvarim ran a twelve-page feature article on the village of Kastoria in Greece. Of interest is a small inset which mentions the village’s role in hiding Jews during the Holocaust. “Christian residents of Kastoria helped save Jews.” Among these was the local Greek Orthodox priest who “opened the church doors to Jews and hid more than 40 within the church walls. In addition, he urged Christian families to hide Jews in their homes, and dozens more Jews were saved when they found shelter in the homes of Christians from Kastoria and the neighboring villages.”
Pope and the Vatican
Haaretz, May 28, 2013
Haaretz reprinted Rachel Donadio’s article about Pope Francis, which appeared in The New York Times earlier this week. The article focuses on the changes the Pope is bringing into the Vatican, most especially with his emphasis on global poverty and financial responsibility. “The Pope has been in office only two months,” she writes, “but already he has changed the tone of the papacy, lifting morale and bringing a new sense of enthusiasm to the Roman Catholic Church and to the Vatican itself.” The attention the Pope is giving to the issue of poverty is no doubt influenced by his partiality towards the concepts imbued in Liberation Theology. In this vein, the Pope has “repeatedly returned to the euro crisis and the suffering it has caused,” saying that “the financial crisis which we are experiencing makes us forget that its ultimate origin is to be found in a profound human crisis . . . We have created new idols. The worship of the golden calf of old has found a new and heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is faceless and lacking any truly humane goal.”
History
HaChaim HaTovim, May 9, 2013
Inspired by the Herod the Great exhibition currently on display at the Israel Museum, this travel magazine writes a detailed history of King Herod, focusing especially on his building achievements.