During the week covered by this review, we received 14 articles on the following subjects:
Jews’ Attitudes Concerning Christians
Jewish/Christian Relations
Messianic Jews (Organizations)
Islam
The Pope and the Vatican
Archaeology
Jews’ Attitudes Concerning Christians
Mishpacha, Yom L’Yom, June 26; Merkaz Ha’Inyanim, June 30; BaKehila, July 3, 2014
These articles are a reiteration of the story from last week’s Media Review detailing how the anti-missionary organization Yad L’Achim was successful in saving “a daughter of Israel who had fallen captive to the dangerous and destructive ‘Messianic Jewish’ cult.” The girl was convinced to attend a Yad L’Achim seminar in Safed, and afterwards began meeting with an activist from the organization. She adopted an observant lifestyle, and this past week even married an observant man.
BeSheva-Mitchalef Yerushalayim, BeSheva-Bnei Brak, BeSheva-Darom, BeSheva-Tzafon, June 26; Makor Rishon, July 4, 2014
These articles continue the controversy on the summer camps to be partially funded by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. The articles begin by quoting the halachic definition of avoda zara [literally “strange worship”] – any worship of a created being as divine. They go on to discuss the consequences of this, which include a prohibition of combining avoda zara with Judaism, prohibition of commerce with those defined as participating in avoda zara (except for certain cases when and if the believer in question is not devout), and of eating their food and drinking their drink, and more. They go on and describe Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein’s (the president of the IFCJ) writings, saying that he does not believe one religion “to have exclusivity over the truth”; that he predicts that in the coming years a new group will rise and consist of Jews who have accepted Christian doctrine; and that the cherubim over the Ark of the Covenant are a symbol of Judaism and Christianity that will turn towards each other.
The articles then cover the IFCJ’s response to the above: that “the IFCJ is not involved nor influences the summer camps’ content, that Rabbi Eckstein’s opinions are therefore irrelevant to the above discussion, and that in any case the quotations from his writings were taken out of context. Additionally, since the average contribution is US $75 per person, raised directly rather than with an intermediary body, influence of contributors on the fellowship’s policy is technically impossible, and in any case does not exist. Moreover, many senior rabbis have recently reviewed the writer’s opinions as well as the halachic discussion, and have pronounced that receiving money from Christians is permitted.”
In another analysis article, however, the writer is convinced that the Christians have achieved their goal even without the summer camps, as many have studied Christian issues during the controversy. “From their point of view, the task has been completed.”
Jewish/Christian Relations
The Jerusalem Post, June 29, 2014
The Presbyterian Church (USA) has recently published an open letter emphasizing that they are still “committed” to “working with the Jewish community.” It says, “We recognize the hurt that these decisions have caused. … We ask that you remain open to us as we participate with you in all our spheres of interfaith relationship. … Of central importance in our deliberations was our continued concern for Palestinians and Israelis to live in peace.”
Messianic Jews (Organizations)
Ha’Ir Kol Ha’Ir, July 4, 2014
The district court in Jerusalem has ruled that the event hall at Yad HaShmona must compensate a lesbian couple after refusing to hold their wedding, and pay them NIS 60,000, as well as the trial expenses of NIS 15,000. Tal Ya’akobovich, one of the couple, said that the issue was “not only theirs” but that they were standing against “the entire mindset that allows discrimination against gays.” Adv. Michael Decker, representing Yad HaShmona, responded by saying that the moshav, whose inhabitants are evangelical Christians and Messianic Jews, interprets the Bible very traditionally and that the marriage issue is something they cannot change. “It is strange that the state does not find a worthy solution for the gay community, and instead forces a minority within a minority to be more righteous than the state itself,” said Decker.
Islam
Israel Hayom, June 29, 2014
Majed al-Shafi – head of the human rights organization One Free World International, member of the International Christian Embassy, and a Muslim-born convert to Christianity – describes his opinion regarding radical Islam. He begins by stating that radical Islam does not recognize political states, and this is the reason behind the dictatorships in the Arab world and the vacuum caused when they fell. The West must understand the phenomena which make democracy impossible in the Arab world, especially the high rate of illiteracy, “which makes significant reforms impossible.” The emphasis, instead, must also be on secularism, freedom of religion and the separation of church and state. Radical Islam, from its very beginning, did not recognize minority rights or the rights of women, and is still violent and intolerant. Non-radical Muslims say that “the radicals hijacked their religion,” which is in fact a religion of peace, but they still stay silent and do not realize that after the Christians, Jews, and Baha’is, they will be “next in line.” The radicals accuse Israel in order to distract the world from the real problem, which is “the Islamic governments which injure human rights.” Al-Shafi is still hopeful, but insists that the situation will change only if all minorities cooperate with each other.
The Pope and the Vatican
Alondon, June 9, 2014
Guy Meroz analyzes Pope Francis’ May visit, and admits that he likes his personality. However, he also states that he wishes for “a truly holy man” who would say, “There is no difference between a Jew and a Christian, so let’s close the churches and start working for the honor of man.”
Archaeology
Koreh BaKinneret, June 27, 2014
The third season of excavation at the Jewish village of Sihin in the lower Galilee has just been completed. The work was done by 28 students from Stamford University in Alabama and students from the Kinneret Academic College, led by Prof. James Strange from Stamford and Dr. Mordecai Aviam from Kinneret. Part of a synagogue wall has been uncovered, as well as important evidence regarding Jewish pottery techniques during the Roman period, but of particular interest are the 15 molds for candlemaking found at the site, which is the highest number found so far in any village in the country. Archaeologists therefore surmise that Sihin was an important candlemaking center in the Galilee during the second and third centuries CE.