During the week covered by this review, we received 12 articles on the following subjects:
Jewish Attitudes Concerning Christians
Christian Zionism
Miscellaneous
Archaeology
Jewish Attitudes Concerning Christians
HaMevaser, October 24, 2014
The anti-missionary activist organization Yad L’Achim is happy about the success of their operation to halt missionary activity, particularly in Jerusalem, during Sukkot week. The activists, called to the relevant locations, collected some of the material distributed and warned passersby of the Christian “soul-hunters.” “The people of Israel said no to Christian missionizing, and the missionaries felt this well,” said Rabbi Binyamin Volkan, coordinator of public relations.
Christian Zionism
Ha’Ir Kol Ha’Ir, October 15, 2014
A prayer event recently took place in the Elephant Park in Ma’ale Adumim, during which scores of members of Tom Hess’s All Nations Convocation Jerusalem from all over the world prayed for the city and Benny Cashriel, its mayor. The attendees also received an explanation of the city’s history and strategic importance, and some even purchased olive oil pressed from the olives of the trees near the city.
Yediot Ahronot, October 21, 2014
In this four-page article, Binyamin Tobias interviews Andrew White, known as the “Vicar of Baghdad,” who recently left Iraq after 16 years of residence there. White was instructed to leave by the Archbishop of Canterbury due to threats of kidnapping for ransom by the Islamic State (IS).
In the article, White speaks bluntly and unequivocally against Western countries’ inaction. He mentions parishioners of his who were beheaded near Al-Kush, with no one writing about it, and says as well that what is happening in Iraq “is beginning to remind one of the Holocaust.” The United States made great mistakes, and Iraq is now reaping their consequences.
White adds that the first support Christians in Iraq received was from Jews and from the Israeli Foreign Ministry. He supports Operation Protective Edge and is convinced that anti-Semitism is still a major factor in world dialogue.
Miscellaneous
Atmosphera, October 2, Hebrew and English
The 46th Abu Ghosh Vocal Music Festival recently took place during Sukkot week, featuring a wide variety of solo and choral performances. The inhabitants of Abu Ghosh have “embraced the festival from its first day,” although the music itself is not to their taste, since the festival has caused the economy of the village to flourish. Additionally, seeing an Israeli Jewish audience attending concerts in a Muslim Arab village “brings faith even to the most doubtful as to the possibility of co-existence,” said Brother Olivier of the Crusader church in the village.
Atmosphera, October 2, 2014, Hebrew and English
Gil Shohat, one of the best known Israeli composers today, recently premiered his latest composition, Dharma, which draws on Hindu, Buddhist, Chinese, Muslim, Jewish, and Christian texts. The composition’s title represents the basic law of order in the universe, and was written, Shohat says, as a reaction to the breakdown of basic concepts in the world, and as his own attempt “to connect and repair.”
Archaeology
Ha’Ir Kol Ha’Ir, October 15, 2014
This article is a reiteration of the recent discovery of a mikveh (ritual bath) and water reservoir in the Elah Valley, which have been dated to the Second Temple period. Pottery, candles, and polished red vessels were also found at the site. However, it is of particular interest to note that the site was known even as late as the 1940s, as graffiti belonging to two Australian soldiers was found there. They have since been identified as two corporals from the 6th Australian Division, who were stationed in Israel before being sent to France.
Ha’Ir Kol Ha’Ir, October 15, 2014
Excavations of the Spring Citadel at the City of David in Jerusalem have recently been completed. The citadel is the largest pre-Herodian citadel discovered so far in Israel, and is dated to the 18th century BCE. It protects the Gihon spring so that only inhabitants of the city could access it.
The citadel was accessed unknowingly for the first time in modern times by Brownlow Montague Parker, who spent 1909-1911 in Jerusalem searching for biblical treasures.
Israel Hayom, Haaretz, Israel Post, October 22, 2014
A 2,000 year old memorial inscription was recently found in Jerusalem. It is supposed that it is the right-hand half of the Jerusalem Inscription (discovered at the end of the 1800s by Charles Clermont-Ganneau), and contains a dedication to Emperor Hadrian by the 10th Roman Legion, which had originally been sent to Judea during the Great Revolt. The inscription was most likely part of an arch in a public building built by the legion, perhaps supporting the idea that the Bar Kochba Revolt began as a protest to the rebuilding of Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina.