During the week covered by this review, we received 14 articles on the following subjects:
Anti-Semitism
Christianity
Christians in Israel
Anti-Missionary Activity
Israeli/Jewish Attitudes Concerning Christians
Israeli/Jewish Attitudes Concerning Jesus
Messianic Judaism
Conversion to Judaism
Art
Miscellaneous
Archaeology
Anti-Semitism
The Jerusalem Post, September 10, 2015
On Sunday, September 6, noted anti-Zionist Lillian Rosengarten delivered a talk entitled “Jew Against Zionism” in the offices of the Sparkasse Bank in Düren (near Aachen) in Germany. Dirk Hürtgen, a spokesman for Sparkasse, told The Jerusalem Post that the bank supports the Düren municipal museum (which has contracted the space and on whose website Rosengarten has called Israel “racist” and “apartheid”), and does not involve itself in projects it sponsors as regards content. Hürtgen “could not establish that anti-Semitic thoughts were expressed in connection with the Düren municipal museum.”
The Israeli embassy in Berlin has sharply criticized Sparkasse for “providing a platform for hatred.” Efraim Zuroff of the Jerusalem branch of the Simon Wiesenthal Center said that the volume of support for Rosengarten revealed “a dismal ignorance of reality in the Middle East,” and Dr. Robert Neugröschel, head of the Jewish community in the Aachen area, stated that the talk “is a disgrace and of course anti-Semitic.”
Christianity
Yediot Ahronot, September 6, 2015
Kim Davis, a county clerk from Kentucky, has recently gained notoriety in the media for refusing to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples. She remained adamant in her refusal, stating that being forced to grant these licenses would be a violation of her freedom of religion despite being ordered by the court to comply with the law, and she was therefore arrested.
Christians in Israel
The Jerusalem Post, September 10, 2015
The Secretariat of Christian Schools and the Ministry of Education remain at loggerheads over the question of funding for Christian schools, despite an offer by the Education Ministry to cancel budget cuts from last year. MK Yousef Jabareen (Hadash) stated that the schools have suffered “drastic and discriminatory” budget cuts “aimed at starving them out of funds.”
As the schools are recognized but not official, they are legally entitled to 75% of the funding that state-run schools receive. However, the secretariat claims that although the ministry does pay 75% of the allocated teaching hours, the number of these hours has been reduced, resulting in de facto funding of between 29% and 34%. This cut is discriminatory, therefore, as the Jewish Orthodox schools have not faced similar cuts, claims the secretariat. Protests are planned outside ministry offices in Haifa and Nazareth, as well as outside Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon’s residence. The secretariat is also threatening to investigate a closure of Christian holy sites to foreign tourists.
Anti-Missionary Activity
Mechapsim, September 2, 2015
This article, detailing the history of the Yad L’Achim organization, states that it was founded in 1950 as a social organization to offer spiritual support to Jewish immigrants from all over the world. Over time this support has been extended to other elements in need, such as Jewish women and girls married to Arabs, who end up needing extraction from their situations; youth at risk who need educational assistance; and cult members.
Israeli/Jewish Attitudes Concerning Christians
Yated Ne’eman, September 6, 2015
This article, written as part of Yated Ne’eman’s commemoration of its 30th anniversary, states that from its founding, it has fought to restore religion to its right state. It has therefore dealt with dishonesty in kosher certification, shofars that are wrong to use, and conversion procedures. Of particular note is the article’s opinion of the Ebenezer Emergency Fund’s sailings from Odessa, ostensibly to assist Jews in aliyah but in fact to cause them to convert; and the guesthouse at Moshav Yad HaShmonah, a “center for intensive missionary activity.”
Sha’a Tova, September 10, 2015
This article states that Rabbi Shlomo Aviner has come across a secret protocol of a meeting at the Vatican in 2009, headed by the pope. The protocol stated the Vatican’s purpose of using the Arabs and Israel’s own internal conflicts to cause Israel to destroy herself, using unvarnished classic anti-Semitic language. The article states that the document must be checked, but if proven correct, it would explain the reason for Europe’s “inexplicable obsession with its support for the Arabs, and in particular, the Palestinians.”
Israeli/Jewish Attitudes Concerning Jesus
Mechapsim, September 2, 2015
This article gives 10 reasons, in the writer’s opinion, that Jesus cannot be the Messiah. The article mentions as particularly important the fact that the Bible never mentions the killing of a messiah, or that his blood would be an atonement; that shedding of blood doesn’t always bring atonement, for instance, if someone “kills his cat”; that the Roman torture of Jesus made him ineligible for sacrifice, as the sacrifice needed to be without blemish; that since Jesus was not sacrificed on the altar in the temple there was no resulting atonement; and that it was the sin offering, rather than the Passover offering, which was supposed to bring atonement.
Messianic Judaism
Mechapsim, September 2, 2015
This article states that contrary to popular belief, Messianic Judaism did not begin before the fourth century CE, but rather in 1866, with the founding of the first association of “Hebrew Christians” in London. The movement came to the United States in 1915, but only gained momentum in the 1960s during the “Jesus Movement.” However, theologically, Messianic Judaism has remained identical to Protestant Christianity, and has merely adopted “cosmetic” Jewish changes to make itself seem more Jewish.
Mechapsim, September 2, 2015
This article states the opinion that Messianic Jewish evangelization techniques use emotional and social manipulation, with intentional convolution of the truth, such as one-sided presentations of radical Jewish orthodox incidents, women pretending they would marry a man if he stays in the congregation, and especially the use of “sales techniques” to distribute their beliefs.
Conversion to Judaism
Mechapsim, September 2, 2015
Isaac Michaelson, born a Jew in New York, became Messianic through a Christian friend. Over time he became a pastor and functioned as such for some 15 years, but through studying with a Jewish friend came to believe that he had been taught a slanted and mistaken interpretation of the Bible. His doubts grew until he no longer believed in Jesus, and when he met a rabbi from Itamar in Samaria he closed his congregation, began to study under him and eventually returned to Judaism. Michaelson and his wife Laurie were remarried in a Jewish ceremony, moved to Israel, and now live in Safed.
Art
Kalkalist, September 9, 2015
Nira Pereg, one of Israel’s leading video artists, is shortly to open an exhibition entitled The Right to Clean at the renovated Ticho House in Jerusalem. The four video works displayed depict between three and four years of work (with breaks) at the highly contested Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where even cleaning is subject to the rigorous status quo agreement between the different denominations. “The goal of the exhibition is to give a different angle on the issue of material things and how they are sanctified,” says Pereg, “as well as the question of whether we need to clutch a territory to feel that it is ours. I want the exhibition to raise questions, to make the spectators think.”
Miscellaneous
Haaretz, September 7, 2015
The National Parks Authority and the Elad Foundation’s decision to fence off archaeological areas in the village of Silwan has brought opposition from the villagers, who have appealed to the Supreme Court on the subject. The authority and the foundation have stated that the reason for the fencing is the prevention of vandalism, but the villagers state that no such incidents are known there, that it is historically important for the area to remain open to all, and especially that the fencing’s real objective is to push Palestinians out of the area “and increase the right-wing’s control in the village.”
The Jerusalem Post, September 9, 2015
On Tuesday, September 8, former president Shimon Peres cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony of the Friends of Zion Museum in Jerusalem. The museum was founded by Dr. Mike Evans “as a testimony to the thousands of Gentiles who assisted the Jewish people during the British mandate, the Holocaust and the days of the establishment of the State of Israel.”
Archaeology
Maariv, September 8, 2015
The ancient mosaic floor of a sixth-century Byzantine church in Gush Tefen has recently been destroyed by looters. The looters were caught by policemen from Karmiel, who noticed a suspicious vehicle and gave chase. Upon catching the car the policemen found broken pieces of mosaic in it. The suspects were arrested and are currently being detained in Akko.