During the week covered by this review, we received 5 articles on the following subjects:
Anti-Missionary Activity
Missionary Activity
Archaeology
Israeli Attitudes Towards Christianity
Anti-Missionary Activity
Matzav Haruach, January 15, 2021
The Jewish Agency has reportedly expelled a group of Christian volunteers from one of its projects because they were engaging in “missionary activity”. The volunteers were sent by a Canadian Christian organization called “Return Ministries,” and were assisting with the renovation of an absorption center for soldiers in the Galilee. The volunteers reportedly told the soldiers about their Christian faith and started a prayer house. The Jewish Agency said it was severing ties with the Canadian Organization.
Missionary Activity
Kol Ha’Ir Bnei Brak, January 20, 2021
Another article reported that Ivrit, an Israeli digital bookstore, has allowed the sale of a book written by a missionary named Eitan Bar. Bar had asked Christians from abroad to donate to his work, saying that lockdown was a good time to evangelize to Israelis. Yad L’Achim has asked people to protest the sale of the book by boycotting Ivrit.
Archaeology
Haaretz, January 21, 2021; The Jerusalem Post, January 21, 2021
Both articles reported that an ancient inscription bearing the words “Christ, born of Mary” was found in et-Taiyiba in a home built during the late Byzantine or early Islamic period. The stone with the inscription had been repurposed, having originally belonged to a local church. The inscription likely greeted worshippers as they entered the church. According to one article, the words “Christ, born of Mary” was intended to protect readers from the evil eye. The founder of the church was likely the archbishop of Beit She’an, Theodosius, who actively built churches in the Mount Tabor area, which is the traditional site of the transfiguration of Christ.
Israeli Attitudes Towards Christianity
Haaretz, January 22, 2021
This was a piece written by David Neuhaus, former Latin Patriarchal Vicar for Hebrew-speaking Catholics in Israel. The piece is about anti-Christian bias found in Israeli educational textbooks. Neuhaus recounted religious Jewish arson attempts on Christian churches, and violent attitudes against Christians in the Holy Land, who, as he noted, are a minority in Israel. In the article, Neuhaus reviewed a new book by Orit Ramon, Inés Gabel, and Varda Wasserman, entitled Jesus Was a Jew. In the book, the authors examine how Christianity is taught in the Israeli education system and also in the religious educational sector. While the authors acknowledge a historically complicated relationship between Christianity and Judaism, in which Jews were often persecuted by Christians, alongside that history, they show the modern aggression towards Christians in Israel. In part, this attitude is perpetuated by the way in which Christians and Christianity are presented in school curricula. The role Christianity played in the development of European culture and civilization is downplayed in public education, while Christianity is presented as an illogical, polytheistic, and largely politically motivated religion. Neuhaus argued that “fear of Christianity has turned into real hatred”, exacerbated by the fact that the Holocaust is often considered as the apex of Christian-Jewish relations.