During the week covered by this review, we received 11 articles on the following subjects:
Conversion to Judaism
Conversion to Christianity
Political Issues / Christian Zionism
Political Issues / Interfaith Relations
Conversion to Judaism
Haaretz, May 16, 2021; Nashim, May 14, 2021; Kfar Chabad, May 13, 2021
A number of articles shared stories of conversion to Judaism. The first article was about Warder Cresson, a Quaker who was also the first US consul to Jerusalem in 1844. In 1848, Cresson converted to Judaism and changed his name to Michoel Boaz Yisroel ben Avraham. The name Boaz was not chosen randomly, but because Cresson saw himself in the story of Ruth – a Gentile who joined the people of Israel. Cresson’s first wife sought to declare him insane on account of his conversion and took him to court. Ultimately, Cresson won the court case, and was free to return to Jerusalem, where he lived for the rest of his life. Cresson remarried, became an observant Jew, and wrote the book, The Key of David: David the True Messiah. He is buried on the Mount of Olives.
The second article was about a Portuguese woman who was raised as a secular Catholic, but became intrigued by Judaism while traveling in India and Nepal. In India she met her future husband, an Israeli. She underwent the conversion process, and now the married couple lives in Israel. The articles described how she discovered that her own family was most likely of Jewish descent but had been forced to convert to Catholicism centuries before in Spain.
The final story is about an African American music producer from Seattle, who was raised Christian, but together with his friend and their wives, underwent conversion to Orthodox Judaism. The two friends first encountered Judaism while attending a Messianic Jewish congregation in Seattle but said that all the attendants were Christians pretending to be Jewish. They eventually joined an Orthodox synagogue, before moving to live in Israel.
Conversion to Christianity
Haaretz, May 21, 2021
This was the story of Jewish German painter Karl Jakob Hirsch, who lived in the US during the Second World War, returning to Germany in 1945, and converting to Christianity in that same year. Hirsch published a memoir entitled, Returning to God: Letters to my Son, which attempted to account for how the nephew of the Rabbi Shimshon Refael Hirsch, who was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home, chose to convert to Christianity.
Political Issues / Christian Zionism
Various Articles
A number of articles discussed the support Israel has been receiving from Evangelical circles during the recent conflict with Hamas. Tens of millions of Evangelicals reportedly prayed for Israel in their churches, while many leaders publicly declared support for Israel. John Hagee, head of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), took up ad space in “Israel Hayom” to announce CUFI’s support for Israel, which he called “America’s greatest ally”. CUFI has provided ongoing coverage of the conflict to their followers, and has encouraged its 10 million members to sign an Israel Solidarity Pledge. The International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem (ICEJ), meanwhile, donated nine portable bomb shelters to Israeli towns near the Gaza border. ICEJ has donated 118 shelters in total since 2008. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which is mostly funded by Evangelical donors, has provided 2,000 meals to Israelis in the south, as well as food cards. Republican politicians in the US have taken advantage of growing Democratic criticism of Israel in order to declare their support for Israel and rally their Evangelical base. Elsewhere, in Hungary, Faith Church, which is Evangelical, organized a solidarity and support event for Israel under the title, “Israel Under Attack”. The event, in which the Israeli ambassador to Hungary gave a speech, was broadcast on the radio to the Evangelical community throughout Hungary.
Political Issues / Interfaith Relations
Maariv, May 16, 2021; Hadashot Haifa VeHaTzafon, May 19, 2021
In an attempt to calm outbursts of violence in Israeli cities, President Reuven Rivlin met with religious leaders – Jewish, Christian, and Muslim – calling for a collective effort to discourage violence in religious communities. Likewise, the mayor of Haifa met with religious leaders to say that while protest was allowed, violence and destruction of property was not.