During the week covered by this review, we received 8 articles on the following subjects:
Anti-missionary Activities
Christians and the Holocaust
Archaeology
Anti-missionary Activities
Hamodia, March 30, 2022
The heads and senior members of Yad L’Achim met for an “emergency conference”, to discuss the “unprecedented, dangerous flood” of missionary activity and how to combat it. According to Yad L’Achim, after decades of anti-missionary activity, the recent data received by the organization’s activists is “equal to a decree of spiritual annihilation”. Among the subjects discussed in the conference were the current coalition’s actions to “shake the walls of conversion to Judaism in Israel, while trampling on every rule of the Jewish law”, the danger of assimilation because of the “thousands of [Ukrainian] gentiles entering Israel under the guise of war refugees”, and the “investment of millions of dollars” by Christian churches towards “intensive missionary activity” among Jewish immigrants to Israel, alongside “dangerous activity in the media”. A Ukrainian refugee, who spoke at the conference, testified that while escaping the clutches of war, on the border between the Ukraine and Moldova, their group was approached by a man who came bearing food and beverages, asking “Are there any Jews here?” At first, they thought he was a good Jew coming to help, recounted the refugee, “But after a short conversation I understood his devious plan: he wanted to add me to one of the missionary communities.” According to Yad L’Achim, this is not an isolated incident, but one of many, and “they will not leave any stone unturned in order to return the sons to their Father in heaven”.
HaShavua B’Yerushalayim, March 30, 2022; Kol Hair Bnei Brak, March 30, 2022; Hamevaser, March 31, 2022
According to Yad L’Achim, they are fighting back, on the borders of Moldova, against the missionaries who are “trying to hunt Jewish refugees by any means necessary”. With “supreme efforts in the face of huge budgets and impudent missionary determination”, the activists are explaining to the Jewish refugees how dangerous it is to have contact with the missionaries. Yad L’Achim also published a special information leaflet in Ukrainian warning the refugees from “the Mission and its evil intentions”.
Christians and the Holocaust
Alumon, March 29, 2022
“Irena Gut is like a second mother to me,” said Roman Haller, now 77, in an interview with NBC News, “Without her, I wouldn’t be alive.” He was conceived in the basement of a home in Poland where his parents and ten other Jews hid during WWII. The home belonged to a Nazi officer, and it was his housekeeper, Irena Gut, who smuggled the Jews into the basement and took care of them in secret. After finding out about the pregnancy, Haller’s parents asked Gut to help them perform an abortion, fearing that a crying baby would endanger everyone, but she insisted that they keep the baby. When the Nazi officer discovered the Jews in his basement, Gut agreed to become his mistress in exchange for their lives. All of them made it out alive. Gut, who was a devout Catholic, died in 2003 at the age of 81. She was one of many non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. A new social media campaign – #Don’tBeABystander: Those Who Risked It All To Save A Life – is intended to highlight the heroism of people like Gut, and inspire future generations. It was launched by the nonprofit Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany in partnership with Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center.
Archaeology
Haaretz, April 1, 2022
The small lead tablet, which we reported on in our previous review, reignited the argument regarding the historical credibility of the bible. As we reported, an inscription in ancient Hebrew inscribed with the explicit name of God dating to the 13th century BC, was discovered on Mount Ebal in Samaria. Prof. Gershon Galil from the University of Haifa called the discovery an “earthquake in biblical studies”. “The new find unearthed today is the earliest Hebrew inscription found so far… evidence of the use of the Hebrew language in biblical times… a death blow to all biblical deniers,” he said. The use of the explicit name, according to some researchers, strengthens the claim that the site is an ancient place of Jewish worship, and possibly even the altar that Joshua constructed during his campaign to conquer the land of Israel. However, reported the article, the archeological world was not swept away by Professor Galil’s enthusiasm. Professor Israel Finkelstein, also from the University of Haifa, expressed annoyance at such “claims regarding discoveries that supposedly change everything we know about the bible and the ancient land of Israel”. No detailed analysis of the claims would be possible until an academic article is published on the discovery, he said.
Makor Rishon, April 1, 2022
On the same subject: “An earthquake, an atomic bomb, a fatal blow to all disbelievers”, announced this article. “One can choose from each of these images, and many others, to describe what a small oyster-like lead tablet, engraved with ancient Proto-Canaanite script, might do to the study of the bible, the history and archaeology of the Land of Israel.” Prof. Galil from the University of Haifa has no doubt about the reliability of the lead tablet, which he sees as a talisman, dating to the 13th century BC, when the Israelites settled in the Land of Israel. “There is an issue here that changes the game and the rules of the game,” he said, “so all those who deny the bible and claim it was written later are in a terrible panic now.”
Hamevaser, April 1, 2022
Researchers from Tel Aviv University and the Israel Antiquities Authority announced that while examining wine jars that date to the time of the First Temple period, and bear the seal impression of the royal administration of the kingdom of Judah, archaeologists were surprised to find remnants of vanilla – the luxury spice that came to Israel from afar. The discovery sheds light on the drinking habits of the elites of the Old Testament, who apparently enjoyed their wine flavored with vanilla.