During the week covered by this review, we received 9 articles on the following subjects:
Political Issues
Interfaith Dialogue
Anti-Missionary Activity
Anti-Missionary Attitudes
Anti-Semitism
Christians in Israel
Political Issues
The Jerusalem Post, May 30, 2016
The parliaments of Slovakia and Lithuania are to open pro-Israel parliamentary caucuses this week, “as the result of an initiative by the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus, the World Jewish Congress and the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.” A delegation from Israel will travel to Bratislava and Vilnius to meet with politicians as well as Jewish and Christian leaders “to mobilize support for Israel through faith-based diplomacy.” Josh Reinstein, director of the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus, stated, “As Western European countries continue to turn their backs on the Jewish state, we see that Eastern European countries are more supportive than ever of the only democracy in the Middle East—Israel.”
These caucuses “are the 34th and 35th such caucuses to be formed around the world by the Israel Allies Foundation.”
HaModia, June 2, 2016
Austrian foreign minister Sebastian Kurtz, speaking at a reception he hosted for the perpetual committee of the Council of European Rabbis, stated that “the voters for the far-right wing in Austria do not support the anti-Semitic agenda of the party, but are rather against immigrants coming to their country.” To support his words, Kurtz added that “he receives more support for his pro-Israel stance from the far-right than from the coalition.”
Interfaith Dialogue
Yediot HaTzafon, May 27, 2016
A conference of cultures and religions recently took place at the Academic College of Safed. Among those present were Sheikh Samir Assi, the imam of the Akko central mosque; Rabbi Benaiahu Bruner of the college’s Torah study center; and Father Francesco Patton. Among the subjects discussed were “the value of life” and “the influence religious content has upon negative opinions of Jews among Arabs, Muslims, and Christians.”
Maariv, May 29; The Jerusalem Post, June 2, 2016
A group of 26 African American ministers of the National Baptist Convention of America (NBCA) recently visited Israel in a trip organized by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. During their six-day stay the group visited sites holy to Christianity and Judaism, archaeological sites, and contemporary sites such as the Yad VaShem Museum, “seeing the facts of a country they have been exposed to either through biblical narratives or the distortions of network news.” “It is a great honor to host the convention,” said IFCJ founder and president Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein. “From the moment they came, the leaders experienced and were inspired from Israel’s true situation beyond the media coverage.” Samuel C. Tolbert, NBCA’s president, commenting on the trip, said, “NBCA’s strategy calls for cooperation to increase the ability to serve communities. This is exactly the goal of the cooperation we have with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.”
Anti-Missionary Activity
Yediot Modi’in, June 3, 2016
The conflict over the activity of the Jews for Jesus (JfJ) organization in Modi’in continues (see previous Reviews). Dan Sered, CEO of Jews of Jesus’ Israel branch, wrote a letter to Michael Harlap of the Modi’in city council, who is spearheading the opposition to JfJ. Sered stated his disappointment that “a city council member who should be representing the whole city public is allowing his own and others’ prejudices to decide what the residents may and may not accept,” and that “as law-abiding citizens, JfJ does not spread its faith to children under 18.” Harlap, making a public statement on the subject, said that “we are presuming that the group’s goal is to cause Jews to change their religion. I call upon the residents, as Mattathias did: ‘Whoever is for God, to me.’ Guard the small children so they do not receive material from those people.” Yad L’Achim has stated that they will be sending activists to Modi’in for a public relations campaign against JfJ’s activity, and Rabbi Shmuel Lifshitz of Yad L’Achim has stated as well that many people have called them to complain of the phenomenon, and that “the Supreme Court has ruled that this is a completely Christian stream.”
Anti-Missionary Attitudes
Yediot Petach Tikva, June 3, 2016
This article surveys the Messianic Jewish movement, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the varying attitudes toward them in Israeli society, particularly in light of the controversy over the Jews for Jesus campaign in Modi’in (see above). It presents both the ultra-Orthodox Jewish view, according to which the whole aim and goal of both these bodies is to draw innocent people in by deception if necessary. However, the article also quotes interviews with both a Jews for Jesus representative, who said that “Messianic Judaism is neither a religion nor a cult, but a faith” and that “everyone prays what is in their heart, without judging others and without being forced,” and with a Jehovah’s Witnesses representative, who said that “they are law-abiding, peacekeeping people, and that they have no interest in responding to pointless and misleading defamations.” The article then goes on to quote Adv. Eli Necht, who is involved with Jewish-Christian relations, who said that “as long as Messianic Jews do not attempt to convince people to convert, but rather carry out projects assisting Jews and assisting him with connections to the Christian world, then it is a blessed activity.” The last opinion quoted by the article is that of Itai Meron (60), “a Messianic Jew by choice,” who stated that being a Messianic Jew he now considers himself to be even more Jewish than before, since he keeps the feasts and reserves the Sabbath as a day of rest.
Anti-Semitism
The Jerusalem Post, May 30, 2016
Alex Benjamin of the Europe Israel Press Association and Europe Israel Public Affairs is of the opinion that what is needed to defeat BDS is “an army that fights with its mind, that fights with its collective intellectual muscle to exert unstoppable pressure on governments in Europe who might be swayed into anti-BDS initiatives.” To this end, both organizations plan to mobilize wherever a pro-BDS opinion appears, responding with letters or comments to exert this pressure, since “a cross-European army would defeat BDS here.”
Christians in Israel
Israel Hayom, June 3, 2016
In this article, Odelia Yakir, a secular Jew, recounts her experience of spending a few days working in the Notre Dame de Sion convent in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem neighborhood. Although Yakir speaks from the point of view of an outsider who “didn’t really know what she was doing there,” by the end of her time she felt that “in a world where people are concentrated on their next selfie, she wanted to thank these people who only want to do good to others.”