During the week covered by this review, we received 9 articles on the following subjects:
Political Issues
Israel
Jerusalem
Messianic Jews (Organizations)
Christian Tourism
Book Reviews
Political Issues
HaModia, September 14, 2017
During Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s recent visit to South and Central America, he received thousands of World War II-era documents, including secret files and photographs, from Argentinian officials. Netanyahu said that the gesture “…marked a new dawn in Israel’s relationship with Latin America.” Argentina remained neutral during the war but later became a refuge for fleeing Nazi war criminals.
The Jerusalem Post, September 17, 2017
An IDF delegation, headed by Maj.-Gen. Yoav “Poly” Mordechai, coordinator of government activities in the territories, is currently in New York working to promote projects to help the Palestinians and Syrians. Mordechai has met with New York Roman Catholic Archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Bishop Andrew M.L. Dietsche, head of the Episcopal diocese of New York, concerning strengthening ties with their respective churches and specifically assisting the population of southern Syria through the Good Neighborhood Project. Among the initiatives included in assistance to the Palestinians are the construction of the Tarkumiya Industrial Park near the Tarkumiya crossing, and investigating ways to halt pollution in the Kidron Valley.
The Jerusalem Post, September 17, 2017
Amir Maimon, Israel’s first full-time ambassador to Lithuania after Israel opened an embassy there in 2015, describes a flourishing bilateral trade relationship between the two countries, as well as a mutual national affinity. Bilateral trade stood at some €270 million in 2016, mostly in military and cybersecurity products. According to the article, many Lithuanians “…have a fellow-feeling with Israel as a country surrounded by enemies and forced to improvise,” as Lithuania faces a similar situation. The country has abstained on a number of U.N. resolutions criticizing Israel, particularly those from UNESCO denying Israel’s historical connection to Jerusalem. While historically Israelis have tended not to know much about Lithuania, this appears to be changing as Israeli tourism to the country increased by 25% since 2016. An Israeli Foreign Ministry official, speaking anonymously, stated that the Lithuanian school curriculum regarding the Holocaust needed to be adjusted. On the other hand, BDS activity in Lithuania appears to be nonexistent at present.
Israel
Israel Hayom, September 19, 2017
This article provides the public with some facts published by the Central Bureau of Statistics to mark Rosh HaShanah. Of particular note is the fact that Israel’s population now numbers some 8.743 million, 74.6% (6.5 million) of which are Jews, 20.9% (1.8 million) Arabs, and 4.5% (396,000) non-Arab Christians, members of other religions or without religious allegiance. 26,000 people immigrated to Israel during 2016.
Jerusalem
Yediot Yerushalayim, September 20, 2017
The conflict regarding the Greek Orthodox lands in Jerusalem continues. The Keren Kayemet L’Israel (KKL), holder of a sub-lease of much of the land, received a communication from the new owners demanding payment of the lease fee or suffer the canceling of the sub-lease. KKL has determined to pay the fee to the owners to prevent further uncertainty for the current residents but has communicated to the owners that payment of the fee has no bearing on their efforts to protect the residents. Daniel Atar, KKL’s executive director, has also sent a letter to them, assuring them that both KKL and the government “…would not allow the new owners to increase their profits by making cynical use of the residents.” One course of action currently underway is Knesset legislation to take care of this complicated issue.
Yediot Yerushalayim, September 20, 2017
The Jerusalem municipality and the Jerusalem Foundation will open a community center in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City. The center will operate in a meticulously renovated building and include workstations, computers, activity rooms, a kitchenette and common room. The Jerusalem municipality, Vienna Archbishop Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, and the Swiss Friends of the Jerusalem Seniors organization provided the project’s funding.
Messianic Jews (Organizations)
Haaretz, September 20, 2017
This article surveys the widely varying sites to be seen along Israel’s Highway 40, which begins in Kfar-Saba and ends in Kibbutz Ketura, 300 kilometers to the south. Among the places mentioned in the article is the Baptist Village, and the Netivah organization, the youth movement of the Messianic Jewish community, the offices of which are on the premises. The writer, who met some of the staff and participants while they were engaged in moving offices, notes that those he spoke to had all served in the IDF, many in elite units. According to the article, Yoel Goldberg, the founder, “…spoke enthusiastically on the principles of the Messianic Jewish faith, according to which the end of every Jew is to believe in Jesus.” According to Goldberg, Messianic Jews understand “…one cannot live in Israel and be a pacifist.” The article noted that they serve in the military without any reservations, “…despite the fact that their faith is based on compassion, patience, mercy, and love.”
Christian Tourism
Yedioth Ahronoth, September 18, 2017
This article surveys some of the tourist sites to be seen in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ein-Kerem. Of particular note is the fact that Ein-Kerem is home to ten churches, seven monasteries and convents, and one mosque. The Church of Saint John the Baptist, famed for the remains of a 1,600-year-old mosaic floor, is held to be the site of John’s birth. The article noted the nearby Russian Orthodox Moscovia church as well as the Church of the Visitation, with its frescoes by Vagarini.
Book Reviews
Haaretz, September 20, 2017
The Monumenta Germaniae Historica has now published the third volume in the collection of medieval Hebrew documents. This particular volume contains a collection of chronologically-arranged Jewish liturgical poems concerning the massacres which took place in the Rhineland as part of the First Crusade in 1096. Though the subject is difficult, the author of the article finds it intriguing to now be able to see how the poets saw the massacres as second only to the destruction of the Second Temple, and therefore use not only medieval Hebrew but Mishnaic elements as well. The prose chronicles of the massacres, collected in the first volume, “show much of the atmosphere of religious delirium that filled the Rhineland cities and influenced Pope Urban II’s call for the crusade.” They show how the Crusaders saw it as logical to deal with the Jewish infidels domestically before liberating the Temple from the Muslim infidels. Thus, the chronicles relate such things as live burials of people who had been tortured on a rack, burnings at the stake, throats slit slaughterhouse-fashion and Torah scrolls made into shoes for lepers. However, it also tells of those who pretended to convert in order to return to Judaism as soon as they could, as well as those who determined “…to die for the sanctification of God’s name.”
The article calls the book important, and suggests it should have appeared first in Hebrew, rather than in German. The documents were collected and edited by Abraham Gross, Abraham Frankel together with Peter S. Leonard. It was published in 2016 by Hanover together with the Israel National Academy of Sciences.