During the week covered by this review, we received 4 articles on the following subjects:
Palestinian Christians
Anti-Missionary Attitudes
Interfaith Relations/Dialogue
Anti-Semitism
Palestinian Christians
The Jerusalem Post, May 31, 2018
About 400 Christians, half of whom traveled from abroad for this purpose, attended this year’s “Christ at the Checkpoint” conference in Bethlehem. The conference aimed to explore the roots of Christianity as a means of challenging contemporary Christian Zionist theology. Director of the conference and pastor of the Christmas Lutheran Church, Munther Isaac, expressed his confidence that even while Christian Zionism is experiencing a re-emergence in the public eye, its tenets are not embraced by most young Christians, academics, or theologians. Bishara Awad, president emeritus at the Bethlehem Bible College, said the event’s aim has always been “to talk about justice and peace.” Professor Joseph Cummins of Yale University believes that “bigotry towards Muslims and hostility towards Palestinians… has nothing to do with the Christian faith but everything to do with American white nationalism. It is the antithesis of the faith in Jesus Christ.”
Anti-Missionary Attitudes
HaModia, June 4, 2018
Yad L’Achim reported that missionary material translated into Yiddish has been distributed throughout the Haredi neighborhood of Mea She’arim in Jerusalem. According to the article, the fact that missionaries would be willing to enter into the heart of the Haredi community in this manner is a “brash move which proves that missionaries are not afraid of anyone.” The initiative is part of an ongoing large-scale missionary campaign targeting religious Jews, estimated to have cost 1.8 million dollars. The “soul hunters,” it is reported, deliberately intended to cause mayhem and upheaval. Yad L’Achim has put up warning signs asking the public to guard themselves against the “missionary deceit.” Furthermore, local residents have been asked not to make any contact with the missionaries “in order to prove them wrong.”
Interfaith Relations/Dialogue
Hadashot Haifa VeHatzafon, June 6, 2018
A festive multi-religious Ramadan meal took place this week at a local community center in the city of Haifa. Hundreds of guests were in attendance, including important representatives from a variety of faith traditions – rabbis, priests, and imams among others. Religious leaders emphasized patience, solidarity, and mutual respect in their addresses, and one of the attendees described the theme of the night as: “There is another way.” The municipality of Haifa provided broad support for the initiative.
Anti-Semitism
HaMevasser, May 31, 2018
Days after arrests were made for a Molotov cocktail attack on a Synagogue in Gothenburg, Sweden, the government has announced a decision to invest 1.7 million dollars in an effort to combat anti-Semitism. The initiative will target young people, encouraging visits to Holocaust memorials as a means of increasing literacy with regards to Nazi crimes against Jews, Gypsies, and other groups. Swedish Minister of Culture and Democracy, Alice Bah Kuhnke, made the following statement: “Nazism and racism are growing and spreading. This is why we are making this investment, so that young people can be equipped with knowledge in order to deal with these anti-Democratic forces on the rise in Sweden.”