During the week covered by this review, we received 15 articles on the following subjects:
Israel
Christian Tourism
Christians in Israel
Christian and Jewish Holidays
Jewish Attitudes Concerning Christians
Jerusalem
Christian Zionism
Israel
Israel Hayom, December 21; Haaretz, December 22, 2016
The Jerusalem rabbinate has issued an instruction to hotels in the city, forbidding them from displaying Christmas trees and holding civil New Year parties, as displaying Christmas trees is forbidden according to Jewish religious law. “The implication is that the hotels’ kosher food certification would be revoked if they do not comply.”
The CEO of the hotels association, Noaz Bar-Nir, has protested this instruction, reminding the rabbinate that they “changed the requirements for kosher food certification in 2014, removing all elements that were not connected directly to food,” and adding that the rabbis “should consider whether their instruction isn’t a dishonor and insult towards our Christian guests.” The Ministry of Tourism stated that each hotel decides separately whether or not to display a Christmas tree, and that they “welcome the thousands of pilgrims who will be visiting Israel.” The Chief Rabbinate has also responded by saying that although “they agree in principle that decorations are ‘unkosher,’ the letter is a ‘private initiative’ of the Jerusalem branch,” emphasizing that “it did not threaten to withhold kashrut certification.”
The second article also mentions a controversy that arose after Rabbi Elad Dokow of the Technion prohibited observant Jewish students from entering Haifa University’s student union after a Christmas tree was put up there. It mentions Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein’s suggestion to a Christian Arab member of Knesset who requested it that “he put up a tree in his office or in the party’s faction room,” rather than “on prominent display,” but notes that, as it does every year, the Jewish National Fund will also be distributing trees to churches, monasteries, convents, and embassies for a token 80 shekels.
Chadashot Haifa VeHaTzafon, December 21, 2016
The Holiday of Holidays Festival in Haifa marks Hanukkah, Christmas, the birth of Muhammad, and the feast day of the Prophet Alkhader. As part of the festival, some of the schools in Haifa participated in an initiative called “A Slogan for Each Student,” in which the classes learned about the holidays and traditions of the other religions, including the appropriate greeting. They then took part in a synchronized class by video conferencing, where they shared what they learned and got to know the students from the other schools. The head of the initiative, Maggie Asiag, said that it is multicultural, adding that “we support unity and tolerance, and are happy for each joint activity that accentuates the similar, together with giving honor to each student’s unique identity.”
The Jerusalem Post, December 22, 2016
President Reuven Rivlin recently met with Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, apostolic administrator of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. “The meeting was prompted by concerns over incitement and outbreaks of violence based on religious differences.”
The Jerusalem Post, December 23, 2016
Natasha Srdoc and Joel Anand Samy are the co-founders of the International Leaders Summit, “an independent think tank dedicated to advancing economic reforms, expanding trade, presenting new security strategies and strengthening the rule of law.” This year marks the second time they have held the Jerusalem Leaders Summit, “a public policy conference” that brought “more than 120 leading conservative thinkers and policy makers” from “Europe, India, the US and Israel” to Jerusalem to discuss “public policy issues addressing global security threats, economic freedom, technology and the rule of law, as well as the significance of Israel’s contributions of innovation and technology and the importance of strengthening the Jewish state’s security and sovereignty.”
Samy explained that he and Srdoc felt the need “to expand the summit to Israel, especially in the context of the challenges facing the Middle East.” Both he and Srdoc were inspired to support Israel because of their grandparents, Samy’s grandparents having told stories about how Jews have been welcomed in Kerala since Solomon’s time, and Srdoc’s grandparents having been imprisoned in a concentration camp in Croatia by Italian Fascists during World War II. “It is so important for me to come to Israel because this is the cradle of civilization in our world today,” said Srdoc, “We have so much to learn from this country.”
Both Samy and Srdoc believe that “Israel and its prime minister should do more to engage with minority groups in America,” giving the example of the conservative evangelical Christians who have supported Israel for decades, but minority groups within the evangelical community “are less engaged.” They note that “in the educational arena the US has favored the Palestinian narrative,” and that “young people are drawn to it.” “There is nothing like seeing firsthand what is taking place here.”
Christian Tourism
The Jerusalem Post, December 22, 2016
This article describes the current bleak tourism situation in Bethlehem (see last week’s review), due to tourist visits reaching record lows in recent years. Although thousands will gather in Manger Square for the Catholic midnight mass, at the moment there is little sign of the holiday. “We hope the tourists and pilgrims will come,” said a server at the Tent restaurant near the Shepherds’ Field.
Christians in Israel
Yediot HaGalil, December 16, 2016
Muhammad Zoabi (19) has been awarded a “certificate of notability” for his advocacy work by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Father Gabriel Naddaf of the Christian Recruitment Forum. Zoabi has recently become known for his Zionist opinions, and participated in his school’s trip to Poland last year.
Makor Rishon, December 23, 2016
This article is an interview with Wadia Abu Nasser, a senior advisor to the Catholic Church in Israel, on the life of the Christian community here. Although Christians’ situation in Israel is better than that of the communities in the surrounding countries, Nasser still feels that Christians are not equal citizens. He is of the opinion that the law is not appropriately enforced in situations such as price-tag incidents, and that the government is still not doing enough to solve the problem of adequate funding for Christian schools. Nasser describes the fine line Christians must walk, being scattered among Jewish and Muslim communities, both of which expect support from them. He says that in Israel the public are friendly towards Christians, but the higher one goes in the government, the less friendly people are, while in Arab countries such as Jordan or even the Palestinian Authority, the government relates well with Christians and solves problems quickly in order to preserve good connections with the Christian West, while the Muslim public shows contention.
Christian and Jewish Holidays
Maariv, December 16; The Jerusalem Post; Makor Rishon, December 23, 2016
This article presents a variety of reasons given by Jewish Israelis living in Israel and abroad—specifically in Berlin—for the fact that they celebrate Christmas. Some said that they like the festive, warm feeling they get from having a tree in their house, and attach no religious significance to it at all; others simply like the colors; others say that it is an addition to the Hanukkah celebration, and that “their religion doesn’t change because of a tree.” One couple in Berlin wanted to “prevent a case of Christmas envy” in their children and “give them something to talk about,” while “keeping the Jewish perspective very tight.” Another couple in Berlin noted that there has been much crossover between German Hanukkah and Christmas traditions, making it easy to keep one’s Jewish identity. Others living abroad, however, stated for the article that they find themselves keeping more traditions than they would if they were living in Israel.
In the Makor Rishon article, Rabbi Haim Navon is puzzled at the thought that a Jew would celebrate Christmas to any degree whatever, saying that those who do so are not being pluralistic but are doing so out of apathy, since “no one would take his wife out to dinner to celebrate a stranger’s anniversary.” “As a believing person I can understand the depth that Christians see in their holidays,” says Navon, “and therefore I will never celebrate them.”
The article on Christmas celebrations in Berlin noted that it had been written before the latest attack there.
Haaretz, December 23, 2016
This article is a survey of the history of Hanukkah, beginning by stating that centuries passed before the legends and traditions of the holiday crystallized into what we see today. The preservation of the holiday was due to Christian inclusion of the Books of the Maccabees in the Catholic Bible, as rabbinical authorities were “uncomfortable with the story,” since “divine intervention in the story is not obvious.” During the 19th century, “the narrative was changed” from describing people who “fought a bitter civil war” against the Hellenists who “wished to combine what seemed archaic to them with the more modern Hellenistic culture,” sometimes offering them “conversion or death,” to “Maccabees whose boldness matched the ethos the Zionists wished to invent.”
The article continues with the comparison that is sometimes made between the ancient Maccabees and the modern-day settlers, citing how “many in the orthodox right-wing still use the word ‘Hellenist’ to describe people who are less meticulous in keeping commandments,” one particular rabbi saying that such people must be “uprooted.” The article continues by saying that the “zealot” tendency “to describe human rights activists as traitors and collaborators” stems from this same source, and “their self-confidence will only increase ‘in Donald Trump’s era.’” It ends by stating that the Hasmonean kingdom survived only 80 years, and that it “led to the division that brought about the destruction of the Second Temple and prepared the way for the eradication of the Jewish presence in the land of Israel for 2,000 years.”
Jewish Attitudes Concerning Christians
Yediot Ashdod, December 16, 2016
Stuart Ganolin, founder of the Hope for Sderot organization and an immigrant from the US, has been struggling to attain the A1 citizenship given to Jews according to the Law of Return, rather than the A5 citizenship given to non-Jewish spouses of Jews. Ganolin is convinced that the reason for the refusal from the Interior Ministry is that his organization, which tells the story of Sderot in general and the needy among its residents in particular, collaborated with the Joshua Fund to give food packages to people in Sderot. However, the anti-missionary activist organization Yad L’Achim said that “the Joshua Fund is a missionary organization intent on converting Jews,” and “published quotations from Christian missionary websites saying that Ganolin was their representative in Sderot.”
Most of the public in Sderot was convinced that Ganolin was in fact a missionary in disguise, and even though there was no evidence that he distributed missionary material and he agreed to debate with a Yad L’Achim official, many continued to ostracize him. Ganolin did not give in, however, and continued in his attempts to help the needy in his community. Eventually, more Sderot residents were convinced that “he had been cynically used by foreign elements,” and after he provided certificates proving his Jewishness he was able to marry. This has made no difference to his file at the Interior Ministry so far, and he remains a foreign resident. “I’ve proved myself,” says Ganolin, “the time has come for the state to believe me.”
Jerusalem
The Jerusalem Post, December 22, 2016
This article attempts to explain why the US Jerusalem Embassy Act from 1995 “has remained a dead letter for 21 years,” despite having been passed at the time with a “massive” majority, and speculates whether “President-elect Donald Trump intends to honor his pre-election promise” to move the embassy to Jerusalem in accordance with the act.
It begins by stating that the reason this has not yet been done is “fear of enraging the Arab street and the Muslim world, most of which has neither reconciled itself to Israel’s existence nor even the peoplehood of the Jews.” In explanation, the article says that in fact the “clamor and fixation on Jerusalem” is “quite recent in Muslim history.” “It is a propaganda lie that Jerusalem is holy to Islam or central to Palestinian Arab life,” since “Jerusalem is not mentioned even once in the Koran, nor is it the direction in which Muslims turn to pray”; that “until 1954 all Muslim references to ‘the site of the biblical temples’ was called the Temple Mount in the Jerusalem Muslim Supreme Council’s publication A Brief Guide to the Haram Al-Sharif”; that when Jordan ruled East Jerusalem between 1948 and 1967, Amman remained the capital and Jews were driven out of Jerusalem and access to the Western Wall was forbidden, “in contravention of Article 8 of the 1949 armistice agreement”; and that “neither the PLO’s National Charter nor the Fatah Covenant, drafted during Jordanian rule, even mention Jerusalem, let alone call for its establishment as a Palestinian capital.” Conversely, Jerusalem is the holiest of Judaism’s four holy cities; it is mentioned 669 times in the Bible and countless times in prayers; today its population is two-thirds Jewish; it has only been revitalized “under unified Israeli rule”; and “at last it has enjoyed full freedom of religion for its mosaic of faiths.”
In summary, the article says that “transferring the US embassy to Jerusalem would acknowledge the reality of the city as Israel’s capital, and ultimately help consign to oblivion the fiction that Israel can be detached from it.” It therefore says that “there is no good reason for Trump to defer implementing the Jerusalem Embassy Act.”
Christian Zionism
Kolbo, December 16, 2016
The friends organization of the Bnei Zion Medical Center recently held its annual gala in Dallas, dedicated this year to raising funds for reinforcing the emergency room’s ability to withstand a rocket attack. Pastor John Hagee, who was among the attendees, “praised the hospital’s activity,” agreed to assist in the raising of funds, and promised to visit it during 2017.