During the week covered by this review, we received 11 articles on the following subjects:
Messianic Jews
The Pope and the Vatican
Jewish Attitudes Concerning Christians
Conversion to Christianity
Anti-Semitism
Archeology
Art
Miscellaneous
Christian Zionism
Messianic Jews
Yediot Ahronot, March 7, 2014
This two-page article focuses on Calev Myers, the founder of the Jerusalem Institute for Justice, and his campaign to raise awareness in American universities about the corruption in the Palestinian Authority and the distorted image many American students have of Israel as a result of this misinformation. Only at the very end of the article does the writer mention that Myers is a Messianic Jew, meaning he has had his share of challenges to overcome in facing Israeli bureaucracy. Regarding his pro-Israel campaign, says Myers: “It pains me that there are some who will not cooperate with me because I belong to a faction that is not accepted by some in Israeli society. … I’m a Messianic Jew – so what? Let’s get over it. I don’t feel persecuted, but I definitely feel like I am outside the camp.”
The Pope and the Vatican
The Jerusalem Post, March 4, 2014
Kenneth Bandler writes this piece about the new pope, Francis I, and his warm relations with the Jews. “There has never been a pope who has had as much intimacy, as much personal friendship, as much engagement with the Jewish community as Pope Francis,” says Rabbi David Rosen. And yet, according Bandler, “there still is much work to be done.” Many Catholics do not understand the Jewish roots of their faith. But with Pope Francis, “there is a good opportunity to deepen our relations.” The key to this is education: “We cannot assume that the achievements of the last generation will be absorbed by the current and next generations. In particular, there is a need to do more on education.” In addition, cooperation between Catholics and Jews can be strengthened in the area of religious freedom: “On this score, there is an appreciation within the Church that the same forces behind anti-Semitism also are violently striking out at Christians across the Middle East and certain parts of Africa.”
BeSheva, February 27, 2014
The government says it is not negotiating with the Vatican about King David’s Tomb on Mount Zion. A government official told the paper that “it is time to put an end to the rumors” that the government is planning on handing over the jurisdiction of said site to the Vatican.
Jewish Attitudes Concerning Christians
BeSheva, Sha’a Tova, February 27, 2014
These religious papers report that the Israeli army is by no means prepared to receive religious Jewish enlistees – a fact that was evidenced two weeks ago when a group of religious Jewish soldiers was “forced” to visit the Christian baptismal site of Qasr el-Yahud in the Jordan Valley. At first the new recruits refused to get off the bus, but eventually they had to comply with orders and were made to visit the church as well as witness a baby and some women being baptized into Christianity – “something that makes every Jewish soul feel sick.” This, say religious leaders, is what happens when secular Jews are left in charge. The army claims that the visit is part of a cultural day, but the religious leaders do not accept this: “There is no logical reason that in a Jewish nation … the army is preoccupied with the history of idol worshippers who, for generations, persecuted the nation of Israel in the name of ‘mercy and compassion.’”
Conversion to Christianity
The Jerusalem Post, February 28, 2014
This article tells the story of Bonnie Cohen and her husband, both American Jews who rediscovered their Jewish faith after their daughter “told them she was so moved by her roommate’s devout Christianity that she’d become a Jew for Jesus.” When this happened, the couple realized that they didn’t know how to argue with their daughter, and neither did their rabbi. But their “anguish and pursuit for answers for their daughter propelled their own search.” Eventually, Bonnie and her husband recommitted themselves to traditional Judaism and moved to Israel, where they now live.
Anti-Semitism
Yisrael HaYom, March 7, 2014
In an article covering one of the most blatant examples of anti-Semitism in recent history, the trial of the French-born Jew Alfred Dreyfus, Amit Levintal briefly mentions how anti-Semitism has changed in the modern era. Hatred for the Jews was no longer driven by the church, by rather by other means, like the media and social institutions. Accusations against the Jews no longer involved Jesus, but instead focused on the Jewish conspiracy to take over the world.
Archeology
Haaretz, March 7, 2014
A recent discovery of a heap of fish bones off the coast of Israel has given archeologists some clues about the way fish were transported and eaten in ancient times. In the Bible, fish are a “symbol of fertility,” but the symbol took on new meaning through the stories of the New Testament. One fish – the tilapia – is even named after Peter, and is a popular lunch dish with Christian pilgrims at restaurants on the Sea of Galilee. However, according to Mendel Nun, “most of the fish Jesus’ fishermen-disciples were catching were probably sardines. But tilapia are much more attractive as lunch for tourists.” Fish also appear on a number of ancient mosaics throughout Israel, the best known of them being the one that depicts “two fish and a basket of loaves, recalling the story of Jesus feeding 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish.” However, the fish depicted in the mosaic “probably did not hail from the Sea of Galilee.” Several other references are made to fish in the New Testament, including Mark 1:16, John 21:7, and Matthew 4:21.
Art
Haaretz, March 7, 2014
Eitan Boganim surveys the work of controversial American photographer Andrei Serrano who is known for his very provocative images. Serrano insists that he is a devout Christian, but some of his works have caused outrage among the Christian community worldwide. For example, in the late 1980s, Serrano displayed a glass jar containing a plastic Jesus on the cross and filled to the brim with the artist’s urine. Serrano says this work of art was meant to be religious, and that he was surprised by the anger and outrage it caused. However, he refuses to explain the meaning behind his work, because his faith, he says, “is private.” Indeed, his greatest wish is to be recognized by the pope – that the pope would commission him to do works of art for the church in the same way Michelangelo was commissioned. “My desire,” says Serrano, “is to encourage people to think and feel, to create images that they will remember, that will stick. … The worst thing an artist can do is create a work of art that people are apathetic to.”
Miscellaneous
Haaretz, March 7, 2014
This article describes the “war” being waged between the villages of Tel Yosef and Kfar HaGiladi over Joseph Trumpeldor’s prosthetic hand. Trumpeldor was one of the Jewish heroes of Zionism at the beginning of the 20th century. He lost his hand while fighting in the Russian-Japanese war in 1904, and when he arrived in Palestine in 1912 he had been fitted with a prosthetic hand. The prosthetic hand has been at the center of a dispute between the previously mentioned villages – a dispute that is reminiscent of Christian relic “wars.” The author briefly describes how in Christianity, relics can reach a status of holiness that makes them worth fighting over, or even stealing. “The closer the relic is to the generation of the founders – Jesus and the disciples – the more significance it has.” For the villages of Tel Yosef and Kfar HaGiladi, Trumpedor’s hand seems to have reached similar significance.
Christian Zionism
Beshvil HaBika, March 4, 2014
The tulips planted by an group of Israel-loving Christians from Holland have begun to bloom in the village of Na’ama. This is a yearly tradition – the group arrives in November and plants the bulbs, and the residents of Na’ama enjoy the results the following spring.