During the week covered by this review, we received 5 articles on the following subjects:
Christian Zionism
Anti-Missionary Activity
Christians and the Holocaust
Jewish-Christian Relations
Anti-Semitism
Christian Zionism
The Jerusalem Post, January 28, 2016
Jay Rawlings and Duke Westover are to be honored at a “Night to Honor our Christian Allies” on February 4, during which they will receive awards “for their steadfast commitment to Israel” from the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus and the World Jewish Congress. Rawlings will be recognized for “having produced, directed and written more than 130 documentaries about Israel, smuggling information on behalf of refusenik Jews in the Soviet Union, and founding Israel Vision TV, which seeks to challenge, inform and inspire a wide audience to stand up against bigotry, racism and ignorance regarding Israel.” Duke Westover will be presented with the Tourism Award, for having organized, with his wife Carlene, more than 75 tours to Israel, attended by thousands of people. “Today it is Christians not countries that stand with Israel. We must recognize the importance of that support and encourage it whenever we can,” said caucus director Josh Reinstein.
Anti-Missionary Activity
Yediot Haifa, January 22, 2016
Arieh Blittenthal, vice-mayor of Haifa, wishes to alert the public to booklets published by Keren Ahva Meshichit [a Messianic Jewish publishing firm] that were recently distributed in the city. The books contain the Psalms, the New Testament, a New Testament glossary, and the call of a rabbi to Jews to “find the truth and recognize Yeshua, King of the Jews.” Blittenthal protests the fact that the material was published without making it immediately apparent to the reader that its purpose is missionary, and calls upon the public “not to be tempted into taking gifts from the Messianic entity offering them.”
Christians and the Holocaust
The Jerusalem Post, January 25, 2016
The Polish town of Suwalski unveiled a monument on Friday, January 22, in Polish, Hebrew, and English, in memory of the thousands of its Jewish residents who perished in the Holocaust. The town’s Jewish community dated from 1821 and composed “one-third of the town’s population before they were deported.”
Jewish-Christian Relations
The Jerusalem Post, January 24, 2016
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, responding to the media treatment of the US United Methodist Church pension fund’s withdrawing its funds from five Israeli banks “which support Israel’s policies in the territories” (see previous Reviews), is of the opinion that although this appears to be a victory for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, “the real picture tells a much different story.” Recounting some of the Jewish-Christian history and speaking specifically from his standpoint as founder of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, Eckstein states that the fellowship “has millions of devoted followers around the world, and has raised more than 1.25 billion for Israel and the Jewish people.” Additionally, the mainline Protestant denominations continue to dwindle in number, and in fact constitute a mere “old guard,” the Methodist vote specifically being “a final gasp by an increasingly irrelevant body desperate for a bit of PR.” Rather than focus on these anti-Israel voices, Eckstein urges coalitions “with our friends and supporters who have withstood the BDS movement and remained shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel.”
Anti-Semitism
The Jerusalem Post, January 20, 2016
On January 20, 1942, fifteen high-ranking Nazi officials met together in what has become known as the Wannsee Conference, to decide on “the final solution to the Jewish question in Europe.” Later, this “final solution” was implemented in death camps all over German-occupied Europe.