During the week covered by this review, we received 7 articles on the following subjects:
Christian Zionism
The Pope and the Vatican
Christian Tourism
Jerusalem
Film
Art
Christian Zionism
Maariv, January 31, 2017
In this article, David Parsons of the International Christian Embassy analyzes possible changes in policy related to the Israeli public that may flow from the new Donald Trump administration. The first of these changes is likely to be in the attitude towards Israel. “Trump criticized the fact that outgoing President Barack Obama increased military aid and intelligence cooperation” with Israel, but at the same time “purposely acted to drive a wedge between Israel and the US on issues critical to Jerusalem.”
The second of these changes is likely to result from Trump being “open and closer to Israel-loving Evangelicals,” as seen by the fact that “he chose an avowed Evangelical for his vice-president in Michael Pence.” The third of these changes is Trump’s declaration of his intention to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. Parsons ends by saying that “Jerusalem must remain open to the believers of all religions, but the Jewish people is the right one to hold sovereignty over the city. Trump’s promise to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem is causing anger in various communities, but on the other hand can bring real hope in the city in the jubilee year to its liberation.”
The Pope and the Vatican
The Jerusalem Post, January 30, 2017
Friday, January 27th is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in 1945 and is now observed as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On this day in 2017, Pope Francis met with a delegation from the European Jewish Congress, during which he “stressed the need for Christians to recall the Holocaust so that this human tragedy never happens again.” However, on his official Twitter feed, the pope said on the same day, “today I want to remember in my heart all the victims of the Holocaust. May their sufferings and their tears never be forgotten,” without making specific mention of the Jews. Monsignor Janusz Urbanczyk, the Vatican’s representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, speaking to an OSCE Permanent Council meeting, said, “the Holocaust teaches us that utmost vigilance is always needed to be able to take prompt action in defense of human dignity and peace.”
Christian Tourism
Haaretz, January 27, 2017
This article covers a tour called “The Best of the West Bank,” operated by Jerusalem’s Abraham Hostel, which the writer joined shortly before Christmas, 2016. The article covers a variety of tourist sites in the Palestinian areas. Of particular note among them is the Mount of Temptation near Jericho, a pilgrimage site where, according to Christian tradition, Jesus withstood temptation by Satan for 40 days; the Greek Orthodox cliffside Quruntal monastery; the Christian village of Taibe and the Khouri beer brewery in it; and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
Gal Mor of the Abraham Hostel stated that the goal of the tour is “to expose [the tourists] to local life so that they would develop a curiosity and an opinion of their own about the region and the conflict.” The consensus among the local tour guides and tour operators interviewed appears to be a cautious optimism about building the tourism industry in Palestinian Authority areas, many citing “the occupation, the checkpoints, the separation fence, the settlements and the roads that don’t match the scenery” as the main obstacles to development. The tour guide for this particular trip, however, also said about working with Israelis that “we are the continuation of each other, and the problems, when they arise, are with the authorities, not the people.”
Jerusalem
HaChayim HaTovim, January 27, 2017
The Sir Moses Montefiore windmill was renovated and renewed operation in 2012. Built in 1857 as a way “to enable the poor of Jerusalem to grind their wheat at a lower price than that demanded by the Arab millers,” it operated for the following twenty years, but eventually ceased operations due to the difficulty in replacing parts and the building of a steam-operated mill nearby.
The idea to renew the windmill’s operation as a flour mill came from two members of the Christians for Israel organization, based in Amsterdam, also known for its annual donations of tulip bulbs, planted in gardens all over Jerusalem. A delegation of experts on reconstruction was sent free of charge as a gift from the Dutch people to Jerusalem to mark the 65th anniversary of Israel’s independence, and the project began though funding from the Jerusalem Foundation and a grant from the prime minister’s office.
Film
The Jerusalem Post, January 27, 2017
Two Zions, produced and directed by Cheryl Halpern, will be screened at Beit HaTfutzot in Tel-Aviv on January 29th. This film is a documentary on “the living legacy of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba,” the two Zions being Jerusalem and Axum in Ethiopia.
Art
Haaretz, January 30, The Jerusalem Post, February 3, 2017
This article surveys various art exhibitions currently on display in Israeli museums. Of particular note among them is the Behold the Man: Jesus in Israeli Art, at the Israel Museum until April 16, and curated by Dr. Amitai Mendelsohn.
The artistic works are “surprising” and “varied” in their representations, and date from the 19th century to the present day. Mendelsohn emphasizes, however, that “the exhibition looks at the man, and not at Christianity per se.” He notes Jesus was “the source of the fiercest theological debate of the last 2,000 years.” Jewry’s stance on Jesus “only began to change in the 18th century,” leading to revolutionary works such as Maurycy Gottlieb’s Christ Preaching at Capernaum and Marc Chagall’s The Crucified, which recognized Jesus as being completely Jewish. In summary, the works present Jesus “as a symbol of Jewish suffering in the diaspora and during the Holocaust, as a symbol of resurrection and renewal in connection with the resurrection of the Jewish people in their land, as a model of the tortured artist since he opposed the establishment or as an image of the weak and rejected victim in today’s society.”