During the week covered by this review, we received 5 articles on the following subjects:
Political Issues
Anti-Missionary Activity
Interfaith Relations
Arab Believing Community
Political Issues
Maariv, May 19, 2019; Haaretz, May 23, 2019
The first article was an opinion piece exploring a recent poll in which 42% of American Jews said President Donald Trump’s support for Israel was exaggerated. By contrast, only 15% of American Evangelicals shared the same opinion. In fact, 72% of Evangelicals said they were happy with the level of Trump’s pro-Israel policies. The author went on to ask whether Israelis are able to express gratitude for Evangelical support, and in that regard, noted positively that the International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem (ICEJ) was recently awarded the Yakir Keren Hayesod Award for the Christian organization’s pro-Zionist activism. ICEJ was recognized, in particular, for helping to bring Jews to Israel. The author said that this award was evidence of the growing connection between Israeli Jews and Evangelicals.
The second article reported that an Evangelical church in Miami, pastored by Alberto Delgado, postponed an event in support of Israel in response to the fact that the Israeli consul general participated in a gay pride parade. Delgado said he was worried Israeli participation in the parade would lower support for Israel amongst Evangelicals. Delgado is known as a supporter of Israel and of President Trump.
Anti-Missionary Activity
Hamevasser, May 22, 2019
Levinsky College in Israel is reported to have invited Messianic Jewish speakers from the “missionary Christian cult” to its campus. Yad L’Achim got wind of the event and turned up to confront the missionaries, passing around anti-missionary information to the students in attendance. Yad L’Achim said they had good responses from the students, who reportedly did know they were attending an event put on by a “cult”. Yad L’Achim has sent a letter to Levinsky College demanding that it allow a cult expert give a talk on campus that will expose “the real face” of the missionaries.
Interfaith Relations
Hadashot Haifa VeHatzafon, May 22, 2019
A group of students from a Christian school in Heidelberg, Germany, recently visited the city of Kiryat Bialik in Israel and were hosted by families of Israeli youth. The mixed group of Israeli Jewish and German Christian youth visited different places together, including Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem).
Arab Believing Community
Index Ha’Emek VeHagalil, May 17, 2019
This article reported that the percentage of students eligible to graduate from high school is much higher in the Jewish community than in the Arab community. However, if broken down into religious affiliation, the percentages shift. Jewish schools have a 76.1% graduation rate, while Christian Arabs graduate at a rate of 72.3%. In contrast, Muslims graduate at a rate of 58.4%. The discrepancy between Christian and Muslims Arabs is partly explained by the fact that Christians tend to go to private schools and are generally in a higher socio-economic bracket.