During the week covered by this review, we received 9 articles on the following subjects:
Political Issues
Political Issues / Christian Organizations
Anti-Missionary Attitudes
Interfaith Relations
Film / Christian Zionism / Interfaith Relations
Archeology
Political Issues
Maariv, September 6, 2020; Haaretz, September 6, 2020
President Donald Trump has brokered an economic agreement between Serbia and Kosovo, which included a clause asserting mutual recognition between Israel and Kosovo. Trump also said that Serbia would move its embassy to Tel Aviv next summer. By making Israel part of this economic deal, both articles argued that it is meant as a political nod to Trump’s Evangelical base.
Political Issues / Christian Organizations
Haaretz, September 9, 2020
The Israeli Ministry of Interior is reported to have given entry permits to 70 Evangelical volunteers, despite the current ban on any incoming visitors that are not Israeli citizens. The volunteers, who were brought over by the Christian organization, Yovel, are planning on working in vineyards belonging to settlers in the West Bank. Yovel was established fifteen years ago and has thus far brought 3,000 Christian volunteers to work in the West Bank.
Anti-Missionary Attitudes
Haaretz, September 9, 2020
A sculptor has donated a statue of a lion to the Jerusalem Municipality, which has been installed near the King David Hotel. This article critiqued a TV report about the statue, which argued that a “statue symbolizing Jesus has been placed in the heart of Jerusalem”. The TV report said that the lion is hiding a missionary message, because Jesus is likened to a lion in the New Testament, and that missionaries often give gifts that look innocent but are not. The author of the article responded that the statue just looked like a lion and nothing more nefarious, and that if it is a problem that Jesus was likened to a lion in the New Testament, “what is to become of the lions in the Safari in Ramat Gan?”
Interfaith Relations
Matzav Ruach, September 4, 2020
This article told the story of a mixed marriage between a Jewish mother and Christian father. The couple got married in a church, and the article noted that the mother converted to Christianity for the occasion, while considering her status change a formality only. After having children, the mother started to become interested in Judaism again, and then decided to divorce her husband because she came to believe mixed marriages were wrong. She then turned to Lehava, a Jewish organization devoted to preventing mixed marriages and Jewish assimilation, asking for their help. Her husband agreed to give her full custody of the children, but the church required that the kids convert to Christianity first before granting the divorce. The matter is still in court, and Lehava said it was committed to ensuring the children remain Jewish.
Film / Christian Zionism / Interfaith Relations
Haaretz, September 8, 2020
An Israeli filmmaker, Maya Zinshtein, has made a documentary about the relationship between an Evangelical church in a small town in Kentucky, and the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, run by Yael Eckstein. The documentary, entitled “Until the End of the World”, showed the devotion of these Evangelicals, who despite relatively poor earnings, still donated significantly to the Fellowship. Many of them were Republicans and Trump supporters. The Fellowship is funded mostly by Evangelicals, who donate hundreds of millions of shekels every year. The film showed Evangelicals who claimed they wanted the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians to worsen so that Palestinians would leave the Holy Land, in order to rid it of a significant Muslim population. The article criticized the film for not addressing the “elephant in the room”, that is, the eschatological beliefs of these Evangelicals who see the establishment of the State of Israel as a stepping stone towards Armageddon and the establishment of a new Christian kingdom.
Archeology
Haaretz, September 10, 2020; The Jerusalem Post, September 10, 2020; Israel Hayom, September 10, 2020
All three articles discussed a new study that has come out of the University of Tel Aviv, which hired a forensic handwriting specialist to analyze 18 letters written more than 2,600 year ago by Judean soldiers stationed in the Tel Arad military post. The analysis concluded that at least 12 different people had written the 18 letters, indicating that there was widespread literacy throughout the Kingdom of Judah. The soldiers were likely low ranking given their location, which means that even within the lower strata of society, there was significant literacy. These findings support the theory that Deuteronomy and Kings, at least, were written during the First Temple Period, likely under the reign of Josiah. That is because there would have been a literate audience for whom these texts were intended. One article said: “When you see that literacy reached these levels, it means that the elites could use the written medium to spread theological, political, and territorial ideas.”