During the week covered by this review, we received 13 articles on the following subjects:
Messianic Jews (individuals) / Political Issues
Political Issues / Christian Zionism
Israeli Attitudes to Christianity
Anti-Missionary Activity
Anti-Missionary Attitudes
Interfaith Dialogue
Messianic Jews (individuals) / Political Issues
The Jerusalem Post, October 30, 2020
The vice president nominee for the Libertarian Party in the USA is a Messianic Jew named Jeremy “Spike” Cohen. Cohen ran alongside Dr. Jo Jorgensen. Cohen said that many Jews did not consider him to be a real Jew on account of his belief in Jesus, and on account of his mother being a gentile. However, Cohen said he is influenced by Maimonides and Hillel, and that he is observant. He is known to have encouraged Jews to take up arms to protect themselves from anti-Semitic attacks, and hopes to work with Jorgensen “to end wars, free the innocent and end the infringement that impedes voluntary problem-solving”.
Political Issues / Christian Zionism
Various Articles
A number of articles discussed President Trump’s Evangelical supporters. One article said that Evangelicalism is a stream within Christianity that believes Jews need to be in control of the Holy Land, and that Christians need to bless Israel in order to be blessed. Thousands of Evangelicals arrive each year to visit or volunteer in settlements in the West Bank, and during Trump’s presidency the number of Evangelical visitors to the Cave of the Machpelah increased to encompass a third of total visits. It was written that Evangelical children are raised to believe that they have a moral responsibility towards Israel, and the culture of Evangelicalism revolves around support for Israel. American Jewish voters, however, are Democrats and do not support Trump. In contrast, Haredi Americans did vote for Trump – not primarily because the President moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem, or declared Israeli sovereignty in the Golan (in fact, the article claimed these issues do not matter to the Haredi community), but mostly because the Haredi community shares a conservative view of social life that puts it more in line with the Republican Party. It was said Evangelicals believe final salvation will come only after Armageddon, a war in which most Jews will perish, and after which they will be forced to choose between fire or conversion. Pastor John Hagee, a prominent Trump supporter and Christian Zionist, once said that the Holocaust happened by God’s design, in order to return Jews to the Holy Land.
One article was an interview with Josh Reinstein, author of Titus, Trump and the Triumph of Israel – the Power of Faith-Based Diplomacy, director of the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus, and president of the Israel Allies Foundation. In the interview, Reinstein argued that no American president has been as supportive of Israel as Trump. He predicted that Trump would win reelection in the US. Reinstein is also the founder of Israel Now News, which broadcasts news to millions of Christians around the world. In his book, Reinstein argues that the political situation in Israel cannot be understood without a biblical worldview, and said he believed that President Trump would declare his support for Israel’s sovereignty in the West Bank before the elections, or very soon after.
Israeli Attitudes to Christianity
Yedioth HaSharon, October 30, 2020
Parents of school students in Herzliya have protested against a Halloween party planned in one of the schools. Parents said Halloween was a “Christian holiday” and that celebrating Halloween constituted “Christian brainwashing”.
Anti-Missionary Activity
Various Articles
A number of articles reported again that two “missionary organizations”, including Messianic Jewish organization, “Yachad Ramat HaSharon”, have not been granted tax exempt status. Opposition leader, Yair Lapid, reportedly said: “We are voting against missionaries working to convert Jews. It is the right of the Jewish people to protect itself and its children.”
Anti-Missionary Attitudes
The Jerusalem Report, November 1, 2020
This article was about a former Evangelical missionary, Shannon Nuezen, who converted to Orthodox Judaism. Nuezen was born in the US to a minister of an Assemblies of God church. As she grew up, she got more involved in the Messianic Jewish movement and became an evangelist to Jews. But the more she studied what rabbis had to say about Christianity in order to know how to debate Jews, the more her own Christian faith was shaken. She finished her conversion to Orthodox Judaism in 2009, and her father eventually became a Noahide. Nuezen said that every Evangelical Christian is meant to evangelize, and “to the Jew first”. Often this is done through building relationships and friendships rather than through in-your-face proselytizing. Missionaries do not see themselves as being deceitful, and genuinely want to bless Israel. They will say, “we don’t believe Jews have to convert to Christianity” because Evangelical missionaries genuinely want Jews to stay Jewish but to still accept Jesus as the Messiah. Nuezen now works as a “missionary awareness consultant” in Israel, monitoring missionary activities and advising interfaith organizations. She said, “Evangelicals have a very strong foothold here in Israel and have infiltrated just about every part of our society.”
Interfaith Relations
The Jerusalem Report, November 1, 2020
October 2020 marks the 55th year since Nostra Aetate, which came out in 1965 during the Second Vatican Council, shifted Catholic-Jewish relations. The author of this article, a rabbi, argued that after 1965 “we have moved from persecution to partnership, from confrontation to cooperation, from diatribe to dialogue.” He also said, however, that many still remain ignorant of others’ religious beliefs, and that more work needs to be done to include interfaith education in school curricula. Christians, he said, “have done much more to educate their people about Jews and Judaism than we Jews have done to educate our people about Christians and Christianity. This is undoubtedly due to the asymmetrical nature of Jewish-Christian history, and the fact that Judaism is more integral to Christianity than the reverse.” Finally, he especially urged initiating interfaith dialogue with Muslim communities.