November 16 – 2021

During the week covered by this review, we received 8 articles on the following subjects:

 

Israeli / Jewish Attitudes Concerning Christians / Christianity

Anti-Missionary Attitudes

Christians in Israel

Christians and the Holocaust

 

Israeli / Jewish Attitudes Concerning Christians / Christianity

Various articles

Religious and ultra-Orthodox students complained that they are required to study Christian theology in depth, as part of the tour guide course of the Ministry of Tourism, and claimed an “exclusion on religious grounds”, because according to Jewish Law, they should not be exposed to these subjects. Recently, a religious student approached Yad L’Achim, asking whether she is permitted to study subjects that are considered very controversial in the eyes of Judaism. She attached dozens of pages that included various Christian concepts, such as churches and holy Christian sites, Christian books, Christian theology and more.

In response, Yad L’Achim attached a reply on behalf of Rabbi Yehuda Silman, one of the greatest ultra-Orthodox arbitrators in Israel, according to the article. “This is terrible, and there is no doubt that it is severely forbidden,” Yad L’Achim claimed. “This ruling shows that a Jew cannot be a tour guide in the Land of Israel. The procedures are distorted and must change.”

The Ministry of Tourism rejected the allegations, maintaining that it is not possible to study the history of the Land of Israel without essential parts. “A qualified guide must know the history of the State of Israel and the history of the Land of Israel. Long and important chapters in the history of the Land are closely linked with the history of Christianity,” the Ministry of Tourism explained.

 

Mekomi Dati, November 5, 2021

This article claimed that the Scots Hotel in Tiberias, which it referred to as a church, had “taken over a Jewish cemetery”, after they allegedly paved a parking lot there, contrary to earlier agreements. According to the article, four years ago, excavations were carried out in a section of an ancient cemetery near the Scots Hotel, where, according to Jewish tradition, Rabbi Isaac Nappaha is buried. Rabbi Raphael Cohen, the head of the city’s Kashrut Department, claims that he has documents proving that the rabbi is buried there. According to Cohen, the plot was registered to the municipality of Tiberias, and was somehow handed over to the Scots Hotel, supposedly in exchange for land, and the church people are plotting to build a church there. He asked the local municipality to “stop the terrible disgrace”.

 

Anti-Missionary Attitudes

Kfar Chabad, November 4, 2021

As reported in our last review, this was another article claiming that Yad L’Achim “exposed a gentile Messianic family that has lived in disguise” in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood of Jerusalem. The Argentinian family supposedly immigrated to Israel using a Jewish name, when in fact, they were not Jews. According to the article, the family participated in missionary activity, until they were exposed by Yad L’Achim.

 

Christians in Israel

Hamevaser, November 8, 2021; Hamachane Hacharedi, November 11, 2021

A British university is being strongly criticized for releasing a report that alleged Christians in Israel are at “grave risk”. The report, titled “Defeating Minority Exclusion and Unlocking Potential: Christianity in the Holy Land”, was co-authored by Birmingham University Professor Francis Davis, of the university’s Edward Cadbury Centre for the Public Understanding of Religion. It claimed that Christians in Israel faced “discriminatory policies”, including an “educational culture that encourages Jewish children to treat Christians with ‘contempt’”. It also made the charge that “such habits have not been adequately policed by the criminal justice system.”

The claim of the research paper was challenged by the UK Israeli Embassy, the Jewish Chronicle newspaper reported. “While Christians and other minority groups are persecuted across the Middle East, Israel is the only country in the region where the Christian population is growing,” embassy spokesperson Ohad Zemet told the Chronicle. Zemet described Israeli Christians as an “integral part of the Israeli society”. Christian community members “serve in senior positions in both the private and public sectors. No research can overlook those facts and the regional context,” he said.

 

Christians and the Holocaust

Olam Katan, November 12, 2021

As reported in the last two reviews, Father Gregor Pawlowski, the Jewish bishop of Jaffa whose parents and siblings were murdered by the Nazis passed away at the age of 91. Born in the town of Zamość in eastern Poland, which was home to about 4,000 Jews, who, during World War II were cruelly murdered over open pits, Father Gregor Pawlowski survived the war, and grew up to become a Catholic priest. He immigrated to Israel and settled in Jaffa, where he served the Polish speaking community for 38 years. He was buried as a Jew next to a mass grave in Poland, where his mother and sisters are buried.