During the week covered by this review, we received 6 articles on the following subjects:
Anti-missionary Activities
Book Reviews
Interfaith Relations/Dialogue
Conversion to Judaism
Anti-missionary Activities
Hamevaser, June 29, 2022; Shacharit, June 29, 2022; Besheva, June 30, 2022
Yad L’Achim announced that, after nine years, they have finally managed to persuade a “senior Israeli missionary” to return to Judaism. According to them, the man in question grew up in a religious home and studied in a yeshivah, but “lacking guidance from parents or teachers, he fell under the influence of Christian missionaries … by misquoting Bible verses and taking things out of context.” He allegedly “turned into a fiery preacher, delivering his sermons on a variety of platforms… to convert as many Jews as possible.” For nine years, Yad L’Achim activists tried to persuade him to return to Judaism, but only after asking him a very difficult theological question, were they able to “open his eyes to the truth” that Messianic Judaism is a “cult of liars and cheats.” The man supposedly abandoned his Messianic faith and returned to Judaism. “The missionaries are very nice to you as long as they see a possibility of trapping a Jew. But when they find out that you’re not interested in them, they turn very aggressive and dangerous. That’s what it was like with me the minute they saw my posts about leaving Christianity. I received hundreds of notices, some of them threatening, from my previous ‘friends’,” he claimed, adding that, “For nine long years I was in the cult. Now I’m beginning my return to Judaism and will try to influence all the Jews that I dragged into the cult and bring them back. It’s never too late.” The article, although otherwise very detailed, failed to disclose the nature of the above-mentioned “difficult theological question.”
Book Reviews
Haaretz, July 1, 2022
This was a review of the recent Hebrew translation of the book The Alexiad, written around 1148, by Anna Comnena, the eldest daughter of Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus (reigned 1081–1118). Comnena “knowingly did something that no woman of her society and time has done,” and wrote a history book, providing a unique perspective of the Crusades, as well as accounts of daily life and customs in Byzantium during that time. She was well versed, repeatedly quoting Homer as well as passages from the Old and New Testaments in her book. The article praised the book, and called the translation into Hebrew an “important cultural event” and an “invaluable contribution.”
Interfaith Relations/Dialogue
Makor Rishon, July 1, 2022
This article talked about the “Israeli Guard” unit which was launched by the Border Police last week, in light of widespread riots and violence within Israel during the recent operation “Guardian of the Walls.” The purpose of the Israeli Guard is to provide a new framework for recruiting both police officers and civilian volunteers, and to improve the emergency response of Israeli security forces to threats, thereby increasing the security of the State of Israel and the personal security of Israeli citizens. The Israeli Guard includes “citizens from all ethnic groups, a human tapestry representing Israeli society as a whole, with Muslims, Christians, Druze, Circassians and Jews… who want to partake in the national effort to maintain the security of the citizens.”
Conversion to Judaism
Shabbaton, July 1, 2022
This article told the story of Adam (previously Wan Hu), a young man from South Korea. Adam grew up as a Christian, in a society that was greatly anti-semitic. While he was in university, he came across a Bible in Hebrew, a language he was unfamiliar with. He also learned about Israel, which he had always believed to be an ancient country that no longer existed. He started researching the subject, and eventually decided to abandon his faith in Jesus and become an Orthodox Jew. Adam immigrated to Israel, married an Orthodox woman and currently lives in the Golan Heights with his wife and two young children.