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Contents
Israel Welcomes the Pope
1993: Israel's Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau and Pope John Paul II meet at the Vatican
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On March 21, 2000, His Holiness Pope John Paul II is due to arrive in Israel for a five-day pilgrimage that will take him to Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth and other places in Galilee associated with the birth of Christianity two millennia ago. For the pope, this will be the realization of a long-held and oft-expressed wish, and he will be warmly welcomed, not only by the Government of Israel but also - as evidenced by a recent Gallup Poll - by the people of Israel. And the reason is not hard to find:
This pope, more than any other before him, has taken a long series of bold steps along a path already charted, before him, by Pope John XXIII - the path of historic reconciliation with the Jewish people, on the basis of the Church's unflinching acknowledgment of its own role in paving the way, over the centuries, for what Pope John Paul II himself called "those unspeakable crimes" of the Nazi regime in the middle of the last century of the second millennium.
As the pope justly pointed out in an address at the Vatican on April 7, 1994, we must recognize that "antisemitism, xenophobia and racial hatred... were the seeds" of those Nazi crimes, and Catholics and Jews must now work together to resist "the many new manifestations" of these seeds in the world today. That was merely one of many occasions on which the pope expressed himself in these and similar terms.
Moreover, long before the Holy See dispatched its first diplomatic envoy to Israel, in 1994, Pope John Paul II gave full recognition (April 20, 1984) to Jewish nationhood, by right, in the Land of Israel:
For the Jewish people who live in the State of Israel and who preserve in that land such precious testimonies to their history and their faith, we must ask for the desired security and the due tranquillity that are the prerogative of every nation . . .
The pope comes to the Holy Land invoking the name of Jesus - and that of Father Abraham. By the very same token, he was able to make his now-famous proclamation, during his historic visit to the Great Synagogue of Rome on April 13, 1986:
With Judaism, we have a relationship that we do not have with other religions. You are our dearly beloved brothers; in a certain way, indeed, it could be said that you are our elder brothers.
Again invoking the name of our common ancestor, Pope John Paul II, writing to the Jews of Poland on the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, issued this simple yet eloquent and most meaningful appeal (as reported in L'Osservatore Romano, August 17, 1993):
As Christians and Jews, following the example of the faith of Abraham, we are called to be a blessing to the world (cf. Gen. 12:2 ff.). This is the common task awaiting us. It is therefore necessary for us, Christians and Jews, to be first a blessing to one another.
To which we would add but one word: Amen!
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Chief Rabbi Lau: 'Papal Visit Could Open a New Page'
Speaking to an Israel Radio newsman on December 20, Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau had this to say concerning Pope John Paul II and the Pope's planned visit to Israel:
"I expect that this visit will have positive results. Indeed, it could open a new page in the relations between our peoples and our faiths. The pattern of our relations, and especially with the Catholic Church, for a very long time was filled with agony and suffering, and drenched in blood - in a one-sided fashion. It was this pope who appointed a commission, headed by Cardinal Cassidy, which ultimately asked the Jewish people's forgiveness, in particular against the background of the horrors of the Shoah. . . We saw in this the beginning of a reconciliation and a historic forward step. . . And thus this pope followed in the footsteps of Pope John XXIII, who earlier had removed from the Catholic liturgy the historic injustice of the accusation of deicide that has been levelled against us through the ages. . . The present pope is, I believe, one of the best ever to rule the Church."
The Great Mosque Mystery
By Malcolm Lowe
Proposed site of mosque - clearly a considerable distance from the Basilica
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For many months, Christians around the world have been disturbed by a reported threat to the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth. Fundamentalist Muslims were said to have erected a temporary mosque right outside the basilica and were planning to build a permanent mosque that would tower over the church, dear to all Catholic Christians.
Visitors to the church, however, have been mystified. The church lies in a walled compound with high gates. Not only do they find no Muslims there; they cannot see where a mosque could be built anywhere near the church.
Actually, the solution to this mystery is quite simple.
There are such Muslims, to be sure, and there was a temporary mosque (more precisely, a "protest tent") - but at another site altogether. If you go out through the gates of the church compound and walk down the hill, you pass various buildings, a side street and more buildings. Only then do you reach the site (see photo). It is a triangular plot of land between the two streets, which was recently cleared to form a building site.
So, first, a mosque on this site does not threaten the church. Second, it is the church that will look down upon the mosque, though from a distance, and not the mosque upon the church.
Nobody Bothered to Check
Apparently, some journalist once reported that the site lies "next to the church." The entire world press, including Israeli newspapers, then repeated this error endlessly without making an independent check. Countless opinion pieces and editorials were written about "why the Israeli authorities would permit such a thing." But there never was "such a thing;" the authorities, in fact, were trying to solve a very different - and real - problem.
A full account of how this problem came about will be found elsewhere in this issue (see story on Page 3). Bottom Line: The district court that looked into the case ruled that only one-tenth of the site in question belonged to the Muslim religious trust (the Wakf); the rest of the 2,000 square meters was state land, which the Nazareth Municipality planned to use as a point where buses could drop off and pick up pilgrims visiting the nearby church.
A ministerial committee set up by the government - focusing, rightly, not on an imaginary conflict between a church and a mosque, but on a real conflict between a mosque and a bus stop - worked out a plan (see "Ruling," Page 2) designed to meet the essential requirements of both sides, without causing harm or hardship to either.
Like any compromise, this one too requires both sides to "give a little" for the sake of the agreement - and for the sake of continued harmony in Nazareth, which boasts a long history of peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims.
The Muslims have agreed to hold off on actual construction of the mosque until after the year 2000. Let us hope and pray that, in the course of this inaugural year of the new millennium, the hitherto warring factions can move towards a true meeting of the minds and the hearts, in the spirit of the words of the Prophet (Jeremiah 32:39) - "And I will give them one heart and one way. . . for the good of them and of their children after them."
The Nazareth Dispute: Background
By Malcolm Lowe
To gain a proper understanding of the nature of the Muslim-Christian dispute in Nazareth, it is necessary to become familiar with the chain of events that led up to it. The following is a brief recapitulation of these events:
A century ago, under Turkish rule, a government school was built some distance downhill from the Basilica of the Annunciation. When the dilapidated school was demolished recently, the Mayor of Nazareth became concerned that the large number of pilgrim buses expected during the millennium year would get in each other's way if they all tried to drive up to the church itself. He therefore decided to use the empty site as a point where buses could drop off pilgrims, on their way up the hill to the church, and pick them up again later at a prearranged time.
Muslim Protest Tent
Before he could realize his plan, however, a group of Muslims moved onto the site, claiming that the school had been built on land belonging to the Muslim religious trust (Wakf). They set up a protest tent, declaring it to be a temporary mosque, and demanded to be allowed to build a permanent mosque there. At the ensuing municipal elections, the Christian mayor was re-elected, but the Muslims gained a majority in the municipal council.
With the municipality paralyzed, the issue of ownership was brought before the Nazareth District Court. The court, however, issued its ruling only in the autumn of 1999, and in the meantime the dispute over the mayor's bus stop turned into a clan war between Muslims and Christians. The resentments broke out into fighting, first around Christmas 1998 and then, on a large scale, during Easter Week 1999. Many Christian shops were smashed up.
Worse still, ancient memories were invoked. The mosque was intended to commemorate the grave of a nephew of Saladin, the 12th century Muslim general who broke the grip of the Crusaders on the land. On the other hand, the Latin (Roman Catholic) Church is seen by fundamentalist Muslims as the heir of the Crusaders.
In September of last year, the Nazareth District Court finally handed down its ruling: It found that, although the municipality had operated the school, it did not own the land. About one-tenth of the site did indeed belong to the Muslim religious trust. The rest of the 2,000 square meters was state land, and only the central government, not the local parties, could decide upon its use.
End of Story?
The ministerial committee set up by the government, in the wake of this ruling, to look into the matter and find a solution decided to allocate two-thirds of the site to the bus stop and to allow the Muslims to build a mosque on the remainder, under certain specified conditions (see Page 2), using their own land and some of the adjoining state land.
The government's ruling infuriated the Latins, who felt that the Muslims had "won the war." They appealed to their spiritual leader, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, who himself comes from a Nazareth family. Indeed, two of his relatives were injured in the riots. He called upon all the churches in the country to close for two days in protest against the government's decision.
Inquirers have been told by the Latin Patriarchate that no further action is contemplated, if there is no more Muslim violence. Meanwhile, the rest of the world still wrongly imagines that a mosque will soon overlook the church.
Gov't Committee Ruling
Following are the provisions of the government committee's ruling concerning the Nazareth dispute:
- The area on which the mosque will be erected will not exceed 700 square meters. [This is about one-third of the total area of the municipal square. - Ed.] For this purpose, the Israel Lands Administration [which owns most of the land comprising the square] will lease up to 450 sq.m. of its land to the Muslim religious trust, to be added to the 250 sq.m. owned by the trust.
- A tourist information center will be set up on the municipal square including, as part of that center, a tourist police station; the police station will not be located in the immediate vicinity of the mosque.
- The remaining area of the square will be leased to the Municipality of Nazareth, for the purpose of developing it as a public square with facilities for tourists.
- A physical separation will be established between the mosque and the public square.
- An international team of experts will be appointed, headed by the Planning Officer for the Northern District in the Ministry of the Interior, to propose a number of alternative planning options for the mosque that is to be erected on the site, taking into account the needs of the town as a whole.
- The Municipality will make its recommendation to the competent planning authorities concerning the preferred option for the mosque, and the planning procedures will be expedited as much as possible.
- The recommendations and proposals of the team of experts (Para. 5 above) will be brought to the attention of the citizens of Nazareth.
- The cornerstone-laying ceremony will take place on November 8, 1999. In anticipation of this event, the protest tent will be dismantled, and the area will be cleared of all structures and other objects.
(The committee was composed of Minister for Internal Security Shlomo Ben-Ami, Chairman; Minister of the Interior Natan Sharansky; Minister for Jerusalem Haim Ramon; Minister of Science, Culture and Sport Matan Vilnai; and Minister of Tourism Amnon Lipkin-Shahak.)
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The Last Word
"That Israel is once again to blame, when Christians and Muslims in Nazareth cannot agree, can only be described as typical. The Jews have always been blamed for everything. It began with the catastrophes of the Middle Ages; and, as is well known, it was the case during the Nazi era. This, too, is a reason for God's judgment of the world's nations. In the end, it is God alone who is right!"
Conno Malgo, Chief Correspondent of Nachrichten Aus Israel, a Swiss magazine, Dec. 1999
Cardinal Martini in Israel With 1,200 Italian Pilgrims
Cardinal Martini
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Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the Archbishop of Milan, the largest Roman Catholicdiocese in Europe, visited Israel in November at the head of a delegation of some 1,200 pilgrims from his diocese. His visit to Israel followed a tour that included Syria, Jordan and Egypt.
One of the highlights of Cardinal Martini's visit was a meeting with Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, on November 11 at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem. The meeting was attended also by the Director of the Israel Office of the Anti-Defamation League, Rabbi David Rosen; Prof. Alfredo Rabello, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; veteran Israeli diplomat Natan Ben-Horin; and Mr. Tzvi Lotan, the Tourism Ministry's Director of Overseas Offices.
'Jerusalem - Unique and Universal'
In a special gesture that did not go unnoticed by the Israelis among his audience, Cardinal Martini opened his remarks with the words of the traditional Hebrew blessing (which he intoned in its original tongue), "Blessed are you, o Lord our God, who has kept us alive, sustained us and brought us to this season!"
In his address, Cardinal Martini, a leading figure in the Catholic Church today, stressed the uniqueness of Jerusalem as a holy place for the Jews, in contrast to Christians and Muslims. "We recall," he said, "that while in other religious traditions new sacred centers arose, such as Rome and Mecca, for the Jewish tradition Jerusalem is unique and universal."
The Cardinal also noted that, unlike the Northern Italian Lombards of the First Crusade, who came to Jerusalem to conquer it, he and the members of his group had come "in a spirit of teshuvah [Hebrew for repentance] and atonement."
Rabbi Lau: 'Mutual Respect'
Chief Rabbi Lau, in his turn, welcomed his illustrious guest in terms of the Biblical blessing contained in the Book of Psalms (128:5,6), "May the Lord bless you out of Zion, and may you see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life . . . and peace upon Israel!"
Rabbi Lau expressed his "great esteem" for the spirit that prevailed in Rome during the time of Pope John XXIII and that of the present pope, John Paul II, reflecting a sense of "appreciation and warmth towards the Jewish People - the elder brother," as our people is designated by the present pope. The Chief Rabbi was confident, he said, that much could be done by working together, in love, friendship and personal freedom, to draw people to their Father in Heaven.
"The message of tolerance and mutual respect," Rabbi Lau said, "will, I am confident, go out from this meeting to all the world."
Rabbi Rosen: 'Shared History and Scriptures'
The central message of Rabbi Rosen's presentation was that the Jewish people's obligation to be "respectful and ethically meticulous in our relations with non-Jews . . . is central to the Jewish ethos and purpose, as well as to its destiny." Rabbi Rosen cited the writings of numerous Jewish scholars through the ages, in support of his thesis - of which the following is but one example:
"Instructive in this regard are the words of the Be'er HaGolah, Rabbi Moshe Rivkes... : 'The peoples in whose shade we, the Jewish people, take refuge, and among whom we are dispersed, do believe in the Creation and the Exodus and in the main principles of religion, and their whole intent is to serve the Maker of Heaven and Earth. . . Not only are we not forbidden to save them from danger, but we are even commanded to pray for their welfare. . .' The Be'er HaGolah's reference to Christians sharing with Jews not only the belief in God of Creation , but also belief in the same God as God of the Exodus, implies a factor that has since been emphasized by others: namely, shared history and Scriptures. In this sense, we have here, in fact, a perception of a special relationship."
Mr. Ben-Horin, in reviewing "the impressive developments that have taken place, in the wake of the 1965 Nostra Aetate No. 4 declaration, in the relations between the Catholic Church and Judaism," singled out Cardinal Martini's important contribution to this process from its inception.
Selected Quotes
Prime Minister's Message
"... The Government of Israel is steadfast in its desire and its commitment to guarantee the rights of its Christian citizens to freedom of religion, freedom of worship and freedom of access to their holy sites. These rights, as well as the rights to economic viability and personal security, shall always be safeguarded, so that the Christian community may continue to prosper, free from concerns of civic, social, economic or personal security. The Christian population has always been an inseparable part of the human fabric of the land, and the Government is committed to do its utmost to maintain this community's constructive and creative contribution to the State, to society and to the development of Christian life in Israel."
From Prime Minister Ehud Barak's Message to the Christian Communities of the World on the occasion of the New Year, December 28, 1999
'Renew Faith in God'
"We must take hold of ourselves and renew the faith in God. We must go out into the streets and call humanity to bring God back into our lives and homes, so that a new and better future may dawn upon humankind. In order to reach this stage, we must emphasize that every religion must have the right to preach its faith to its followers. Let us agree that Judaism and Christianity will appeal each to its own members and not try to convince members of the other community to join theirs. In so doing, we will be able to move forward together to propagate faith and spirituality in the world."
Rabbi Yitzhak Cohen, Israel's Minister for Religious Affairs, at the President's annual New Year's Reception for Christian Leaders, December 30, 1999
'We Reaped What We Had Sown'
"History has proven the truth of God's words regarding Israel: 'I will bless those who bless you; and whoever curses you I will curse' (Genesis 12:3 NIV). Nowhere has this verse been demonstrated so plainly as in Germany. We burned and looted, maimed and killed. And as divine retribution caught up with us, we reaped what we had sown....
"With all my heart I pray that the Almighty will graciously pour out upon me and my fellow-Christians in Germany the spirit of weeping and mourning. And may He grant Christians everywhere the grace of seeing the pain in His heart because of what we, the Church, have done to HIs beloved people down through the ages. In hurting them, we have hurt Him.
"For centuries God has been grieving because of our attitude as Christians towards our older brother Israel. What it would mean to God the Father if we were to regard His people with His eyes and to love what He loves! As we approach the millennium, may our hearts be turned to His people. God has been waiting for this moment for nearly two thousand years. May He not have to wait any longer!"
Sister Pista of the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, Darmstadt, Germany, at the meeting Israel and Our Nation: The Time to Heal, House of Lords, Westminster, November 1, 1999 (Anniversary of the expulsion of the Jews from England on November 1, 1290)
'A Bridge for Peace'
"By being here, we hope we can build a bridge for peace, build an understanding that should have been here from the beginning. We know what the past is, and we're ashamed of it. We can't change the past, but we can change the future."
Clarence H. Wagner, Jr., International Director, Bridges for Peace, an evangelical Christian organization with headquarters in Jerusalem, in interview for The Jerusalem Post, Dec. 31, 1999
The 'Legalism' Syndrome
(This is the third in a series of four excerpts from Goran Larsson's book, Bound for Freedom: The Book of Exodus in Christian and Jewish Traditions'.)
Christians often view "law" as the antithesis of "grace" and "gospel." It is likewise linked with the concept of "legalism," which to many is the summing up of Judaism as a religion that seeks to earn God's salvation by means of deeds. Yet, a thorough study of the relationship between God's grace and human obedience to God's law as expressed in the Old Testament and in Judaism would remove such biased stereotypes. "The law" is indeed the foremost expression of grace. This deep connection between "law" and "grace" is spelled out in the opening words on the tablets of the covenant in Exodus 20.
The often overlooked introduction of Chapter 20 reads as follows: "And God spoke all these words: 'I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.'" We notice the text reads "words," not "commandments." In Jewish tradition, they are therefore called "the ten words," or the Decalogue (from the Greek deka ["ten"] and logoi ["words"]). What follows is, consequently, the first thing written on the tablets: "I am the LORD." This declaration is counted as the first of the "ten commandments."
One may object (and rightly so) that this is not a commandment. Indeed, the first thing written on the tablet is not a commandment; it does not state what they shall do, but what the Lord has already done. He saved the Israelites long before they came to Mount Sinai and received "the law." The first statement in God's revelation is not "law" but "gospel."
... I wish we might also follow the Jewish way of counting, making it impossible to overlook the first and most basic "word" of them all.... In this respect, the Jews, so often accused of legalism, can help Christians to rediscover the "gospel" in the "law" - and grace as the foundation of the covenant....
Legalism and Obedience
However important and helpful our distinctions regarding the content of the word of God may be, they are totally challenged by the tablets of the covenant and the book of the covenant. Moses does not censor the content. He does not grade it into important and marginal, divine and human. He does not even distinguish between the "ten words" and all the other ordinances of the book of the covenant: "Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the ordinances" (24:3).
The only tenable answer to the question, what is most important, is therefore the one given by the people of Israel: "All that the LORD has spoken we will do and hear." All! Halakhah and haggadah, external and internal, secular and spiritual, social and sacred! It is enough that God has spoken it in order that it should be an integral part of the conditions of the covenant now to be sealed.
Is this, then, not legalistic? The question is partially answered in our commentary on the introduction to the tablets (see above). However, since the concept of "legalism" to so many Christians has almost been made synonymous with the Old Testament and Judaism, another distinction is important and appropriate in this context - that between legalism and obedience. . . .
The rabbis use an expression to describe the significance of obedience. They say that a commandment should be kept "for its own sake" (Hebrew li-shmah, literally "for its name"). This means that the sole motivation for keeping a commandment should be that God has commanded it and that our fellow human being needs it - in other words, again the practice of the double commandment of love. . . .
'I Despise Your Festivals...'
It is always a temptation to play off one category of commandments against another. The Bible addresses the danger of being rigorous when it comes to sacrifices and the celebration of feasts while overlooking the demands for mercy and love, the innermost aspect of the commandments.
In this context, Amos 5:21-24 even says that God wants no sacrifices and songs of praise:
I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them... Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an overflowing stream.
... Jesus addresses the same problem in the New Testament: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith" (Matt. 23:23). The continuation makes it clear, however, that not even here is it a matter of one aspect stressed at the expense of the other: "these you ought to have practised without neglecting the others" (see also Matt. 5:23-24 and James 1:26-27).
Obedience of the commandments must never lead anyone to become like a mindless robot, insensitive to the realities of life. The commandment of love stands above all else. Still, it does not cancel any of the other commandments; otherwise the book of the covenant would have been superfluous....
At Sinai, the people of Israel professed their willingness to obey the word of God unconditionally and with no reservations. To this day, the pious Jew does this every morning by putting on a prayer shawl with fringes, symbol of "all the commandments of the LORD" (Num. 15:39), and wearing the covenantal sign of the tefillin (Deut. 6:8; cf. Matt. 23:5). Next comes a prayer that intimately binds together the literal as well as the innermost aspects of the Torah, touching thought and deed, heart and life. This exemplary prayer also expresses awareness of the distance, in real life, between "hearing" and "doing," principle and practice, and therefore the constant need for a righteousness that is not our own. After blessings and praise, the prayer concludes: "May it be your will, the Lord our God and the God of our fathers, that this commandment may be regarded as if I had fulfilled it with all its details and particulars and intentions, together with all the 613 commandments that are linked with it."
Finger on the Pulse
The two words, "details and particulars," emphasize primarily the halakhic aspects of the law, while "intentions" puts the finger on the pulse of the commandment and its endless haggadic dimensions. No wonder this prayer contains the significant conjunction "as if" (Hebrew ke'illu), giving expression to the impossibility of totally fulfilling God's word. Righteousness is possible only when God in his mercy "regards" it "as if" we had fulfilled his commandments. Luther expressed the same thing through the term iusticia imputativa, which refers to the righteousness that God "puts in" - what humans possess without having acquired it themselves. This is the sole hope for righteousness according to good Jewish and Christian teaching.
It is incumbent to stress this repeatedly in the shadow of the common Christian prejudice against the Jewish people as being legalistic and self-righteous. How many Christians begin every day by committing themselves to obedience to God's commandments and simultaneously petition God's righteousness? This Jewish act of obedience - not legalism - exemplified in the daily morning prayer, is nothing short of a dynamic dramatization and reiteration of ancient Israel's commitment and promise at Sinai: "All that the LORD has spoken we will do and we will hear."
These words summarize the response to the three questions of obedience: the what of obedience - everything; the why of obedience - the Lord has spoken; the how of obedience - putting God's words into concrete action in real life, while being keenly attentive to expanded instructions.
A New Israeli Industry: Nursery-Raised Christmas Trees
Photo: Jonathan Bloom
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Some might find the idea of a nice, observant Israeli Jew making his living selling Christmas trees a contradiction in terms. Eli Gulbary doesn't.
From his home in the community of Kadima, Gulbary and his family have spent the month of December fielding telephone calls from around the country, from those who are eager to take advantage of the first Christmas season in Israel in which it is possible to purchase a genuine nursery-raised Christmas tree.
Gulbary, 44, got the idea for the business four years ago, after he witnessed the annual distribution of trees by the Jewish National Fund, which, for years, has been distributing excess trees to the Christian community as a goodwill gesture. "I saw that the JNF's were not high-quality trees - they were taken from the forest, not raised specially for the purpose. They were not necessarily what people wanted, and I saw that people would be willing to pay for quality trees."
So he and his brother Dani have spent the past three years on the project, first researching and then growing them in a nursery at Moshav Beit Yehoshua, near Netanya. "First, we had to learn what are the best species of tree for Christmas, and we had to find the type that would grow best in the Israeli climate," Gulbary says.
Finally, this year, 10,000 trees were ready for market. The Gulbarys, together with their partner Eran Bratman, began an aggressive and highly directed marketing campaign. They printed brochures and distributed them to hotels, embassies, foreign companies and flower shops. They advertised heavily in the Russian-speaking media and English-language newspapers and, to a limited extent, in the Hebrew press as well.
The response has been encouraging. "We get so many phone calls - and the first question is usually whether our ad was genuine or some sort of joke: Can they really buy a Christmas tree in Israel? We tell them that it is true and invite them to come down and pick out their tree," Gulbary recounts. "Sometimes entire families arrive, making choosing the tree a family event."
A brief investigation on the Internet revealed that, while there are many Christian legends surrounding the Christmas tree, the traditions predate the religion. In fact, the first known use of greenery in winter was palm fronds that ancient Egyptians used to bring into their homes on the shortest day of the year in December, to symbolize the triumph of life over death. So perhaps, Gulbary was told, despite the fact that we lack the traditional wintry Yule landscape, the Middle East may actually be the most appropriate place to grow Christmas trees.
(Abridged from an article by Allison Kaplan Sommer in The Jerusalem Post Magazine, December 24, 1999)
Gallup Poll: Most Israeli Jews View Christians Positively
The supposition that Israeli Jews know very little about Christians and Christianity was confirmed by the results of a Gallup Poll conducted in December 1999, announced at a news conference in Jerusalem on December 21. However, people who thought most Israelis feel animosity towards Christians were surprised to learn that, according to this poll at least, the opposite is true.
The news conference featured Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, Founder and President of the Chicago-based International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ); Clarence H. Wagner, Jr., International Director of Bridges for Peace (BFP) in Jerusalem; and Johann Luckhoff, Executive Director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ).
Some Surprising Findings
The nationwide poll, carried out among 479 Jewish Israeli adults, showed among other things that (1) Israeli Jews generally have a positive attitude towards Christians and Christian support for their nation; (2) they have very little first-hand familiarity with Christians, and only a vague notion of Christian customs; and (3) they feel far less threatened by Christian missionary intentions than is generally believed.
Other findings:
59.6% feel that US Christians are friendly and supportive of Israel; 78.1% do not regard them as antisemites hostile to Israel; 67.8% do not regard them as missionaries who want to convert Jews to Christianity; 68.9% feel they are not ignorant about Jews and Israel; 76.4% would like to see more US Christians come to visit Israel; 88.2% feel Israelis should welcome US Christians' financial contributions to Israeli social institutions; 52.9% feel positive or very positive about the Pope's upcoming visit to Israel, while only 10.9% feel negative or very negative; 44% of second-generation Israelis feel closer to "an American Christian who loves Israel and visits it once a year" than they do to "an American Jew who has no active involvement with Israel" (39% feel closer to the Jew).
On the other hand -
In the Israeli Jewish population as a whole, the relationship (in the previous question) is reversed: 45.2% feel closer to the Jew, while 36.4% feel closer to the Christian; 64.2% do not know any Christian well enough to consider him or her a personal friend, and 61.7% do not personally know any Christian in Israel. Only 27.2% identified December 25 as a date having special significance. Four out of ten (40.2%) did not know which of various Christian groupings listed was the friendliest towards Jews and Israel; among the rest, 20.1% thought it was the Eastern Orthodox, 15.1% - the Mainstream Protestants, and 7.1% - the Roman Catholics. Only 7.5% picked the grouping that is generally perceived to be the friendliest: evangelical Christians.
IFCJ President Yechiel Eckstein, an Orthodox rabbi who has been active for many years in promoting Christian understanding and support for Israel, was pleased with the findings. "Most Israelis," he said, "know very, very little about Christians. What they do know - they appreciate and feel an affinity toward."
Evangelicals' Role
On the Christian side, BFP Director Clarence Wagner utilized the opportunity to set the record straight with regard to the attitude of evangelical Christians towards Israel. This community, he declared, is "the most outspoken of Christian groups on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people worldwide." Mr. Wagner welcomed the advent of the new millennium as "an opportunity to strengthen these efforts" and to "foster greater understanding and forge a stronger alliance between Christians and Jews."
ICEJ Director Johann Luckhoff declared the polling results to be "of great interest to us, as they measure how effective evangelical Christian efforts have been in conveying our message to Israelis that there is a new kind of genuine Christian concern for them."