Turmoil in Israel: ‘Christians, Go Home’

Christian missionaries and evangelistic workers in Israel face an uncertain future now that the land’s fragile religious peace has been shattered. Arsonists last month set fire to several buildings that house Christian agencies, demonstrators protested missionary efforts, and the Knesset (parliament) reportedly agreed to debate the missionary question. Some Israeli leaders are calling for the ouster of missionaries and a prohibition against evangelism.

Representatives of six Knesset factions and four cabinet members met informally February 19 to discuss “the problem of mounting missionary activity in the country by fringe movements, such as ‘Jews for Jesus,’ ” the Jerusalem Post reported. The article said Moshe Baram, the chief coalition whip, had persuaded the other factions that the problem should be probed quietly, “avoiding the negative repercussions abroad” that might result from a full-scale Knesset debate. The full debate is still a possibility.

In a memo to Prime Minister Golda Meir, religious-affairs minister Zerah Warhaftig stated his concerns about the evangelistic activity and suggested countermeasures. These suggestions were not immediately disclosed, but the Ministry for the Interior, in cooperation with the Religious Affairs Ministry, has apparently already outlined steps to limit evangelism through a Christian-excluding application of the Law of Return, which guarantees every Jew the right to settle in Israel. (The law defines a Jew as a person born to a Jewish mother or converted to Judaism.) A number of Christians, primarily from America, have registered their “conversion” to Judaism in rabbinical courts and emigrated to Israel to engage in evangelism. These may have their conversions rescinded if it is proved they were obtained under false pretenses, then be ousted when their visas expire. Additionally, the visas of persons working independently, such as members of the controversial Children of God sect, will not be renewed, according to Post reporter David Landau. However, the interior ministry was reportedly holding off on immediate implementation at the request of the Foreign Ministry.

The Post said film producer Carole “Shira” Lindsay, 32, daughter of an American evangelist, was expected to have her conversion to Judaism rescinded. The Orthodox court in Boston that granted it did not know of her belief in Jesus, Israeli authorities contend. (It is known that rabbis in some cases have granted conversion credentials to persons confessing to be followers of “Jeshua” [Jesus], a practice likely to become rare if pressure from Israel persists.)

But Justice Minister Y. S. Shapiro came out against any use of the law that would deny immigrant status to Jews “who profess Christian ideas.” The fact that a Jew says be believes in Jesus does not necessarily mean he is no longer Jewish, he affirmed. The fact that evangelical preaching is a fundamental element in Christianity must be accepted in a tolerant country like Israel, where no state religion exists, he said.

IN DEFENSE OF THE FAITH

President Harold M. Jacobs of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America last month called on Key 73 leaders to help stop evangelism aimed at Jews. Despite stated intentions of Key 73 officials, he complained, “there has been a significantly increased effort to missionize among Jews and to encourage their defection from Judaism.”

But Rabbi Henry Siegman, executive vice-president of the Synagogue Council of America, charged in the American Jewish Congress newspaper that Jewish reaction to Key 73 is “accusatory and hostile,” and has “bordered on the hysterical.” This brought rebuffs from other Jewish leaders, including Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum. (Tanenbaum was reportedly outraged during a visit to a Key 73 planning session last year when a Methodist leader tried to lead him to Christ on an elevator. Since then, he has led the Jewish attack on Key 73.)

Jacobs went on to urge his people “to be alert and vigilant and to act decisively to thwart missionizing efforts directed to Jews and the Jewish community.” Some members of the hardcore Jewish Defense League apparently took the counsel literally. During a demonstration against a Jewish Christian mission in New York City, one of them assaulted the mission leader, sending him to a hospital with shattered glasses and a broken nose. He declined to press charges.

His remarks were akin to those made earlier on radio and television by Shlomo Hizak, director of the Mount of Olives International Bible Center, after the center was damaged by arsonists. Said Hizak: “A Jew can be a criminal Jew, an atheist Jew, a Communist Jew, and still be accepted. Why don’t the people accept a Jew who believes in the Messiah?” (Two Jerusalem yeshiva [seminary] students and four members of Rabbi Meir Kahane’s Jewish Defense League [JDL] were arrested in connection with the blaze, but Kahane denied JDL involvement in that and other recent arson attacks.)

Warhaftig does not buy the logic put forth by Shapiro and Hizak. Even Jewish-born “Jews for Jesus” are not believing Jews in any accepted sense, he says, and should be excluded. (There is a growing influx of Jesus-movement Jews from America, and an indeterminate number of immigrating Soviet Jews have turned out to be Christians.)

Rabbi Shlomo Lorincz of the Aguda (religious party) argued that Shapiro’s remark contradicts halacha (Jewish religious law). And Chief Rabbi Shlomo Goren called on the public and authorities to act non-violently against the missionary activities.

Government officials, religious leaders, and the press have spoken out against the scattered incidents of violence directed at the Christians. The victims themselves seemed to be more worried about Israel’s image and possible anti-Semitic repercussions than about their losses. Hizak stressed that the violence was the work of extremists and that he had no criticism of the government’s handling of the matter. He said he had received calls of encouragement from many Israeli well-wishers. (Also the target of arsonists: the print shop of the Seventh Day Church of God in Jerusalem.)

One of the problems is that Israel has no constitution. Its 1948 Proclamation of Independence promised religious freedom and safety for “the holy places of all religions.” Jewish spokesmen explain that their understanding of religious freedom differs from the traditional interpretation. In their thinking, if a person is born, say, a Catholic, he is free to practice Catholicism within the bounds of ecclesiastical rules. It does not mean necessarily that he is free to change his religion or attempt to make others change their faith.

On the eve of Golda Meir’s visit to Washington, Dean Arthur F. Glasser of Fuller Seminary’s School of World Mission fired a letter to President Nixon. In it he said:

We deplore … the situation in Israel where the stated policy is freedom of religion and conscience, but where the actual practice is one of harassment, intimidation, and discrimination against those of other than the Jewish faith.… We categorically abhor and resist all anti-Semitism … [but] when a Jew or a convert to Judaism is persecuted and threatened with violence simply because he believes in Jesus, we see this as anti-Christian and feel we must reject it with equal vigor.

The Glasser letter urged Nixon to discuss the issues with Mrs. Meir, to consider internationalizing Jerusalem, and to evaluate future aid to Israel “in the light of Israel’s intransigence concerning other religions.”

CHRISTIANITY TODAY correspondent Dwight L. Baker attended a meeting in Tel Aviv between representatives Shaul Schiff and Eliezer Schaeffer of the newly organized Public Committee for Combating Mission (PCCM) and United Christian Council of Israel (UCCI) chairman Roy Kreider, a Mennonite, Baptist editor Chandler Lanier, and religious-affairs ministry official Michael J. Klein. The PCCM people requested a statement from the UCCI denouncing aggressive proselytizing activities and divorcing itself from the use of material inducements to woo the indigent, sick, ignorant, or children into the Christian fold. (Years ago, heads of the major churches issued such a statement.) Kreider promised to raise the issues at the next UCCI meeting.

For their part, the PCCMers denounced violence and JDL tactics. The UCCI concurred in disapproval of the methods of the Children of God, who have encouraged young Israelis to leave their homes in the name of Christ. Schiff and Schaeffer claimed to possess documentation that the Children were receiving money from Egypt, a common rumor in Israel, but did not produce it.

The meeting was reported in Ma’ariv the next day, serving to calm somewhat the troubled waters. Churches and mainstream missionaries, most of whom work among the Arabs, were portrayed as moderates not wanting to cause waves. Most knowledgeable government leaders don’t want to cause waves, either, thus they decline to endorse wholesale eviction of missionaries and crackdowns against churches.

An ominous note, however, was sounded by a Post editorial warning that evangelism is viewed by Jews as a threat “only a little short of physical murder.” It said:

It might be wise for the churches themselves to give some thought to the problem created by the fact that the active search for converts—never practiced by Jews—is looked upon with such abhorrence by religious Jews that it could in the end threaten the privileged and protected status of the churches in Jerusalem.

Baker attributes much of the turmoil to a “vast residue of insecurity” inherited from centuries of “Christian harassment of Jews in Diaspora” that Kahane “and his cohorts are churning up—with apparent success.”

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