Ellen Horowitz defends herself

Ellen Horowitz has graced our pages before. She often invites contoversy when she writes on The Judeo-Christian Divide.

Losing out…

Sir, – In “Don’t reject Christian friendship” (September 4), Malcolm Hedding, executive director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, accused me of prejudice and applied the analogy of apartheid to my defense of the Jewish heritage.

His indictment is untenable. That I maintain the Jewish right, as well as the right of all religions, to function as independent faith communities, with distinct traditions and theology, would surely not fall into the category of racism.

I can’t recall whether Mr. Hedding and I have ever met, but he feels he knows me well enough to state: “For her, there can be no such thing as Jewish-Christian friendship, solidarity and collaboration… I note that while Ms. Horowitz is very strident in her claims, she has never come in to see us. Isolation is always a good breeding ground for prejudice.”

I can assure Mr. Hedding that many of my reservations regarding Judeo-Christian trends, and calls for a Messianic Jewish restoration, are based on personal observation through my direct involvement with the Christian evangelical community.

I was featured in a widely promoted and televised documentary with Donna Holbrook, Canadian director of ICEJ, Mr. Hedding’s organization. I’ve worked at ICEJ’s Feast of the Tabernacles, have lectured to and engaged in business dealings with the evangelical community, and have welcomed groups of Christian tourists to my moshav in the Golan Heights. I have also consulted with and collaborated with Christian friends on my articles covering these very issues.

I did not accuse Christians of robbing the Jewish people of their birthright, but I did suggest that my own people have lost a part of themselves – sold their birthright, so to speak – in an attempt to relieve themselves of their universal role and responsibilities to all of mankind.

I certainly won’t reject Christian friendship, as long as our relationship is built with an understanding and respect for differences rather than an insistence on seeking out common theological denominators.

September 8, 2007 | 3 Comments »
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  1. Every thing is said here

    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/123697

    Rabbis Ban Jewish Participation in ICEJ Conference

    by Hillel Fendel

    (IsraelNN.com) The Chief Rabbinate of Israel has issued a ruling welcoming the Christians arriving for the annual Feast of Tabernacles conference – and banning Jews from participating.

    Feast of Tabernacles is sponsored by the International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem, self-described as the world’s largest Christian Zionist organization. The annual get-together is a week-long multicultural event held during the Sukkot holiday, which begins this year on Sept. 27. It draws tens of thousands of Christians from around the world for a week of teaching, worship, and prayer, and culminates with a march through the streets of Jerusalem.

    The line-up of speakers at this year’s event, which will be held at Jerusalem’s Binyanei HaUmah Convention Center, includes David Pawson. In a speech entitled “God’s Eternal Covenant with Israel” (reprinted in Family Restoration Magazine), Pawson stated, “One day the people of Israel as a whole will become Messianic Jews [believing in Jesus – ed.]… Prayer for Israel is not enough; preaching is also necessary. The church’s silence over the holocaust was bad enough; her silence about hell would be a worse betrayal… True lovers of Israel will speak on behalf of Jews to Christians and on behalf of Christ to Jews. To pray for the peace of Jerusalem must include that peace with God which only Jesus can bring.”

    “‘Zionism’ is only ‘Christian’,” Pawson stated, “when He [Jesus] has the pre-eminence.” In case it may be objected that it is offensive to the Jews to speak of such things, and that Christians must “comfort” Israel, Pawson explained: “There is no final comfort in a lie… We cannot help but be missionaries, and I have discovered that some Jews despise us if we pretend not to be…”

    Ze’ev Shtieglitz of the anti-missionary Lev L’Achim organization has presented evidence of actual missionary activity by ICEJ to the Chief Rabbinate. “For instance,” he recently told Arutz-7, “ICEJ Liaison Officer Doron Schneider is the head of the Messianic Jewish community in Maaleh Adumim… Dr. George Giacumakis, the one-time Chairman of the Board of Trustees of ICEJ, has said straight out that it is hoped, through various ‘friendship’ organizations with Jews, and by giving financial and political support to Israel, that Jews will start showing interest in Christianity.”

    Another featured Feast of Tabernacles speaker, Jack Hayford, was one of 1,100 Christian Zionists and Messianic Jews who took part in the Road to Jerusalem conference in California last year. He spoke there of “helping the church understand what God’s doing among Jews today and how to relate to it.” Co-speakers at that Road to Jerusalem event were co-founder Rev. Raleigh Washington — who said, “when a Jewish person recognizes that Jesus is his messiah, he becomes a Jew who has now found his messiah” — and Rev. Mike Bickle of Kansas City, Mo., who used the phrase “unsaved Jews” and said a Satan-like leader “will be required to exterminate the Jewish race.”

    The Rabbis’ Decision

    The Chief Rabbinate Council’s Committee for the Prevention of Missionary Work in the Holy Land, in a decision last month that was later ratified by the two Chief Rabbis, resolved as follows:

    A. [We] bless the tourists who will arrive in our Holy Land for the upcoming holidays, among them also those of different religions.

    B. It is forbidden for any Jew to take part in the gatherings in the Binyanei HaUmah Jerusalem Convention Center and in the marches taking place during the Sukkot holiday, because the information we have states that some of the bodies gathering there are active, inter alia, in attempting to convert us from our faith. “One who fears for his soul will stay far away.”

    Jerusalem City Council member Mina Fenton has taken a strong stand against the ICEJ event. She has written, “Missionary organization leaders will appear there as the central speakers and preachers, working together with a clear missionary agenda while ‘adopting’ the Sukkot holiday as Christian… [They are] partners in musical, drama, and spiritual productions… Jews are invited to attend, and missionary literature will be disseminated…”

    Spiritual “Help” for the Needy and Vulnerable

    A phenomenon recently revealed by anti-missionary elements involve the offer by a Christian Zionist organization of hundreds of dollars a month in pocket money to Jewish youths who have lost contact with their families. The organization then promises them high-paying jobs, after they complete their army service, simply to distribute food packages to needy Jews on behalf of the Christian organization. It is well-documented that missionary organizations throw in “spiritual help,” together with their offers of material help, to poverty-stricken Jews who are, invariably, more vulnerable than they would otherwise be.

    Jews Disappear in the Play’s 4th Act

    CBS reporter Bob Simon, in a 1992 “60 Minutes” program on Christian Zionists, asked, “What propels them? Why do they love Israel so much? Because the return of the Jews to their ancient homeland is seen by evangelicals as a precondition for the Second Coming of Christ. Therefore, when the Jewish state was created in 1948, they saw it as a sign. Israel’s conquest of Jerusalem and the West Bank in 1967 deepened their excitement, heightened their anticipation… The final battle in the history of the future will be fought on this ancient battleground in northern Israel called Armageddon… And the Jews? Well, two-thirds of them will have been wiped out by [then], and the survivors will accept Jesus at last.”

    Simon’s show then screens Gershom Gorenberg, author of “The End of Days,” who says, “The Jews die or convert. As a Jew, I can’t feel very comfortable with the affections of somebody who looks forward to that scenario… They don’t love the real Jewish people. They love us as characters in their story, in their play, and that’s not who we are. And we never auditioned for that part, and the play is not one that ends up good for us… If you listen to the drama that they are describing, essentially, it’s a five-act play in which the Jews disappear in the fourth act.”

    GEMAR HATIMA TOVA
    TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE

    VELAMINIM VELAMALSHINIM AL TEHI TIKVA

  2. re: Ms Horowitz piece in Arutz 7, Yea, I more or less agree with here on her salient points and would add just this. Most here on the left are willing to abridge and vocally advocate defending Democracy against most religious and especially Nationalistic religious and secular Jews here in the LAND OF ISRAE, even at the expense of democracy and democratic values and norms. How much more is it to use the same logic in defending Judaism from those who wish to usurp and bring down the very foundation of the Jewish People and the State of Israel. To most Jews Belief in Christianity is a form of Idol Worship by which we are commanded by the same revered book of these Christians to resist even up to Obligatory war in order to protect ourselves and our God. Our god is not the same as Christian or Islamic God. This issue is so core to Judaism that rather than sucum we are commanded by mitzva to not only not compromise on this issue but to defend by the sword our rights of refusal even if it seems suicidal. It see and even seems to me after many years of observation with a few as an active participant that the major problem of the Jewish People especially here in the Land of Israel is that many if not most have left the galut but the galut has not left them. The basic concept of the classical Zionist enterprise that in building the land the land would rebuild them has been negated if it exists at all to a small footnote in Israeli and Jewish History.
    Hellenism is going strong in the Jewish State, in the Jewish World. If History is any guide we will all pay a heavy price sooner or later for our Apostasy, as Individuals, as a State and as A People.

  3. I think I have an argument with everybody here. Firstly I on one hand am fond of and appreciate the help and support of many Christians Who are for their own reasons every bit a Zionist Nationalist as I believe I am. At a Time when according to recent poll in America over 50% of the Jews could not care less about Israel with all that implies for our future and theirs; It is like a breath of fresh air to have so many millions of Christians around the world supporting us.
    But: I am not naive, 2 millennium of butchery and discrimination by Christians on Jews cannot be wiped out by any recent declarations of love and support by the inheritors of this long anti Jewish tradition and history.
    The Christian world is as divided theologically and ideologically as is the Jewish world today. As some Christians profess I believe a true love and respect for Jews and Israel the majority still do not. In any event those who are genuinely in support of Israel and Jewry I embrace and the rest can go to you know where.
    I as a Jew and a man I owe the Christian world NOTHING! They owe us Everything, and I for one will be watching to see how strong they love us and support us even if many of us here reject them for the obvious reasons.
    They maintain that they have no hidden agenda but there is always an agenda but if it does not manifest itself in overt negatives for Jews and Israel; I think we can live with that, so long as it is not obtrusive and offensive to we Jews, especially here in The Land of Israel.The Christians will then have to concede that in this context it is only we Jews who can and will determine what is or is not offensive to us, I don’t like the comparison with So. Africa no more than I like comparisons of us to the Nazis.
    I do not impose myself on Christians to see the Light of the one God and not a trinity, I don’t go to their homes, countries, spend billions with the sole purpose of converting Christians to Judaism and find it hateful and disrespectful of them to attempt and execute their narrow beliefs on us in my home and in my country.This is where I draw the line. If Christians have a belief system where their scripture requires them to intrude on others against their will then I see no fundamental difference between Christianity and Islam. If Christians are willing to wait for the return of their Messiah, and if this does in fact occur then we may have a common theological ground, until then we wish to remain what and who we are and not to have additional conflict with our Christian friends.

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