Israel Now Has 6 Million Jews

Israel Now Has 6 Million Jews

The number of Israeli Jews passed the emotional 6 million mark in November, and the total population will pass 8 million in February.

 

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, Israel National News 

First Publish: 12/31/2012

 

Aliyah Revolution banner

Nefesh B'Nefesh

The number of Israeli Jews passed the emotional 6 million mark in November, and the total population will pass 8 million in February, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics.


The Jewish population represents 75.4 percent of the total, of which Arabs are 20.6 percent, representing a continuing trend of a higher Jewish birth rate and a lower Arab birth rate.

The other four percent of the Israeli population includes Christians, other faiths and 319,000 people who call themselves Jewish but are not recognized as such according to Jewish law. Almost all of them are from the former Soviet bloc.

As January 1 approached, the total population was 7,981,000, 1.8 per cent higher than the previous year.
The figures do not temporary residents and foreign workers.

New immigrants account for a smaller increase in the number of Jews, with only 16,500 having come on “aliyah” in 2012.

North American aliyah was about 4,000, including those who already were in Israel and took out Israeli citizenship, Nefesh B’Nefesh spokeswoman Yael Katsman told Arutz Sheva Monday. She said the numbers are rising, and that the expectation is that the trend will continue in 2013.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/163726

Analyst: Palestinians know Israelis don't want to kill them

Sunday, December 30, 2012 |  Israel Today Staff  

For all the talk of an alleged Israeli-perpetrated "holocaust" against the Arabs of the region, a recent survey demonstrated that the vast majority of Palestinians know full well that Israelis don't want to kill them.

The survey was conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research among a sampling of Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews.

Israeli respondents were asked what they believed the long-term goals of the Palestinians to be. Forty-two percent said they believe the Palestinians, or at least those groups which hold power, want to ultimately conquer all of the Land of Israel and destroy the Jewish population.

Conversely, Palestinian respondents were not given an option that included Israel killing all local Arabs. Instead, the worst option Palestinian respondents could choose was that Israel wants to annex the so-called West Bank and either expel or deny or deny political rights to its Arab population.

That discrepancy was curious to Israeli media analyst Dr. Aaron Lerner, who wrote to the PCPSR for an explanation.

Waleed Ladadweh, a researcher at the PCPSR, responded that after years of asking both sides about "their perceptions of the other party's ambitions," the survey group had been able to more tightly focus the questions and ignore irrelevant options.

In other words, according to the PCPSR, there simply aren't enough Palestinian Arabs who truly believe Israel wants to annihilate them to bother including such an option in its surveys.

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23595/Default.aspx

British textbook erases Israel

Monday, December 31, 2012 |  Ryan Jones, Israel Today  

A popular textbook used by institutions and teachers to teach English as a second language to students in the UK has been found to have a serious anti-Israel bias.

"I teach English as a foreign language in a further education college in Nottingham, England. I came across the attached map and couldn't believe my eyes!" Liz Wiseman told Israel Today.

The textbook in question is "Skills in English Writing Level 1", which includes a map of the Middle East on which Israel is nowhere to be found.

While Wiseman acknowledges she was not obligated to use this particular textbook, it is one of the more popular and mainstream English Language Teaching (ELT) textbooks published by one of the more popular and mainstream ELT publishers, Garnet Education.

Garnet Education bills itself thus: "Garnet Education is an independent English Language Teaching (ELT) publisher, specialising in English for Academic Purposes. We produce award-winning ELT books, multimedia resources and tests for students of all ages, from kindergarten to university."

This is far from an isolated incident, which is motivation for drawing attention to this particular case. It is not only in the Middle East where students, both adults and children, are being taught that Israel has no right to exist. The more students around the world are fed this brand of propaganda, the more remote prospects for true peace become.

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23596/Default.aspx

Jerusalem's First Photographer

Who Was the 19th Century American Preacher Mendenhall John Dennis?

Actually, He Was a Jerusalem Watchmaker Named Mendel Deniss, Jerusalem's First Photographer

Mendenhall John Dennis in the center surrounded by his family in 1885. After 1860
he lived in Ohio, Massachusetts and Washington. Before 1860 he was Mendel
Diness of Jerusalem  (With permission of Special Collections, Fine
Arts Library, Harvard University)

A version of this article appeared in the Times of Israel on December 26, 2012

In 1988, John Barnier visited a garage sale in St. Paul, Minnesota.  There he found and purchased eight boxes of old photographic glass plates.  Fortunately, Barnier is an expert in the history of photographic printing.

He had little idea that he had uncovered a historic treasure. Later, he viewed the plates and saw that they included old pictures of Jerusalem.  He contacted the Harvard Semitic Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, known for its large collection of old photographs from the Middle East.

On some of the plates they found the initials MJD. Until then the name Mendel Diness was barely known by scholars.  It was assumed that with the exception of one or two photos his collection was lost.


The Western Wall, photographed by Diness. Unlike most early
photographers of the Wall, Diness pointed his camera to the south
 and not to the north. (With permission of Special Collections,
 Fine Arts Library, Harvard University. 1859)



 

 

Thanks to the research of historians and curators Dror Wahrman, Nitza Rosovsky and Carney Gavin, the Diness collection was saved from obscurity, and an amazing tale was revealed:  American Christian preacher Mendenhall John Dennis and Jerusalemite yeshiva student and watchmaker Mendel Diness were one and the same. 

Diness was born in Odessa in 1827 into a religious Jewish family. As a boy he apprenticed as a watchmaker; as a teen he went to study in Heidelberg and was influenced by the anti-religious "enlightenment movement."  His concerned father sent him to Palestine in 1848 to a yeshiva to strengthen his Jewish faith.

But in 1849 he met a Christian missionary who started him on his path to Christianity. His conversion caused a major controversy in the Old City of Jerusalem.  Diness was excommunicated from the Jewish community, lost his business, and was forced to divorce his wife, Shayndel Reisa, who was from a hassidic Chabad family in Hebron.

Enlargement of Jews at the Wall



Mishkenot Sha'ananim in Jerusalem under construction, beneath
Moshe Montifiore's windmill. The building project was the first
Jewish neighborhood built outside of the Old City (1860,
Special Collections, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University.)










Diness was taken in by Christian missionaries and families, including the British Consul, James Finn, who baptized the new convert.  His wife, Elizabeth Finn, a fan of the new photography art, was close to a Scottish missionary, James Graham, who taught Diness the new field of photography.  It was not simply a question of learning to press a button on a camera, but it involved a lengthy and difficult process of preparing emulsions and plates (not film), mastering light, exposures and the science of developing the pictures.


A portrait of missionary James
Graham taken by Diness. It is
not a portrait of Diness as
claimed by some collections
(1857)

By 1856, Mendel Diness was photographing on his own.  By the end of the decade, however, other photographers had flocked to Jerusalem, and Diness found the competition daunting.  In 1861, he moved to the United States with his new wife, the daughter of a Jewish doctor who had converted to Christianity.  Diness was unsuccessful as a photographer in Cincinnati, Ohio and became a peripatetic preacher, renamed as Mendenhall John Dennis.

How did the Dennis/Diness' collection end up in St. Paul?  When he died in 1900 his belongings were apparently sent to his daughter in New Jersey. When her daughter died, a grandson cleaned out her attic and took the crates to Minnesota.  The family was unaware of Dennis/Diness' Jerusalem photography background.


The Damascus Gate photographed by Diness (Special
Collections, Fine Arts Library, Harvard University, circa 1856)


A footnote: Diness was not the only Jewish photographer in the Holy Land who converted to Christianity.  Peter Bergheim, a German Jew who converted in the 1830s in England, arrived in Palestine in 1838. He worked as pharmacist and then opened a bank. In 1859 he became an accomplished photographer, apparently working for the British Ordnance Survey team. (His works appear frequently in these pages.) 

Elijah Meyers
(circa 1910)

 

 

 

 

 

Several years later Elijah Meyers, a Bombay, India Jew who converted to Christianity, appeared on the scene.  He was the founder and director of the American Colony Photo Department in 1898, but "he had been taking photographs before he became connected to the American Colony," according to a Colony publication.  He trained a team in the art of photography and documented the visit of the German Kaiser in 1898 with pictures sold around the world.  According to sources at the Library of Congress, Meyers was hired by Theodor Herzl to photograph Jewish settlements prior to the 1899 Zionist Congress in Basel.

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.israeldailypicture.com/2012/12/who-was-19th-century-american-preacher.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IsraelsHistory-APictureADaybeta+%28Israel%27s+History+-+a+Picture+a+Day+%28Beta%29%29

 

Biblical claim to the land?

Biblical claim to the land?

Op-ed: Media telling people that only religious fanatics believe West Bank is part of Israel

David Ha'ivri

Published:  12.26.12, 11:15 / Israel Opinion Ynet News

Over the past five years, working as the international liaison for the Shomron region, I have toured around the world speaking on behalf of this community. I have met with people from all types of backgrounds, both Jews and gentiles who are regular people, public officials and media personalities. I have led many tours east of the pre-1967 Green Line in the Jewish communities which many call "settlements."


Local leadership here has learned that our greatest enemy is ignorance. Ironically, in spite of our region being the most talked about disputed area in the world, most people who have an opinion about its future have not taken the time to visit and see the facts on the ground for themselves. Many wish to believe that the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria are, as one guest told me, "the core of the problem," and that if the Jews were just removed from this region, utopian peace would reign in the world.

Holy Scriptures

Settlers and human rights / Rafael Castro Op-ed: West Bank Jews claim too often and too loudly that their rights are grounded on scriptures Full Story

Upon visiting our communities, the hard facts dawn on most - who realize that over 750,000 Jews who live east of the Green Line are not camped out in temporary dwellings as part of some kind of demonstration. They have built their homes, schools, universities and cities with the full intent of staying here forever.


When I mention to my guests that the majority of the so called "settlers" in this region are secular Israelis, many ask "but why would seculars choose to live in the West Bank?" People have been taught by the media that it is only religious fanatics like myself who believe that this is part of Israel. Well (surprise, surprise!), many secular Israelis choose to live in Barkan, Ariel, Tzofim and many other communities here for the same reasons that many Jews choose to live in Haifa and Beersheba and not in Los Angeles. The phenomenon is called Zionism: It is a historic, cultural and religious connection to the land of Israel.


To all with whom I have spoken on the matter of Israel's rights to this area, I have preached the same message, whether it be to unaffiliated young professionals in Union Square in New York City, African statesmen in Lagos, Nigeria, a Chinese journalist visiting the Shomron or Jewish students. Interestingly, those who are most put off by the biblical claim are the last mentioned. Jews seem the most concerned that mentioning the Bible as the foundation of our claim to the land of Israel will be seen as illegitimate in a popular debate.

Highway of the Bible

But I have found that others, non-Jews, actually appreciate our historical claims and our persistence to hold on to our national pride and heritage. Italian, Czech and Ukrainian government officials who visited here each expressed their admiration for our patriotic dedication to our historic homeland. This connection has been preserved by the Jewish people throughout history, through the observance of the biblical holidays and our studies of the Bible, where we read the promise of this land by HaShem to us – the descendants of our founding fathers, Avraham, Itzchak and Yaakov.


How silly it is to suggest that Jews not mention our biblical connection to the land of Shechem, Hebron and Jerusalem. If not for that connection, why would Jews have regathered from the nations here and not in Uganda? Could you imagine suggesting that America's patriots be advised not to mention the historic actions of those who threw tea in the sea and rebelled against the British? Or telling them not to sing about a flag that was still there after a battle in 1812?


The Jewish claim to the land of Israel goes back more than 1812 years - to the days of the Bible, when there was a Jewish country. We have never forgotten that heritage, and we have the teaching of the Bible to thank for that. One need not embrace the Jewish theology in order to appreciate the Torah's contribution to our history and culture.


While out public speaking or guiding tours for guests here in Shomron, I am always sure to refer to our biblical claim to the mountain ridge of Judea and Samaria. I do not do this as a means of winning a legal argument, but in order that my listeners get a true perspective of our national motivation to be here.


Once I met with a Chinese journalist at my home in Kfar Tapuach, in the Shomron. I showed him the main road below, which leads from Shechem to Jerusalem, and from there on to Beersheba via Bethlehem and Hebron. This road (number 60 on the map today) is the highway of the Bible. All of the events in the lives of our fathers Avraham, Itzchak and Yaakov that are mentioned in the Bible occurred on this

road.

The journalist, who was neither Jewish nor Christian (and so was unfamiliar with the stories of the Bible from his own upbringing) remarked to me that he was so thankful to me for outlining this biblical connection of the Jews to this land. People in his country, he said, had no idea what brought Jews to live here and sacrifice so much for this land.


The value of mentioning the biblical claim of the Jewish people to the land is not so much to convince foreign ears that it is our right because it says so in the Bible, but, more so they can understand the roots of our love for this land, and our motivation to hold on to it forever.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4324322,00.html

In Ukraine Town, Bar-Mitzvah and Shabbat Prayers, 70 Years Later

In Ukraine Town, Bar-Mitzvah and Shabbat Prayers, 70 Years Later

For the first time since before World War II, Jews in the Ukranian town of Netishin held Shabbat services and celebrated a Bar-Mitzvah

 

 

By David Lev, Israel National News 

First Publish: 12/27/2012

Habad chassidim in Netishin

 

 

For the first time since before World War II, the small Jewish community in the Ukranian town of Netishin held prayer services this past Shabbat – and celebrated the Bar-Mitzvah of the grandson of the community's last rabbi, 70 years after it had been scheduled to take place.

The religious revival in the town is due to a construction project in the town, in which a common grave of Jewish victims of the Holocaust was discovered.

Tractor breaking ground for the project opened up the grave, which included the remains of numerous individuals, and Jewish holy books and scriptural scrolls that were apparently buried together with the victims.

According to elder members of the community, the Jews of Netishin were exterminated on Rosh Hashana in 1942, as the Nazi monsters invaded the town.

Upon the discovery, members of the town's small Jewish community turned to Habad for assistance, and the Rabbi of the nearby town of Chmelnitzki, Rabbi Alexander Feingold, intervened with city officials for help.

The mayor of Netishin immediately halted construction, and provided land and assistance to rebury the remains of the Jewish victims at an alternative site. The city also paid for the construction of a memorial stone on the new gravesite.

The incident awakened long-dormant feelings among many of the Jews in Netishin, who had long ago assimilated and had almost no connection to the Jewish community.

One of the members of the community, Azriel, confided in Rabbi Feingold that he had been scheduled to become a Bar-Mitzvah as the Nazis invaded the town – and instead, at the age of 12, witnessed the murder of his family, loved ones, and neighbors, leaving him the only surviving Jew of Netishin.

Azriel remained in the town, and eventually changed his name to Vasily, and became estranged from the Jewish people. But after the discovery of the mass grave – which contained the remains of his grandfather, who was the Rabbi of Netishin in the pre-war years – something stirred in the man, and he decided he wanted to go ahead with his Bar-Mitzvah – 70 years later.

Rabbi Feingold said that he felt privileged to be a part of such an amazing story.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/163622

Celebrating Jesus and Israel’s restoration on Mount Zion

Wednesday, December 26, 2012 |  David Lazarus, Israel Today  

 

 

Jewish followers of Jesus in a community on Mount Zion celebrated their silver anniversary this week behind the closed doors of a 200-year-old chapel nestled within Jerusalem’s Old City walls.

Some 300 worshippers gathered in prayer, scripture and song to retell the story of Israel’s restoration to her city and to her Messiah King.

The Lord will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem. Zechariah 1:17

As with most Messianic congregations in Israel, the story of the Community of the Lamb on Mount Zion began when a Jew had a divine encounter with Jesus. Only this time there were two Jews, brothers Reuven and Benjamin Berger, the sons of an Orthodox religious family of Holocaust survivors from New York.

After coming to faith, the Berger brothers left their yeshiva, bid farewell to family and friends, and followed Jesus’ calling back home to Israel.

“It was like the children of Jacob carrying the bones of Joseph back to the land,” said Reuven. “It was a homecoming for us back to our land, our people and our God.”

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem... Psalm 137:5

“Our lives and our Community are the fruit of the devotion and prayers of all those who went before us,” declared Reuven to the attentive crowd. The story of the Community of the Lamb on Mount Zion includes people like Theodore Hertzl and his vision and work for the restoration of Israel in the 1800s, 19th century Messianic Rabbi Michael Solomon Alexander who founded the Jerusalem sanctuary now serving the Community, and Alfred Sawyer, the Anglican minister who invited the Berger brothers “to begin a Messianic Jewish congregation in Jerusalem in order to fulfill the vision of this church.”

Those who sow in tears will reap with joy bringing in the sheaves. Psalm 126:5

Those hopes and dreams for a Messianic community in Jerusalem also brought many hard times. “There were years of distress, turmoil and dismay,” Reuven shared. “There were times when we felt crushed. But we know that even this was all part of God’s pruning, purifying and preparing us,” he continued. “We never lost hope over the years, nor our sense of calling to be part of the restoration of Israel. God must do a deep work in all of us who serve him here in Jerusalem.”

Benjamin Berger added: “It is a miracle that there is a Messianic Jewish congregation here in the Old City of Jerusalem. Right over there is the place where the Apostles gathered on Mount Zion,” he pointed out. “God has raised us up from the dead to continue the work for the salvation of Israel and to bring the glory of God back to Zion.”

Local Messianic Jews have their work cut out for them, said Benjamin. “We need much more power and grace from God to show our people the true face of Yeshua. The city of Jerusalem is becoming more and more religious,” he explained.

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion... Psalm 126:1

One clear demonstration of God’s power and grace at work in the Community was the moving testimony of a young Israeli man.

“I was homeless, living on the streets of the Old City,” he said. “Drugs, alcohol, crime and prison had ruined my life. I was paranoid and desolate.”

Some of the members from the Community of the Lamb picked him up and brought him into the fellowship.

 “Reuven would sit next to me and hold me so I couldn’t leave until the end of the message,” he recalled.

“The love I felt in this community touched me so much. It was the love of God that changed my life.”

The Community sent the new Messianic Jew to a rehabilitation center where he learned to live without drugs and alcohol. He even spent a year in a local Bible school. “Everyone in this Community prayed for me,” he said. “I owe my life to the dedicated people that picked me up from the streets and believed I could be saved. This is my family.”

That family atmosphere was evident with children’s songs and activities during the evening. But more surprising was watching as Jews and Arabs, Gentile expatriates and Orthodox Christian clergy all worshiped together in Hebrew in this unique place.

“The Lord is reconnecting all the branches of his olive tree,” said Benjamin. “He is breaking down walls that have been between us for generations. All believers from all traditions are part of one communion,” he said. “If they belong to the Messiah, they are my brother.”

Forgetting those things which are behind... Phil. 3:13

Towards the end of the evening the Community rose to their feet to renew their covenant with God. “We proclaim here today that we are closing the book on all that has gone before so that we might now open a new book in the life of our community,” proclaimed Benjamin. “We rededicate our lives and this community to you Lord,” Reuven prayed. “That you might do with us as you please, that we together, Jew and Arab, and all those who love you, might be a blessing to your people Israel. Amen!”

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23590/Default.aspx

Lost Jewish tombstones found in Greece

Lost Jewish tombstones found in Greece

Fragments from Jewish graves destroyed during WWII Nazi occupation recovered in Thessaloniki

Associated Press

Published:  12.25.12, 07:20 / Israel Jewish Scene

In a find that local Jewish groups have described as highly significant, Greek police said last week that hundreds of marble headstones and other fragments from Jewish graves destroyed during the Nazi occupation in World War II have been recovered.

The 668 fragments were found buried in a plot of land in Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city, following a 70-year search for the remains of graves smashed when the city's main Jewish cemetery was destroyed.


(Photo: AP)

The head of the city's Jewish community, David Saltiel, said most of the gravestones found dated from the mid-1800s up until World War II.

"This is our history," Saltiel, head of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, told The Associated Press.

                                                                               "Apart from the names, the (gravestones) also include the person's occupation. So this is a historic record."

An estimated 60,000 Greek Jews, most of the country's prewar Jewish population, were killed in the Holocaust.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4322701,00.html

Rare Find of Temple Era Artifacts near Jerusalem

Rare Find of Temple Era Artifacts near Jerusalem

Archaeologists have discovered a rare cache of artifacts, testimony of a ritual cult before the Jewish kingdom abolished them.

 

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

First Publish: 12/26/2012, Israel National News

 

History discovered near Jerusalem

Israel news photo: IAA

 

The discovery, like may others, was made during road excavation, this time at a new section of the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem Highway, known as Highway 1. The archaeological site is known as Tel Motza, at the Motza turnoff less than five miles west of Jerusalem.

A ritual building and a cache of sacred vessels date back approximately  2,750 years.


"The ritual building at Tel Motza is an unusual and striking find, in light of the fact that there are hardly any remains of ritual buildings of the period in Judae at the time of the First Temple," according to Anna Eirikh, Dr. Hamoudi Khalaily and Shua Kisilevitz, directors of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

“The uniqueness of the structure is even more remarkable because of the vicinity of the site's proximity to the capital city of Jerusalem, which acted as the Kingdom's main sacred center at the time,” they added. According to the archaeologists, "Among other finds, the site has yielded pottery figurines of men, one of them bearded, whose significance is still unknown."


Tel Motza and the surrounding region are renowned for their prime archaeological importance. Many finds have previously been uncovered at the site, from a variety of different periods. From the 1990s to the beginning of the present millennium, the site was excavated in preparation for the new route taken by Highway 1.

At the time, the site's archaeologists proposed once more identifying the site with the Biblical settlement "Mozah" mentioned in the Book of Joshua – a town in the tribal lands of Benjamin bordering on Judaea (Joshua 18: 26). The proposal was based, among other things, on the discovery at the site of a public building, a large structure with storehouses, and a considerable number of silos.

Archaeologists identified the site as a storehouse, run by high-ranking officials, for Jerusalem's grain supplies.

The current excavations have revealed evidence that provides another aspect to our understanding of the site. "The current excavation has revealed part of a large structure, from the early days of the monarchic period (Iron Age IIA),” the archaeologists said. “The walls of the structure are massive, and it includes a wide, east-facing entrance, conforming to the tradition of temple construction in the ancient Near East: the rays of the sun rising in the east would have illuminated the object placed inside the temple first, symbolizing the divine presence within.

“A square structure which was probably an altar was exposed in the temple courtyard, and the cache of sacred vessels was found near the structure. The assemblage includes ritual pottery vessels, with fragments of chalices (bowls on a high base which were used in sacred rituals), decorated ritual pedestals, and a number of pottery figurines of two kinds: the first, small heads in human form (anthropomorphic) with a flat headdress and curling hair; the second, figurines of animals (zoomorphic) – mainly of harnessed animals.”

The archeologists stress that "The find of the sacred structure together with the accompanying cache of sacred vessels, and especially the significant coastal influence evident in the anthropomorphic figurines, still require extensive research."


Ritual elements in the Kingdom of Judah are recorded in archaeological research, especially from the numerous finds of pottery figurines and other sacred objects found at many sites in Israel, and these are usually attributed to domestic rituals.

However, the remains of ritual platforms and temples used for ritual ceremonies have only been found at a few sites of this period.

According to the site's directors, "The finds recently discovered at Tel Motza provide rare archaeological evidence for the existence of temples and ritual enclosures in the Kingdom of Judah in general, and in the Jerusalem region in particular, prior to the religious reforms throughout the kingdom at the end of the monarchic period (at the time of Hezekiah and Isaiah), which abolished all ritual sites, concentrating ritual practices solely at the Temple in Jerusalem."

  

 

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/163586

A Christmas Song Poem - by Steve Martin

A Christmas Song Poem

by Steve Martin

God rest ye merry gentlemen,

With joy to the world and silent nights.

Christ was born in Bethlehem,

Amidst the beasts and lowly lights.

Hark the herald angels sang

A hallelujah chorus rang true.

It came upon a midnight clear,

O holy night for me and you.

O come O come Emmanuel

The little drummer boy plays on.

Let there be peace on earth

The Savior reigns, the King has come.

Wooden Sculptures Recall Christmas' Meaning

By Chris Mitchell

CBN News Middle East Bureau Chief

Monday, December 24, 2012

 

 

JERUSALEM, Israel -- Ashraf Jarayseh has been working in an olive wood workshop near Bethlehem since he was a boy. Now, he uses his craft to make wood sculptures in remembrance of Jesus.

 

 

 

"This workshop comes from father to son," Jarayseh said. "There is no school to learn this job. It's also what comes from your inside, from your heart."

 

Most of Jarayseh carvings represent scenes and characters from the Bible.

 

"I feel like the Holy Spirit from inside me, and I am happy with Jesus," he said.

 

Jarayseh's main carvings are nativity scenes. He's produced a number of different styles, but all celebrating the same event -- the birth of Jesus.

 

The sculptures are all made from the olive wood tree, the biblical symbol of peace.

 

An important part of the process is preparing the olive wood itself. The olive wood branches are kept in a room for two to three years. The wood dries, slowly preserving its color.

 

Jarayseh showed CBN News how one piece of wood can become a Christmas scene. First he cuts the wood, then sands it smooth. Next, he cuts by hand small figures representing the characters of the nativity. Finally, he writes a personal greeting.

 

Jarayseh's carvings have gone all over the world from the United States to Europe and South America. He hopes they're an incentive for people to come see for themselves the land where Jesus was born.

 

"I hope to see you here in the Holy Land, to see where Jesus was born and where He walked and where He lived here," Jarayseh said.

 

 

His carvings make special gifts at Christmas, but Jarayseh wants people to remember the true meaning of the season.

 

"The real meaning of Christmas is to go to the church and pray for Jesus," he said. "And to be born again. To clean everything inside. To be a new person."

 

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2010/December/Wooden-Nativity-Sculptures-Recall-Christmas-Meaning/

This is Christmas-Kutless With Lyrics

If Jesus lived in Israel today...

Wednesday, December 19, 2012 |  Aviel Schneider, Israel Today  

"A thought for Christmas... If Jesus and mother Mary were alive today, they would, as Jews without security, probably end up being lynched in Bethlehem by hostile Palestinians. Just a thought..."

That was the message posted by an Israeli official to the Facebook page of the Israeli embassy in Ireland this week. It took only a matter of minutes for the post to raise such an outcry that the embassy was forced to delete it and issue an apology.

It is arguable if such an idea is correct or not, but the fact is that many people in Europe (and maybe the US) have forgotten the Jewish background of Jesus and his earthly family.

Everywhere you go in Europe, you are constantly confronted with two Jews - Jesus hanging on a cross and Mary with a baby in her arms. In restaurants, bars, and of course churches, there they are.

And yet, a majority of Europeans no longer remembers that these two iconic figures are part of the Jewish people.

A year ago when Palestinians put on a provocative performance depicting Joseph, Mary and Jesus in front of an Israeli checkpoint near Bethlehem, nobody made a fuss about that.

But the truth is that the family of Jesus is not a Palestinian family.

They are a Jewish family.

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23578/Default.aspx

American hero and true friend of Israel

American hero and true friend of Israel

Op-ed: Former ambassador remembers Daniel Inouye, the US senator who asked 'What can I do for Israel?'

Sallai Meridor

Published:  12.18.12 Ynet News

Israel has many great friends in America. None has been more loving, caring and supporting than Senator Daniel Inouye, who left us today.


Senator Inouye played a leading role in all major aspects of the strategic relations between America and Israel.

He initiated transforming from loans to grants the American military aid to Israel, amounting to tens of billions of dollars over the years.

He led the American support for the development of multi-layered Israeli initiated missile defense system, from Arrow, through David's Sling, to Iron Dome. He assured that Israel would not only be allowed to purchase most advanced American weapons systems for its defense, but also be able to develop its own cutting edge systems to assure Israel's qualitative military advantage over its enemies.

American Hero

Pro-Israel senator Inouye passes away / Yitzhak Benhorin US's most senior senator, Daniel Inouye, a staunch Israel advocate who pushed for funding of Iron Dome, passes away at age of 88 Full Story

Inouye's support for Israel has never been conditional, nor has he ever expected anything in return. His voters in Hawaii were not Jewish, nor were they more supportive of Israel than in any other state in the Union.

His love story with the Jewish people started when he was in the hospital, severely wounded, at the end of the Second World War. When his next bed neighbor shared with him the horrors he witnessed while liberating the death camps, young Inouye asked who the victims were.

When told that they were Jewish, he wondered why. "I don’t know why, but people hate Jews" his fellow wounded soldier replied. This answer changed Inouye and his life.

Feared for Israel's future. Inouye (Photo: EPA)

Being himself an American of Japanese origin, serving his country while his relatives were kept by his own country in detention camps, he embarked on a life long journey of standing with and for the Jewish people.

He bound his soul with the Jewish people and vowed to do all he could to help Israel. From selling Israel's bonds as a young student to appropriating billions for Israel's defense as the chairman of the Senate committee, he has always stood with Israel.

The room of this American hero and most powerful leader was decorated with Jewish menorahs. Every year, he made the effort to attend Israel's Independence Day celebration in DC to show his solidarity and support. His door and heart have always been open to Israel's representatives.

When I served as Israel's ambassador to the US, I had the privilege of meeting with him in this office. Whenever I was seeking a wise caring advice, help vis-à-vis the administration on critical issues, or achieving for Israel the almost impossible, I would ask to visit Senator Inouye.

He has always been proud of Israel and concerned about its future. He profoundly understood the difficulties facing a tiny nation, the dangers emanating from the prevalent hatred towards the Jews and their state, and the existential challenges facing a Jewish democratic state in the Middle East.

He unequivocally believed that a secure Israel is in the best interest of the United States and an important part of the American story. He was more than deeply concerned about the threat of a nuclear Iran. Concern for Inouye has been a call for action. "What can I do for Israel's defense?" He would ask.

Inouye was a pragmatic person. He once looked at me and said "I will not live forever." It is critical, he added, that Israel will always have true friends in the Senate, who will deeply understand and feel, and who will be ready to stand with Israel when it is not easy, when it is most needed.


Israel has many great friends on Capitol Hill, but there has only been one Daniel Inouye. A noble human being, an American hero, a lover of Zion.


Sallai Meridor is a former Israeli ambassador to Washington

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4321571,00.html

Google, Israel Antiquities Authority launch Dead Sea Scrolls digital library

Using Google and NASA technology, the new website allows visitors to look at and read the fragments, text search in Hebrew and in English translation, as well as place the specific scroll at the site where it was first found.

By Nir Hasson | Dec.18, 2012, Haaretz

Dead Sea Scrolls digital library.

 

 

The Israel Antiquities Authority and Google Israel launched the Dead Sea Scrolls digital library on Tuesday.

 

The library, stored on Google servers, will eventually hold all of the tens of thousands of fragments of the scrolls in very high resolution. For now, some 4,000 scans of infrared photographs taken right after their discovery in the 1950s have been uploaded, as well as 1,000 new scans done in a lab specially constructed for this task by the Antiquities Authority.

The lab has a special camera, based on NASA technology, which captures every fragment 28 times in 12 different wavelengths of light. A computer processes each photo into a color photograph of unprecedented resolution, and each such file consists of 4-5 Gigabytes.

The photograph shows not only the ancient letters but also the creases, scorched margins and ink spills. In addition, the fragments were photographed in infrared, revealing letters and words unseen by the naked human eye.

A team from Tel Aviv University has started working on software that will make it possible to play with the fragments so as to reconfigure them, because no one knows if the researchers of 60 years ago, who put the texts together out of even smaller fragments, got it right, and there may be other ways of combining them. Researchers hope to benefit from this example of crowdsourcing to solve the “ultimate puzzle” of 30,000 fragments that are 2,000 years old.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the Judean Wilderness in the 1940s and 1950s. Since then there were several attempts at preserving and documenting them, but most resulted in damage to the delicate goatskin scrolls. For example, adhesive tape – an exciting invention in the 1950s – was used on some fragments, causing serious damage decades later to these incredibly rare finds.

Some 20 years ago, Israel was accused of keeping the scrolls out of the hands of scholars and all of humanity for a host of reasons, resulting in a slew of conspiracy theories. Since then, an enormous international project has been under way, as part of which the fragments were published in a scientific catalogue, but it is inaccessible and unintelligible to the public at large.

About two years ago, Google Israel and the Israel Antiquities Authority launched a joint project funded by the Leon Levy Foundation, the Arcadia Fund and the Rothschild Foundation. Beyond the act of making the scrolls available to the public, the goal of the project is to preserve the scrolls and the most accurate facsimiles of them for future generations.

To date, some 2,000 of the 30,000 estimated fragments in the vaults of the Israel Antiquities Authority have been scanned using this special method. Of these, 1,000 have already been uploaded to the site. In a press conference given this morning, Pnina Shor, director of the Dead Sea Scrolls division in the Israel Antiquities Authority, estimated that all fragments will be available on the website within three years.

The scrolls contain different versions of Jewish sacred texts as well as sectarian scriptures penned by the writers of the scrolls. Among the fragments already uploaded are the first words of the book of Genesis, sections from the book of Deuteronomy (including the ten commandments), and fragments from tiny phylacteries.

In addition to allowing visitors to look at and read the fragments, the new website allows text searches in Hebrew and in English translation, as well as placing the specific scroll at the site where it was first found, using Google’s mapping capabilities.

In the future, other tools will be developed to help scholars and the public study the scrolls. The Israel Antiquities Authority hopes that the launch of the new site will lead to a new wave of scientific publications about the Dead Sea Scrolls. “It’s going to be possible to read the scrolls again. In terms of scholarship, the sky’s the limit,” said Shor.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/google-israel-antiquities-authority-launch-dead-sea-scrolls-digital-library-1.485643

Israel uneasy over Obama selection of Kerry and Hagel

Israel uneasy over Obama selection of Kerry and Hagel

Monday, December 17, 2012 | Ryan Jones, Israel Today            

 

              Senator John Kerry

 

There has been much unofficial reaction in Israel in recent days to the expected appointment of Senator John Kerry as America's next secretary of state and of former senator Chuck Hagel as the next secretary of defense.

In both cases, Israel is not all that thrilled by President Barack Obama's choices.

While Kerry is generally seen as a friend of Israel in the US Congress (his voting record on Israel is "clean"), there are some problem spots as far as Jerusalem is concerned, and Kerry has been somewhat condescending regarding Israeli concerns in the past.

Most of the concern over Kerry stems from his spearheading an effort at the start of Obama's first term to revive ties between the US and the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. In hindsight, that was a very poor assessment of the situation on the ground, and it is fortunate for US interests in the region that his agenda failed.

But there are indications that as secretary of state, Kerry would repeat his mistake by promoting engagement with groups like Hamas and pressing Israel to compromise its security.

Kerry also rejects the notion that Jews have a right to live in Judea, Samaria and the eastern half of Jerusalem, despite the fact that those areas constitute the biblical heartland of ancient Israel.

More worrisome is Republican Chuck Hagel, who has made no secret of his disdain for America's "special relationship" with Israel, and has become a poster boy for Israel's antagonists in the US.

Among those hailing the choice of Hagel is Harvard Professor Stephen Walt, who co-authored the book The Israel Lobby, which criticizes the US for so staunchly supporting Israel and blames the situation on an "all powerful" pro-Israel lobby.

Last week, Walt wrote that by choosing Hagel for secretary of defense, Obama had effectively "paid back" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for, as Walt put it, being uncooperative.

That Hagel is bad for Israel, especially at a time of such sensitivity regarding the Iran nuclear threat, is apparently widespread knowledge in Washington.

When Obama first ran for president in 2008, his Jewish outreach director, Ira Forman, stated that "if [Hagel] was taking a policy position, we'd have real concerns."

Hagel is on record as calling for engagement with Iran's current leadership, and has repeatedly downplayed the danger of a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic. Threats by Iran's religious and political leadership to annihilate Israel have been all but dismissed by Hagel.

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/23571/Default.aspx

Israel Welcomes Christmas Holiday Tourists

CBNNews.com

Monday, December 17, 2012

 

 

 

JERUSALEM, Israel -- Of the estimated 75,000 tourists expected to arrive in Israel during Christmas week, about a third are Christian pilgrims coming to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ where it all took place.

 

On Monday, Israeli Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov will host Christian leaders at the annual reception in Jerusalem, where he'll extend holiday greetings and encourage Christians worldwide to celebrate Christmas in Israel.

 

Misezhnikov will also host a reception for church leaders at the Gardenia Hotel in Nazareth on Dec. 19 at 6 p.m.

 

Nazareth Mayor Ramiz Jaraisy will join him in welcoming visitors to the city where Jesus was raised.

Tourism Ministry staff will be on hand at Rachel's Crossing to welcome pilgrims visiting Bethlehem with holiday sweets and greeting cards.

 

Favorite sites for Christian pilgrims include the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem's Old City, the Garden Tomb and the Mount of Olives, as well as Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, and the Mount of Beatitudes and Capernaum, both near the Sea of Galilee.

 

Misezhnikov said Christians make up about 60 percent of the nation's tourists.

 

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2012/December/Israel-Welcomes-Christmas-Holiday-Tourists/

 

 

Pre-Construction Dig Yields Ancient Treasures

CBNNews.com

Thursday, December 13, 2012

 

 

 

JERUSALEM, Israel -- Just in time for the Hanukkah holiday, an Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) pre-construction excavation in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Kiryat Hayovel yielded 2,200-year-old artifacts.

 

A team of IAA archaeologists were called in before workers lay more tracks for the capital's new light rail.

A pre-construction excavation to ensure that evidence of the Jewish state's ancient past isn't lost to modernity is standard procedure in Israel.

The IAA excavation uncovered an agricultural community dating to the time when Judah the Maccabee and his small army defeated the Syrian Greeks, marking the start of the Hasmonean rule.

Among the artifacts found so far are a wine press, an oven for baking bread, a lead weight with the Hebrew letter 'yod' etched on it, and a perfume bottle.

 "Very little is known about the material culture and history of the residents of Jerusalem and the rural area around it in the fourth and third centuries before the common era," IAA excavation director Daniel Ein-Mor said, "and the newly revealed site will help us construct a theoretical model of a settlement in this area."

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2012/December/Pre-Construction-Dig-Yields-Treasures/