Showing posts with label Jewish leaders. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jewish leaders. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Orthodox Rabbis Issue Groundbreaking Declaration Affirming ‘Partnership’ With Christianity - Israel, Islam & End Times

Orthodox Rabbis Issue Groundbreaking Declaration Affirming ‘Partnership’ With Christianity - Dec. 20, 2015   Israel, Islam & End Times 

A GROUP of Jewish leaders issued a historic public statement affirming their desire to accept “the hand offered to us by our Christian brothers and sisters.”
Agroup of prominent Orthodox rabbis in Israel, the United States and Europe have issued a historic public statement affirming that Christianity is “the willed divine outcome and gift to the nations” and urging Jews and Christians to “work together as partners to address the moral challenges of our era.”
“Jesus brought a double goodness to the world,” the statement reads. “On the one hand he strengthened the Torah of Moses majestically” and on the other hand “he removed idols from the nations,” instilling them “firmly with moral traits.”


This year 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the declaration issued in 1965 by the Second Vatican Council, which marked a watershed in Jewish-Christian relations.

In language unusual for its day, Nostra Aetate stated that “God holds the Jews most dear,” stressed the great “spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews,” and condemned “hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.”

Now, a group of Jewish leaders has responded in kind, expressing their desire to accept “the hand offered to us by our Christian brothers and sisters.”

“Christians are congregations that work for the sake of heaven who are destined to endure, whose intent is for the sake of heaven and whose reward will not denied,” the text reads.
The statement bears the title, “To Do the Will of Our Father in Heaven: Toward a Partnership between Jews and Christians,” and is signed by over 25 prominent Orthodox rabbis, who invite fellow Orthodox rabbis to join in signing the statement.
“Now that the Catholic Church has acknowledged the eternal Covenant between G-d and Israel, we Jews can acknowledge the ongoing constructive validity of Christianity as our partner in world redemption, without any fear that this will be exploited for missionary purposes,” it says.
Echoing recent words by Pope Francis, the document states: “We are no longer enemies, but unequivocal partners in articulating the essential moral values for the survival and welfare of humanity.”
“Neither of us can achieve G-d’s mission in this world alone,” it says.
According to Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, one of the statement’s initiators, the “real importance of this Orthodox statement is that it calls for fraternal partnership between Jewish and Christian religious leaders, while also acknowledging the positive theological status of the Christian faith.”
“This proclamation’s breakthrough is that influential Orthodox rabbis across all centers of Jewish life have finally acknowledged that Christianity and Judaism are no longer engaged in a theological duel to the death and that Christianity and Judaism have much in common spiritually and practically. Given our toxic history, this is unprecedented in Orthodoxy.” said Rabbi Dr. Eugene Korn, Academic Director of CJCUC.


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Sunday, February 23, 2014

Presbyterian Church Rejects Anti-Israel Study Book, Boycott

Presbyterian Church Rejects Anti-Israel Study Book, Boycott

Sunday, February 23, 2014 |  Israel Today Staff  
Senior members of the Presbyterian Church (USA) last week pushed back against a study guide recently published by one of its subsidiaries that attacks Zionism (both Christian and Jewish) as the source of the Israeli-Arab conflict.
Last month, the Israel Palestine Mission Network, an affiliated non-profit that falls under the PC(USA)'s umbrella, published the study guide "Zionism Unsettled," along with a companion DVD documentary.
The guide attacks Zionism as a supremacist interpretation of the Bible, and accuses mainstream Jewish groups of a conspiracy to silence criticism of Israel. It also chastises Christians for supporting a theology that it says is akin to the Christian beliefs that "contributed to the Nazi Holocaust, the genocide of Native Americans, and countless other instances of tragic brutality."
Needless to say, the publication of "Zionism Unsettled" was deeply concerning for the many Jews who had begun to see Christians as genuine and natural allies, following centuries of overt Christian anti-Semitism.
In a statement released to the media, the leadership of the PC(USA) sought to put those concerns to rest by distancing itself from "Zionism Unsettled," if not from the authors.
"The Israel Palestine Mission Network booklet was neither paid for nor published by the Presbyterian Church (USA)," the statement read.
For some Jewish leaders, that wasn't good enough, since the Israel Palestine Mission Network falls fully under the administrative umbrella of the PC(USA).
But other Presbyterian leaders stepped in to clarify that "Zionism Unsettled" not only doesn't reflect the views of the Church's mainstream membership, it is strongly rejected by those who truly love the Jewish people.
"My first response to my friends in the Jewish community with whom I associate on a monthly basis in a Jewish-Presbyterian dialogue group is to assure them that this does not represent even close to a majority opinion," Rev. Mike Cole, a Houston-area Presbyterian leader, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Rev. Katharine Rhodes Henderson, president of New York's Auburn Theological Seminary, added that "this document purports to be about love, but it actually expresses demonization, distortion and imbalance."
In related news, a delegation of 14 Presbyterian leaders from America were in Israel last week to get to know the Jewish state so as to better relate to the arguments and propaganda surrounding her.
Of note, the Presbyterian delegation visited the SodaStream factory in the Jewish settlement of Maaleh Adumim that was the focus of so much media attention prior to the Super Bowl.
When SodaStream contracted Hollywood super star Scarlett Johansson as its new spokesperson, anti-Israel groups looking to boycott the Jewish state threw a fit, prompting Johansson to stop her work with one such group in particular - Oxfam.
According to Israel National News, the Presbyterian leaders couldn't see what all the fuss was about, and agreed with Johansson that SodaStream's location in the so-called "West Bank" as an Israeli business providing jobs to hundreds of Palestinians is actually good for peace.
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