Jewish-Christian relations trump rocket fire
By: Lia Kamana
Jerusalem Post summer 2014
Link to online story: http://www.jpost.com/Magazines///CHRISTIAN/2014/09/01/index.html (pg. 20-22)
As Operation Protective Edge continued in Israel, many programs and trips that were supposed to take place during the summer months were canceled or cut short. From foreign students, to people focused on vacation, the conflict between Israel and Gaza planted fear in many.
Newspapers were filled with stories of events being canceled and tourists fleeing home, and it seemed as if nothing went on as planned.
One program that went against the majority during the conflict was made up of 11 individuals who were chosen to come to Israel to learn about Jewish-Christian relations. The six-week summer program is run by the Center for Jewish-Christian Relations at the Max Stern Jezreel College located in the Jezreel Valley.
Sagi Melamed, vice president for external relations and development at the college, was one of the creators of the center. According to Melamed, the vision behind the center was the healing of relationships between Judaism and Christianity.
Through the center, the college’s 5,000 students are able to take any of five courses offered on the topic. Due to the fact that all courses are taught in Hebrew, there are no international students. The summer program was designed for those who come from abroad to learn about the topic.
“The program came about organically,” said Faydra Shapiro, the director at the Galilee Center for Jewish Christian Relations.
This year’s summer program is the first offered by the center. Applicants were invited worldwide and according to Shapiro, “there was a lot of interest.” Candidates had to write a short essay on why they wanted to do the program and from there Shapiro began to make her decisions.
“I was looking for a mix of people who genuinely sounded interested in the topic and Israel. They didn’t have to have an academic background,” said Shapiro.
Fourteen individuals were accepted, but due to financial and visa issues, only 11 are taking part in the program. Shapiro wanted to keep the group small, because she wanted them to “grow together” and “form a community together,” which she says is easier to accomplish with a smaller group of people. The 11 members range in age from late teens to the sixties and are from six different countries.
The students were notified of their acceptance well in advance of the program’s July 20 starting date so they could make travel arrangements, but as the conflict between Israel and Hamas worsened, Melamed and Shapiro both worried that participants would cancel. They were thrilled when all 11 arrived in Israel.
“I would like to emphasize my respect and appreciation for the people who came in such an unsettled challenging time here in Israel,” said Melamed. “When you sit in Brazil or in Canada and see that rockets are falling all over Israel and you still come here, it takes some courage and some determination.”
Although everyone did report to the Max Stern Jezreel College on July 20, it wasn’t an easy decision for all to do so and many participants were met with opposition from people back home prior to their departure.
“My family was really worried about me coming,” said Marie-Hélène Goulet, a participant from Ottawa, Canada.
Goulet said in the weeks and days leading up to her departure, she was receiving e-mails advising her not to attend the program and links to articles regarding the conflict.
“A few days before I was supposed to leave it got to the point where I was running out of arguments for me to go, so I emailed Faydra asking if she could tell me anything about things happening that would ease not only my family’s minds, but my own as well,” said Goulet.
Faydra replied to Goulet by sharing what her family and friends were doing at the time, showing how life in Israel was going on normally. Goulet said this really helped put her at ease and credits the message with making her decide to return to Israel a second time to take part in the program.
The program offers something for students with varied experience of Israel, with this trip being one participants first time in the country to other participants making their fifth or more trip.
Kaylyn Lanier from North Carolina made her fifth trip to Israel with the summer program of the Jewish Christian Relations Center, and while she didn’t meet much opposition from her family, she said her church community was really worried.
“My family wasn’t too worried because we have just so happened to travel to many different places during times of conflict, but members of my church community kept asking me if I was still planning on going to Israel,” said Lanier. “People were worried that it wasn’t safe for me to go, but at the same time, they knew that I was supposed to be here.”
Leslie Nutter’s trip to Israel to take part in the program is her first experience in Israel. She said she raised the money to come through GoFundMe, her church community, and baking. For Nutter, a resident of Philadelphia, coming to Israel was always a goal and doing it through a program like this was amazing.
“I have been studying the scriptures for years and I wanted to come here so I could live the text,” said Nutter.
The students learn about Israel and Jewish-Christian relations through an array of different activities, said Shapiro, adding, “The whole country is our classroom.”
At the college, students attend two classes on the topics, “The New Testament in its Jewish Environment” and “issues in Contemporary Jewish-Christian Relations.” Along with the classes, students hear a weekly guest lecturer, take part in community service activities, and go on weekly field trips. Students also take Hebrew lessons as a means to help them interact with the country and its people.
“I am loving our program thus far, it has been a paradigm-shifting and life changing,” said Ili Deku. “It has been a vibrant potent mix of theology and religious students, outdoor practical experience and indoor cognitive learning, personal reflection and group interaction. Given the diverse background in belief, shaped by cultural and denominational differences within the group, the overall challenge is to attempt to understand Jewish and Christian relations.”
Shapiro called the 2,000-year relationship between Jews and Christians one of “historic enemies,” asserted that it is one the center hopes to change.
“We are in a different place facing a different world and we need to face it together instead of alone,” said Shapiro.
According to Melamed, the college is surprised by philanthropic friends around the world, both Jewish and Christian, all of whom want to see these two groups of people move in a new direction. And the center seems to be doing just that, according to students.
“Studying here is a great challenge and a great opportunity to approach the people of Israel and to realize what is going on here in the modern state of Israel,” said Clerio Kropp of Rio Grande do Sol, Brazil. “Also how we can not only learn with the Jewish people, but indeed raise conversations between Jews and Christians, and to reconsider some historical misunderstandings and walk to a new age of mutual understanding, where the center is love.”
