Mission not accomplished: the response of the State of Israel and NGOs to Christian missionary activity, 1966–1986

ABSTRACT

In the broader context of missionary activity during the period of colonialism and post-colonialism, this contribution explores the relationship between Christian mission and Israel as a modern Jewish democratic nation-state. After the founding of the modern State of Israel in 1948, some Protestant churches and missionary organisations continued to seek conversions of Jews to Christianity. The State of Israel has officially opposed proselytising among Israeli Jews yet wished to maintain the commitment to freedom of religion stated in its Declaration of Independence. It has also sought not to damage relations with ‘Christian’ nations, to minimise the harm resulting from historical hostility towards Jews, and to reinforce positive trends within Christianity vis-à-vis Judaism and the Jewish State. We focus on the years 1966–1978, and consider the attitudes of Israeli NGOs to the mission as well as the Israeli Knesset’s numerous attempts to enact laws to prevent missionary activity, plus efforts to prevent missionaries from entering the country and to ban Jewish pupils from attending Christian schools. We can conclude by pointing to the persistent tension between the democratic character of the Jewish state and its wish to protect Jews from the perceived spiritual and physical harm of Christian proselytising activities.

KEYWORDS:

• Mission
• Judaism
• Christianity
• religion and state
• foreign relations

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Billy Graham, ‘Signs of the Bible Give Us a Clue’, New York Times, 2 October 1970.

2. The Yaldenu fund is a non-political child welfare organisation established in 1953 to provide additional informal education to the children of new immigrants and to help them integrate into Israeli society. The fund built youth clubs across the country and was a factor in greatly reducing the success of missionary activities among new immigrants. The Yaldenu fund received funding and support from the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Yaldenu fund pamphlet, n.d., Israel State Archives (henceforth, ISA), ג- 8002/1.

3. Yad L’Achim was founded in 1950 under the name Torah Wing Activists (Chever Peilei HaMachne HaTorati) by ultra-Orthodox rabbis with the initial aim of resisting the imposition of secular education for the children of immigrants from Muslim countries. In 1959 the organisation began to operate in a militant mode against missionary activity as well. Avraham Freiberg, Yad L’Achim activist, Bnei Brak, interview by Shai Wineapple, Bnei Brak, 15 April 2015. Ethical approval was not required by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for the research presented in this contribution.

4. The league was founded in 1962 by Dr Shmuel Greenwald and operated for about ten years. See the ‘League fundraising form’, ISA, גל- 2/1762; Dr S. Regolsky to I. Alter, 28 December 1967, ISA, ג-6207/14.

5. ‘The Lord is Blessing our work in Israel’, The Bethel Witness 29, 1 (1964): 6–9; Yona Malachy to N. Landau ‘Bethel’ Haifa, 1 November 1964, ISA, ג-5822/19.

6. ’Messianic School “Shalhevetyah” – Jerusalem’, ISA, 5603/6-ג.

7. ‘Mission Boarding Schools’ – Moked second Report, 12 March 1973. Yad L’Achim Archive (henceforth YLA), 043; P. Hadad to the Ministry of Education, ‘Closing of the School for the School Year of 1973’, 24 May 1972, ISA, גל-9587/11.

8. Divrei Haknesset, 49: 2266; H.C. 103/67, American Orphan Beth El Mission v. Minister of Social Welfare, 21(2] Piskei Din 325; see also Zvi Weinman to Yosef Burg, 4 January 1968, ISA, ג-6207/14.

9. Divrei Haknesset, 87: 83; Benny Morris, ‘MK admits only 40 Iranian children in mission schools’, Jerusalem Post, 24 July 1979. See also Benny Morris, ‘Only two Iranian girls attending mission schools’, Jerusalem Post, 2 August 1979.

10. The church was led by Andrew N. Dugger, who operated a printing house which published the Mount Zion Reporter. According to the Ministry of Religious Affairs, the sect members were radical believers from the United States, converted Jews, and mentally disturbed people. ‘House of God Church’, Jerusalem Post, 22 January 1965; Yaakov Fink Chief of Operations of the Counter Missionary Association to Moshe Kol, Minister of Tourism, 11 April 1973, ISA, גל- 12,282/2 (Malachy 1978, 40–48; Kjær-Hansen and Skjøtt 1999, 298–299).

11. The Voice of Healing missionary society was established by Gordon Lindsay, a famous evangelist and missionary from the United States. The society started working in Israel in 1959 (Østerbye 1970, 210–211); ‘Mount of Olives Bible Center’, under the leadership of Shlomo Hizak. Counter Missionary Association, ‘Report on mission activity in Jerusalem 1973’, ISA, 12,845/34 גל-.

12. Meir Mendes, ‘A Report on my visit in an apartment on 129 Ibn Gabirol Street, Tel Aviv’, 2 May 1961; see also Malachy’s request from Dr Goldin, senior official at the Ministry of Interior, to make it as difficult as possible for Jehovah’s Witnesses to establish themselves in the country. Yona Malachy to Dr Goldin, 11 May 1961. See also Lawrence Ross to Zerach Warhaftig, the Ministry of Interior, 6 December 1964, ISA, ג-5820/9; Yona Malachi to Zerach Warhaftig, the Ministry of Religious Affairs, 7 January 1965, ISA, ג-5818/4; Shalom Dov Lifshitz to Eli Yishai, ‘The attitude of the cult of Jehovah’s Witnesses towards the Jewish people’, 5 June 2001, ISA, גל- 54,180/4.

13. It should be noted that ‘Jews for Jesus’ refers specifically to the evangelical missionary organisation, and not to ‘Messianic Jewish’ Movement (see also Rosen 1970; Rosen and Proctor 1974).

14. The League of Rescuing Children from Shmad to Dr Y. Burg, 28 November 1972; Pinhas Scheinman, head of the religious council of Tel Aviv-Jaffa to the minister of religious affairs, 13 March 1973; Counter Missionary Association, ‘Report on mission activity in Jerusalem 1973’; Michael Klein, ‘Report’, 14 March 1974, ISA. 12,845/34 גל-

15. David Landau, ’Wants “Jews for Jews” out: Warhaftig to act against missionaries’, Jerusalem Post, 18 February 1973; Harry Trimborn, 'Especially “Jews for Jesus” Movement: Christian Missionaries Pose Israeli Dilemma’, Los Angeles Times, 26 February 1973; ‘Christian Missions face trouble in Israel’, Chicago Tribune, 15 May 1973; Michael Kleiner to Mishael Cheshin, ‘Jews for Jesus’, 13 November 1974, ISA, ג-3560/3; ‘Jews for Jesus have been violently attacked and harassed over the years. 30 zealots raid “Jews for Jesus” in Rosh Pina’, Jerusalem Post, 11 October 1977. ‘Rosh Pina resident threaten to evict “Jews for Jesus”’, Jerusalem Post, 17 October 1977.

16. Carole (Shira) was the daughter of Rev. Gordon Lindsay, the leader of the Voice of Healing (Malachy 1978, 105–106). Shira converted to Judaism and immigrated to Israel. See Malachy to Warhaftig, ‘Shira Lindsay’, 24 March 1971, YLA, Fol. 43.

17. ‘Attempts to burn mission press fails’, Jerusalem Post, 13 February 1973; ‘J.D.L suspects in mission arson held in jail’, Jerusalem Post, 14 February 1973; ‘Missionary a Target in Jerusalem’, New York Times, 15 February 1973.

18. Harry Trimborn, 'In the midst of “Jews for Jesus” strife: Texas Blonde Sparks Israeli Religious Storm’, Los Angeles Times, 11 March 1973; ‘Rabbinical Ruling Hits Texas Blonde’, Los Angeles Times, 16 March 1973; David Landau, '“Jews for Jesus” activist may not be allowed back’, Jerusalem Post, 16 April 1973. Lindsay married Ari Sorko-Ram, a Messianic Jew, in 1977, and together they established a few Messianic congregations in Israel. See https://maozisrael.org/about/ (accessed 4 January 2020). See also Ari and Shira Sorko-Ram Charles Johnson, 3 July 1982, Yad Tabenkin Archive (henceforth YTA), 3-4/49/8.

19. Rev. William L. Hull founded the Zion Apostolic Mission in 1936 in Jerusalem, during the British Mandatory Palestine. Rev. Le Roy M. Kopp and Rev. E. Paul Kopp acquired Hull’s ministry in 1961, first renaming it Zion Christian Mission, and in the early seventies it was renamed Zion House, managed by Rev. Charles Kopp (Wineapple and Kark 2021).

20. Abraham Rabinovich, ‘Arson at Jerusalem Church institutions’, Jerusalem Post, 12 February 1974; ‘Police blackout on Jerusalem arson’, Jerusalem Post, 13 February 1974; ‘Two H.C. girl students held in anti-mission arson’, Jerusalem Post, 15 February 1974; ‘Four jailed for arson at Christian sites’, Jerusalem Post, 5 April 1974; ‘Proposal for an agenda: Arson in Christian Institutions in Jerusalem’, Internal Affairs and Environment Committee, Protocol No. 24, 29 May 1974: 2–7.

21. HCJ 467/75, Yakov and Miriam Hutchins v. the Minister of Interior, Piskei Din 30 (3) 148; 1976. ‘Justice calls it “criminal plot”, False proselyte not Jew, High Court tells missionary’, Jerusalem Post, 20 May 1976. ‘Not really Jews’, Jerusalem Post, 21 June 1976.

22. Robert Rosenberg, ‘Jerusalem authorities considered by mounting attacks on Christians’, Jerusalem Post, 23 January 1980; Christopher Walker, ‘Violence grows against Jerusalem Christians’, Times, 25 January 1980; David Shipler, ‘Extremists Vandalising Jerusalem’s Christian Institutions’, New York Times, 31 January 1980; ‘Begin: we’ll fight church vandalism’, New York Times, 6 February 1980.

23. James Feron, ‘Baptist chapel in Jerusalem destroyed by fire’, New York Times, 9 October 1982; ‘Police hunt arsonist in Baptist church fire’, Jerusalem Post, 10 October 1982.

24. Haim Shapiro, ‘Missionaries come out into open’, Jerusalem Post, 8 October 1984; the Norwegian Church Ministry to Israel operated in Israel from the early 1950s, and owned churches in Haifa and Jaffa. Saul Colbi to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ‘Magne Solheim’, ISA, 5821/24-ג .Østerbye (1970), 187–88; Solheim (1991), 44.

25. ‘Project Kibbutz in Israel – History and vision’, YTA, 3-4/49/8.

26. ‘Certificate for registration of an association – Ministry of Interior’, 15 August 1983.

27. Project Kibbutz, Interview at kibbutz Dafana with the administrator of volunteers Myron Goodwin, 30 January 1983; Sandra Levkoff, Kibbutz Ein Shemer, 17 November 1983; ‘Israel through a kibbutz window’, YTA, 3-4/49/8.

28. Zvi Sobel to David Schiller, n.d.; Philip D. Abramowitz to David Schiller, 27 April 1984. YTA, 3-4/49/8.

29. Haim Shapiro, ‘Kibbutz movement probes Christian “cult” operation’, Jerusalem Post, 4 May 1984; Amnon Barzel, a meeting in the subject Project Kibbutz. December 1984; David Spelman and David Schiller, ‘Kibbutz Project Report’, n. d. YTA, 3-4/49/8.

30. Ken Bob to Gadi Ormian, Yehuda Peleg, Edna Kaplan Hasia Israeli, ‘missionaries working in Israel’, 23 January 1985. YTA, 3-4/49/8.

31. Haim Shapiro, ‘Christian group leader ordered to leave to country’, Jerusalem Post, 2 May 1985; see also Shalom Dov Lifshitz to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, ‘Volunteers from southern Lebanon to the Galilee kibbutzim’, 29 March 1987, ISA, גל- 23,806/33.

32. Janet Ross, a former employee of the Israel Trust of the Anglican Church in Israel in the 1960s and 1970s, interview by Shai Wineapple, Jerusalem, 25 February 2015.

33. James Reston, ‘Carter, Evangelism, And Jews’, New York Times, 6 June 1976; ‘U.S. Evangelicals back “unified Jerusalem”’, Jerusalem Post, 23 February 1979; Pnina Peli, ‘Doubting the blessing of Christian Zionism’, Jerusalem Post, 20 September 1985.

34. A. Cohen, ‘Evangelical Christians are major source of United Jewish Appeal donations’, Jerusalem Post, 13 November 1997.

35. Avraham Even-Shoshan, a Hebrew linguist and lexicographer, defined Messianic Jews as a cult of Jews who declare themselves as Jews in their nationality, loyal to the State of Israel, and Christians by religion (Even-Shoshan 1987, 795). Gershon Nerel, a scholar and Messianic Jew, defines Messianic Jews as Jews who have accepted faith in Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, ‘from motives of internal recognition and conviction’ of philosophical and theological truths out of free will, and not as a result of coercion or in order to gain material benefits. Nerel claims that Messianic Jews are ‘located at the theological seam-points between the world of Judaism and the world of Christianity’, and asserts that ‘both Christianity and Judaism see them as a kind of “hybrid creature” whose place is on their extreme fringes’ (Nerel 1996, 2, 17–21; see also Ariel 2000, 222–23).

36. Ya'acov Ardon, 'Supreme Court backs Emma Berger’s right to Zichron property’, Jerusalem Post, 20 July 1972; Lankin Doris, ‘High court foils device to deprive Emma Berger of pension Dora Schwartz’, Jerusalem Post, 4 November 1973.

37. Proposal for an agenda: ‘Mission and its actions for the decline of the country among civilians and IDF soldiers, a proposal for MK Avraham Vardiger’, Internal Affairs and Environment Committee, Pro No. 34, 5 July 1974: 2–10.

38. ’Christian “embassy” opened in Jerusalem’, Jerusalem Post, 30 September 1980; Haim Shapiro, ‘Christian Embassy accused of “heresy”’, Jerusalem Post, 25 February 1985; Shalom Dov Lifshitz chairman of Yad L’Achim protests about Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s appearance before participants in the Christian Zionist Congress, organised by the Christian embassy and attended by ‘active – missionaries’. Lifshitz added that the embassy itself is disseminating the Christian gospel to the Jewish people. Shalom Dov Lifshitz to Yitzhak Shamir, 14 April 1988, ISA, 23,806/33 גל-.

39. Haim Shapiro, ‘The Mormon case’, Jerusalem Post, 21 February 1985. See also Moshe Porush, ‘Mormons in Jerusalem’, Jerusalem Post, 8 March 1985. Yoel Cohen, ‘The Mormons in Jerusalem’, Jerusalem Post, 28 March 1985; and Gordon W. Petrie, ‘Mormonism’, Jerusalem Post, 31 March 1985; Yitzhak Peretz to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, 28 December 1987. Rabbi Langner to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, 10 May 1988. Issachar Katzir Rabbi Langner, 17 May 1988, ISA, 23,806/33 -גל.

40. Teddy Kollek with Amos Kollek, ‘The lesson of the Mormons’, Jerusalem Post, 25 August 1995 (Taylor 2019).

41. Douglas G. Young, ‘The Israel-American Institute of Biblical Studies’, CNFI 10 (December 1959): 31–32; Sid Applebaum to Yitzhak Navon, Douglas Young, 7 January 1963; Meir Padan to Teddy Kollek, ‘Israel-American institute for Biblical studies’, 25 January 1963, ISA, ג-3534/5.

42. Divrei Haknesset, 73: 3996.

43. ‘Western consuls worried about Missionary laws’, Jerusalem Post, 28 February 1973; ‘Shapiro: No law planned against mission work’, Jerusalem Post, 1 March 1973; Divrei Haknesset, 47, 140–143; Ibid., 69: 563–566; Ibid., 69: 563–566; ‘Missionaries can’t be defeated without law’, Jerusalem Post, 19 March 1975.

44. Divrei Haknesset, 81: 623–642.

45. Penal Law, 5737–1977, as amended by Penal Law Amendment (Enticement to Change Religion) Law, 5738–1977, Laws of the State of Israel, 32, 5738–1977/78: 62, Sections 174A and 174B.

46. Asher Wallfish, ‘Knesset bill outlaws bribes to entice religious converts’, Jerusalem Post, 6 December 1977; ‘The law against missionaries’, Jerusalem Post, 14 December 1977; ‘Christians alarmed by Israel law’, The Times, 31 December 1977; Moshe Brilliant, ‘Israel Christians Demand Inquiry over Conversions’, Christianity Today, 2 February 1978.

47. Sarah Konig, ‘Christian Council warns of new conversion laws’, Jerusalem Post, 1 February 1978; Na’em Ateek, ‘A letter from the chairman of UCCI’, UCCI news magazine, 8, 1 (February 1978): 3–6; ‘A letter to the president of the state of Israel’, UCCI news magazine, 8, 2 (June 1978): 16–17.

48. Shmuel Tamir to R. Maasn, 8 March 1978, ISA, נ-290/14.

49. See also David-Maria A. Jaeger, ‘The personal impressions of a member of the UCCI delegation to Europe’, UCCI news magazine 8, 2 (June 1978): 13–16.

50. See the complaint of Rabbi Shalom Dov Lifshitz, founder of Yad L’Achim, to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, about material benefits allegedly given to new Jewish believers, in Beit Asaf Congregation in Netanya 5 May 1988, ISA, גל- 23,806/33.

51. ‘Christians Protest Proposed Anti-missionary Legislation’, Christianity Today, 19 May 1997; see also Aaron Osborne, ‘Strict Antimissionary Bill Retooled’, Christianity Today, 9 February 1998; Sean Aaron, ‘“Antimissionary” Bill Effort Backfires’, Christianity Today, 18 May 2008.

52. Mission Struggle Department, Yad L’Achim to the Minister of Education Yigal Alon, ‘New Testament Classes in High School’, 24 March 1974. See also Dr Dan Ronen to Yad L’Achim, 2 April 1974, ISA, ג-23/6524.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shai Wineapple

Shai Wineapple is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Department of Geography Faculty of Social Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His recent publications include: ‘Orot Meofel: Contemporary rescue acts’, in Rescuers of 1929: rescue acts of Jews and Palestinians in Hebron and Jerusalem, edited by Yair Auron, Haifa: Pardes, 2017 [in Hebrew]; in collaboration with Prof. Ruth Kark, ‘Mission impossible: The Christian Mission and the of State Israel, 1948–1965’, Israel Affrays, 27, 3, (June 2021): 427–449.

Ruth Kark

Ruth Kark, Professor Emerita at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has written and edited 27 books and over 200 articles on the history and historical geography of Palestine/Israel. Her research interests include, among other topics, land and settlement activity, policy and law, western civilisations and the Holy Land (consuls, churches, missionaries, modern technology), women and gender, museology and ethnographic museums, as well as Bedouin in the Middle East.