But for the Christian community in Israel, the environment remains inhospitable.
A small but eclectic population of indigenous Palestinians, foreign clergy, messianic Jews, Russian immigrants and expatriates, Christians are free to practice their faith and only very rarely are victims of actual violence. But centuries of anti-Semitism have left many Israelis with a poor view of Christianity and that occasionally bubbles over into attacks on people and property, say Christian clergy and Israelis who work on interfaith ties.
“I don’t think a majority would engage in such a vandalistic act, but it is a manifestation of anti-Christian feeling in Israeli society,” Hana Bendcowsky, program director for the Jerusalem Center for Jewish-Christian Relations (JCJCR), told The Media Line. “The main problem is ignorance, a lot of stereotypes and the history of Jewish-Christian relationships in Europe that influence the attitude of Israelis toward local Christians.”
With its array of Christian institutions and holy sites, Jerusalem puts the two faiths into very close proximity, but rarely do Jews and Christians have much personal contact. In a city of 770,000 people, only 14,500 are Christians, according to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics. That leaves the task of influencing the attitudes of the Jewish majority to the schools and groups like the JCJCR. Read the rest on: The Jerusalem Post
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