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TechnoratiFollowing worldwide uproar, the deputy mayor who organized the Orthodox Jewish students responsible for the burning of hundreds of New Testaments has publicly apologized to Christians worldwide for the intolerant act and for any hurt feelings it might have produced.
The burning of the New Testaments last Thursday by yeshiva students was regrettable and unplanned, said Deputy Mayor Uzi Aharon of the central Israeli town Or Yehuda to The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
Aharon had initially defiantly defended the students’ action when news broke out about the Bible burning. He had described their action to various media outlets as “purging the evil among us,” fighting those that break the law by trying to convert Jews, and following the “commandment.”
But by the time he spoke to The Jerusalem Post, which publishes a monthly Christian edition, he changed his tone and said he was very sorry for the book burning, that it was unplanned, and that he was unaware the event may have caused damage to Christian-Jewish relations.
"I wasn't even on the scene when the boys rounded up all the Bibles and brought them all to one place [near the synagogue in Neveh Rabin],” Aharon claimed to the Post. “They started burning them before I got there. Once I arrived the most I could do was pull a Bible out of the fire. I put it in nylon and its now in my car. I am really sorry for the book burning, but I did not organize it, it was a spontaneous thing by the yeshiva boys," Aharon said.
He added, “We respect all religions as we expect others to respect ours. I am very sorry that the New Testament was burned, we mean it no harm and I'm sorry that we hurt the feelings of others.”
However, the Or Yehuda deputy mayor also declared that Israel cannot allow messianic Jews to “come into our homes and incite against our religion, and turn our children away from Judaism. That is against the law.”
Aharon, a strong anti-missionary activist, admits he had initially organized “three or four” yeshiva students from the town’s Michtav M’Eliahu Yeshiva to go to apartments in a part of town with many Ethiopian Jews to collect packages recently given to them by local messianic Jews, according to the Post. The packages contained a New Testament and pamphlets, which Aharon claims encouraged going against Judaism.
The New Testament burning is the latest incident revealing escalating tension between Orthodox Jews and messianic Jews as well as any Christian trying to share the Gospel with Jews in Israel.
Bible Society in Israel director Victor Kalisher, whose organization printed the Bibles burned in Or Yehuda, responded to the incident:
“What worries me is that nobody has stood up against this,” said Kalisher, the son of Holocaust survivors, to the Post. “It seems there is a war against messianic Jews in Israel.”
Kalisher argues that Bibles are not forced on anybody or into any homes, contrary to what many Orthodox Jews claim about Christian evangelism.
“The book has never harmed anyone, you can choose to read it or choose not to read it,” he said. “If this happened to Jewish books overseas we would be screaming anti-Semitism.”
He acknowledged the increased tension between the two communities, noting bombs that have been sent to messianic Jews, “and now books have been burned.” Continue »
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