Follow-up to Friday's Post

15 Elul 5778

In follow-up to Friday's post, I was going to suggest some people for us to contact in regards to the Education Ministry's funding of a Christian organization and sending Jewish children to it for basically religious instruction or indoctrination, take your pick.

Although I did not hold out much hope for a favorable response from Minister Bennett, I knew we had to try something. As I read in an unrelated story, where parents stood up to a local school where they were going to replace the US Pledge of Allegiance with a "global" one...

Janice Crouse, conservative analyst and author of “Children at Risk,” told One News Now the situation serves an important lesson for parents.

“I think parents should take heart … in that the administration was forced to change their minds and go back to having the Pledge of Allegiance,” she said. “And I think parents can learn from this that they do need to speak out, and they do need to know what’s going on so that they can speak out.”

This is also a message for us. We don't live in a bubble. We are guarantors for each other. Consequently, we have to know what's going on and then we have to figure out how to respond. This is no less than a war on Judaism and we have to fight it, however we can.

We mustn't allow the Yetzer HaRa to convince us that there is no use trying because we can't possibly succeed. With Hashem's help, anything is possible and the success is in His hands, not ours. All we have to do is learn our Torah and be ready and willing to put it into practice. That's what mitzvot are - Torah put into practice. But, we have to know what is going on around us so we know where to apply the Torah that we learn each day.

Like in this instance of returning a wayward animal or lost item to its owner. It may not seem like much, not so earth-shattering important, but it's a mitzvah nonetheless.

So, back to my follow-up. I remembered reading that the Ethiopian community had a representative in the Knesset who looked after their interests and after Shabbat I used google to try to find the name and contact information. It brought up this article...

Advocates Protest Targeting Ethiopian Youth for West Bank Evangelical Bible Program

In wake of Haaretz report, Association of Ethiopian Jews urges Education Minister Bennett to end his ministry's support for the program

This program has apparently already been going on since 2010...

...A key goal of the facility in Ariel, according to the JH Israel website, is to provide participants with “a deeper connection to God by embracing their biblical and cultural heritage.” Its target audience, it says, are the many young Israelis who have become “disconnected from the roots of their faith” – a phenomenon it terms a “crisis.” Its facility in Ariel, the website proclaims, “is at the forefront of biblical prophecy unfolding in modern Israel.”

Spread out over 130 acres of land, including six obstacle courses, the National Leadership Center was opened in 2010 and is run by a company affiliated with the Ariel municipality. According to its director Eran Glazer, about 5,000 students participate in its programs each year. Until now, participants have been required to pay their own way. This is the first year that the Education Ministry is funding participation.

The facility also provides special programming for the Israeli military and security forces.

If this is right, then potentially, 40,000 young Israelis "disconnected from the roots of their faith" have already been exposed to Christian indoctrination through the auspices of the "Jewish" State!

To be continued...

Shavua tov!