c. 1999 Religion News Service

Poll: Israeli Jews know little about Christianity _ or Christmas

(RNS) Israeli Jews generally have positive attitudes toward Christians but have little knowledge of Christianity, including what day most Christians celebrate Christmas, according to a new poll.

Released as a flood of Christian pilgrims arrives in Israel to mark the new millennium, the poll also found that most Israeli Jews have a positive opinion of the upcoming visit to the Holy Land by Pope John Paul II and consider American Christians generally supportive of Israel.

The Gallup poll was commissioned by the Chicago-based International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which seeks to foster interfaith dialogue. The poll found that just 25 percent of those surveyed knew that Dec. 25 is the day most Christians celebrate Christmas.

Other poll results, reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency news service, included:

_ Fifty-three percent expressed positive opinions about the pope’s scheduled March visit.

_ Thirty-six percent said they feel they have more in common with American Christians who support Israel than they do with American Jews who are ambivalent about Israel. Forty-five percent said they felt they had more in common with ambivalent American Jews.

The survey polled 479 Israeli Jews from across the religious spectrum. The results were released Tuesday (Dec. 21).

Albright hosts State Department’s first Ramadan `iftar’ dinner

(RNS) Secretary of State Madeleine Albright Tuesday (Dec. 21) hosted American Muslim representatives at her department’s first”iftar”dinner, the evening meal that breaks the day’s fast during Ramadan.

Responding to periodic complaints that Muslims are ignored in the shaping of Middle East policy, Albright said “the legitimate concerns of Muslim Americans are taken into account” by the Clinton administration.

She also pledged to hire more Muslims for the State Department. “We are recruiting hard,” Albright said.

The dinner, held after sunset in accordance with Islamic law, marked the first time the Muslim holy month of Ramadan has been marked at the State Department with an event. In previous years, both the Congress and the White House have held Ramadan events.

During Ramadan, which ends Jan. 8, observant Muslims abstain from eating, drinking, smoking or other sensual pleasures from dawn to sunset. The iftar meal traditionally begins with dates and water.

Ibrahim Hooper, a representative of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the dinner allowed Muslim leaders and State Department officials”to get to know one another on a personal level. … That can only serve to facilitate future political discussions on issues of importance to the American Muslim community.” Israel to deploy a record 12,000 police in Jerusalem on New Year’s Eve

(RNS) Israel says it will deploy a record 12,000 police in Jerusalem on New Year’s Eve because of fears that religious terrorists _ Christian, Jewish or Muslim _ could seek to cause havoc at the start of the new millennium.

New Year’s Eve this year falls on a Friday, the start of the Jewish Sabbath, when large numbers of religious Jews visit the Old City’s Western Wall, a remnant of Judaism’s biblical Temple.

Friday is also the Muslim day for communal prayer, plus Dec. 31 falls smack in the middle of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, a time when hundreds of thousands of Muslims flock to the Old City’s Al Aqsa Mosque. The mosque sits just above the Western Wall.

Added to that combustible mix will be the presence of tens of thousands of Christian pilgrims who will be in the Old City to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Jesus’ traditional burial site, to mark the start of Christianity’s third millennium.

Worldwide fear of a possible terrorist attack has been heightened by the arrests of 14 suspected Muslim militants in Jordan and the apprehension of two Algerian Muslims who sought to enter the United States on false papers. One, arrested in Washington state, was caught with a large cache of bomb-making equipment.”Our working premise always is that the will to carry out attacks exists,”Israeli police commissioner Yehuda Wilk told the Associated Press.

In addition to concern that Muslim terrorists will seek to strike at Israeli Jews and tourists on New Year’s Eve, officials also fear that Christian or Jewish extremists might seek to attack the Al Aqsa Mosque. Three thousand police will be deployed around Al Aqsa alone.

A terrorist attack _ regardless of whether Christians, Jews or Muslims are responsible _ could disrupt the delicate Middle East peace talks.

Pope supports considering clearing 15th-century reformer of heresy

(RNS) With strong support from Pope John Paul II, the Vatican is taking a new look at the Inquisition’s condemnation of the 15th-century priest, theologian and church reformer Jan Hus as a heretic.

Some 40 scholars from Czech, Polish, German and Romanian universities met at the Vatican Friday (Dec. 17) for an ecumenical four-day symposium on the views for which Hus died at the stake in 1415.

The church’s Central Committee for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 sponsored the symposium, also attended by Cardinals Miloslav Vlk of Prague and Roger Etchegaray, president of the Holy Year committee.

The pope has called on Catholics to acknowledge the church’s mistakes of the past, including judgments of the Inquisition, as part of Holy Year observances marking the start of the third millennium of Christianity.

A renowned preacher and writer on the faculty of the University of Prague, Hus was inspired by the views of British reformer John Wycliffe. He ran afoul of the Inquisition because of his criticism of the church hierarchy.

His death at the stake set off a series of religious wars, which lasted for decades and left Catholics in the minority in Bohemia. The Hussites helped to pave the way for the Protestant Reformation.”Today, on the eve of the Great Jubilee, I feel the need to express deep regret for the cruel death inflicted on Jan Hus and for the consequent wound of conflict and division which was thus imposed on the minds and hearts of the Bohemian people,”the pope told the scholars Friday (Dec. 17).

John Paul returned to the case again on Monday in a last-minute addition to the text of his Christmas address to cardinals and the staffs of the Vatican’s administrative offices. He called the symposium a”significant”move toward improving relations between Catholics and the Protestant Hussite tradition.

The scholars and theologians examined Hus’ writing, teaching and participation in the Ecumenical Council of Constance. The council ended the Great Western Schism, which had disrupted Catholic unity for four decades. The council also rejected the teachings of Wycliffe and condemned Hus as a heretic.”Hus is a memorable figure for many reasons,”the pope told the scholars.”But it is particularly his moral courage in the face of adversity and death that has made him a figure of special significance to the Czech people, who have themselves suffered much through the centuries.” John Paul, who first proposed a re-examination of Hus during a visit to Prague in 1990, said it is an important step”on the path of reconciliation and true unity”between Catholics and Protestants.”Scholarly endeavors to reach a more profound and complete grasp of historical truth are crucial to this cause,”he said.”Faith has nothing to fear from the work of historical research.”

Quote of the day: Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould

(RNS)”There are two things that European intellectuals don’t understand about Americans, I find. One was Bill and Monica, or our obsession with it. The second is how you can possibly have an anti-evolution movement in a modern scientific country.” _ Harvard University paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould, an outspoken supporter of evolution and critic of creationism, quoted in The New York Times Tuesday (Dec. 21).

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