c. 2000 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Some people, it seems, are so determined to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land that nothing _ not even this fall’s violence _ can stop them.

But increasingly, the pilgrims aren’t Jews on a roots mission to the world’s only Jewish state. Instead they’re Christians, resolved to walk in the steps of Jesus.

Christians account for as much as 55 percent of the 600,000 North Americans who travel to Israel while Jews make up only about 30 percent, according to the Israel Ministry of Tourism. Thirty years ago, the numbers told a different story: Jews comprised 75 percent of travelers to Israel from this part of the world.

Reasons for the shift are complex, but tourism officials say Jews are now less determined to get to Israel than their Christian counterparts.

“There are many baby boomers (among Jews). They go to many other places,” said Yehuda Shen, deputy commissioner of the Israel Ministry of Tourism in North America. “Christians were committed to going there 100, 200 years ago when they had to ride camels. So today, with all the investments we’ve made to make it comfortable to visit, they can have it all.”

Tour operators who take groups to holy sites were on pace for a record year in September when deadly violence between Palestinians and Jews erupted. Since then, they say, more than 50 percent of scheduled travelers have postponed their trips until next spring or summer.

Most Jews and Christians alike have chosen to “wait it out,” according to Tom Bornstein, marketing director of AMI Holy Land Travel Inc. in Chicago. The only Jews going to Israel in a sign of solidarity, Bornstein said, are leaders of Jewish organizations because the average Jew’s ties to Israel are weak.

“There are many other cultural influences affecting Jewish life,” Bornstein said, citing widespread intermarriage with gentiles as an example. “Someone might go to the synagogue, but Israel isn’t at the center of that experience.”

Jewish groups have rallied to stem the younger generation’s estrangement from Israel. New York-based United Jewish Communities organizes student and young adult “missions” to Israel with inner tubing on the Jordan River and para-sailing on beaches as drawing cards. The $210 million Birthright Israel program will pay in full to entice as many as 7,500 Jewish young adults to study for 10 days in Israel this year.

While Jews urge their children to add Israel to their itineraries, tour operators say they’re swamped with reservations for next year from Christians who have never been abroad.

“For many people, this is the trip of a lifetime,” said Nicholas Mancino, president of Journeys Unlimited, a New York-based Israel tour company for Christians. This year has been the best ever for his 10-year-old company, he said, as Roman Catholics emulated Pope John Paul II’s Jubilee Year pilgrimage and conservative Protestants refused to be cowed by either this fall’s tumult or U.S. State Department warnings not to go.

The evangelicals “are so committed to (going to) Israel,” Mancino said. “They say, `I’m in God’s hands and wherever I go, God will protect me.”’ The Israel Ministry of Tourism hopes Jews will become equally determined to get there.

“We will be getting to all markets, including Jews,” Shen said. “In times like these, you play a little bit on the guilt. You appeal to solidarity … but it’s not enough. We can’t just play on the guilt.”

DEA END MACDONALD