Friday, September 02, 2011

More Missionary Activity

I was in Tel Aviv yesterday (and how I got there is another story*) and two observations.

One is this pamphelt that I took, if only to make sure that it would go directly to genizah:


It's the latest issue of The Watchtower in Hebrew. Seems the Jehovah's Witnesses are active in the first Hebrew city. POB 29345 Tel Aviv 61293.  You'll notice I altered a bit the name of God, as the Tetragrammaton there.

Note:

Rutherford in his book 'Enemies' writes about Jews “ultra-selfish men called 'Jews' who look only for personal gain.”(19)

In the same book he writes that the Jews “practice religion, of which the Devil is the author.”(20) In another book he again writes about the Jews: “Be it known once and for all that those profiteering, conscienceless, selfish men who call themselves Jews, and who control the greater portion of the finances of the world and the business of the world...”(21)

Speaking at 'Bible Students'(22) convention in Winnipeg, Manitoba in the early 1920’s, Rutherford described a Jew as “the hooked-nosed, stooped-shouldered little individual who stands on the street corner trying to gyp you out of every nickel you’ve got.”(23) We see here clear examples of vulgar and primitive anti-Semitism. In yet another book he wrote that Jews lost favor with God when they murdered Jesus.(24)

Why is it so important for people like these to go out there and convert?

The second was the bike lanes on the sidewalks:


They take up as much room, almost, as the pedestrian walking space and - I noticed - many bikers ride on the sidewalks outside the bike lane area and that included motorized bicycles.

What a city.

_____________

*

I left Shiloh at 6:40 AM via a tremp for a 9:30 Tel Aviv appointment but when I got out of the car at Ariel, I discovered that, having changed pants twice this week for a wedding and a Bar Mitzvah, I had left my wallet at home so, I turned around and presumed that I'd have to cancel and from Shiloh continue to Jerusalem.  I returned home by 8 and with the encouragement from my wife, went back down the hill and sure enough, 5 minutes latyer was on another tremp which brought me by 9:15 to the Azrielly Buildings which are a 20 minute walk from the Tel Aviv Municipality where I had my meeting.  Wonder of wonders.

^

2 comments:

NormanF said...

My late father (may his memory be for a blsssing) was once visited by Jehovah Witness' missionaries. He would never dream of converting since he was a proud Jew and he felt it would be an offense to his ancestors to convert to another faith. He wasn't what you would call a Jew in the religious sense but he would never give ground on his faith or his loyalty to the Jewish people. Christians have tried everything for thousands of years to convert Jews and have failed.

And they will fail in the future.

NormanF said...

The reason Christians place so much emphasis on converting Jews is that they rejected Jesus as the Messiah and if they get a Jew to be a Christian that matters more as a statement than if they covert any one else to Christianity.

What has been remarkable historically, in spite of enormous social, economic and political pressures to relinquish their faith, Jews have preserved their identity and culture. Other peoples have disappeared but the Jews are still among us, as eternal as the word of G-d they brought into the world!