
"A pogrom in the church," was the cry that echoed from the small community whose spiritual life is centered on the Church of St. Nikolai. What took place wasn't quite a pogrom, but it was the latest in a series of attempts to damage a holy place. On Friday morning, when they arrived for services, the congregants found the church windows broken, the icons overturned, a cross uprooted from a priest's grave and the edge of the grave ruined. A lot of effort went into shattering the windows, which were protected by a dense metal screen. A particularly malicious hand had to work hard to get in between the spaces to break the squares of thick glass one after the other. And yet, the police, whose local headquarters are very close to the church, insist the vandalism was just a prank by a bunch of 8- and 9-year-olds. "We've gone back to the early days of Christianity," said Gridin sadly. "Christians are being persecuted again."
A somewhat unusual group gathered this week at the door to the church. Unusual, both because of the way they'd broken with convention in the choices they'd made in their lives, and because they were all situated on the delicate seam between the Law of Return and the rules of halakha (Jewish law). This is the congregation of Father Romanus, a 46-year-old Arab Orthodox priest from Haifa, who is just as fluent in Russian as he is in Arabic and Hebrew. He learned the language while studying at a Russian theological seminary in the U.S., and founded his community here.
Not for nothing did the patriarch appoint him to be the spiritual leader of the non-Arab Orthodox (i.e., the Russians). And the community is very fond of him. Even though they speak with him in Russian, they address him by the Arabic term abuna (Our Father), which even in a Russian accent clearly expresses the affection they feel for him. And the feeling is mutual.
Before the mass immigration from the former Soviet Union, the Orthodox community in Israel numbered about 40,000, the vast majority of whom were Arabs. Father Romanus says that, by all estimates, the community has tripled in size thanks to the immigrants. New churches have opened and old ones are booming. These immigrants are also very dedicated believers and have pushed the "old-timers" to extend the prayer services. From their perspective, incidentally, there's nothing unusual about their lives. If they're challenging not only the limited patience of the residents of Migdal Haemek but also the very Jewish definition of who is an Israeli, then it's not their problem. They feel totally Israeli and expect to be accorded their human and religious rights by virtue of the democratic character of the country in which they've chosen to live.
Lena from Musmus
Take the life story of Lena Kochetkova-Agbariya, 33, of Umm al-Fahm, for example. When her surname was still just Kochetkova, she lived in Kiev, where she studied geophysics and where she met Kifah Agbariya from the village of Musmus in Wadi Ara, who'd come to Kiev to study law, and married him. Nine years ago, they returned to Israel and ever since she's been known as "Lena from Musmus."
Lena laughs heartily as she relates all this, not seeing anything unusual in her life. She did not convert when she married; her husband did not insist on this. The neighbors, however, were a different story. In response, she began wearing a cross around her neck - not as an act of defiance, but merely as a statement of intentions. Since then, they've been living happily in Umm al-Fahm and raising their only daughter, who was baptized by Lena's mother during a visit to Kiev. The grandmother didn't inform them about her action at first, but once it was done, it was accepted as irreversible and all the girl's father could do was explain to his daughter that God is really in the heart.
Since her mother's death, Lena has become much more attached to the church; the funeral service for her mother was also held at this church in Migdal Haemek. Since then, she says, this church has been like a lifeline for her. Another lifeline has been her activity with the Russian-speaking group in the Israeli-Palestinian Women's Coalition for Peace. This is her Israeliness, and it is accompanied by a true faith that she is living in a democratic country in which she has civil and religious rights. Every once in a while, she also provides legal advice to the small Christian community in Migdal Haemek, which she gets from her husband, the Muslim attorney.
Vladimir Gridin's connection with Israel began 33 years ago. Then, when he was 19, he immigrated here with his mother and her Jewish husband, who was not his father. Gridin, who besides his many years of work at the Technion is also an accomplished painter and sculptor whose works are currently on exhibit in Tel Aviv, was baptized in St. Petersburg by his grandmother. He describes himself as a "thoroughly kosher Israeli." Both by virtue of his military service in the armored corps and his great love for the Hagashash Hahiver comedy trio - the usual Israeli package.
"In the past, up until a few years ago, I hadn't run into reverse anti-Semitism in Israel," he says. "In the army, they used to let me out on Sundays to go to church. I was a good soldier and that was my reward. For years I never felt like my rights as a Christian were being harmed in any way. That's why I'm a proud Israeli, a big patriot." Alongside his many accomplishments, Gridin has also married and divorced three times. One of his wives was Jewish and their daughter became very religious - and now his two grandsons are growing up in Kfar Chabad. When his daughter was a little girl, he tried to teach her the importance of "non-secularism" and to nurture in her an appreciation for the importance of faith. Evidently, she took the lesson very much to heart.
Irena Shegalov and Ilya Litwin, a mother and son who emigrated from St. Petersburg 12 years ago, also came to the gathering in front of the desecrated church. Upon their arrival in Israel they settled in Haifa. Ilya, now 35, completed a doctorate in physics at the Technion and is currently at work on a post-doctorate. At first, their story was rather typical of that of a family whose members were all Jewish - "ethnic Jews," as Ilya puts it, but essentially without religion.
After a year in the Jewish state, Ilya felt he couldn't live without faith, and set out on a quest among various religions and religious communities. From the start, he knew Islam wasn't for him, but he carefully considered all the rest. Mostly by meeting with people from different religions. Judaism was definitely an option, but Ilya felt the Jews he talked to were trying to brainwash him. "Like with Stalin," he says. "To them, there was just one way to be a Jew - their way. The Jews gave me the feeling that I don't understand anything." In Russian Orthodoxy, he found the answer. In 1996 he was baptized in Russia and his mother soon followed in his footsteps. Only his grandfather was upset and wanted to know what he was doing. And Ilya replied he had to do it for his soul. "The soul develops as you age," he says.
Funds from the czar
With the new religion, he also found a spiritual community to belong to. Another member of this community is Emilia Gvantmakher, a resident of Nazareth Illit who immigrated to Israel five years ago. She is an Orthodox Christian and came here following the immigration of her two grown daughters - whose father was Jewish. She says she had only positive expectations of her immigration to the Holy Land and didn't anticipate any problems. Since coming here, Gvantmakher, a historian and writer, has managed to learn the Torah by heart and write a book about the Holy Land. She also supervises a storehouse of used clothing for the needy, next to the church, and has already sent 17 aid packages back to her poor Orthodox congregation in Russia. She says she loves to come to this simple church in Migdal Haemek, where many of her Jewish friends have converted to Christianity, she says.
You'd have to be a person of strong faith to sense the divine presence in this ordinary-looking place at the edge of a residential neighborhood. Yet, historically, this is an important place. The Church of St. Nikolai was originally built here in the late 19th century with funds from the Czar's family: In 1880, Grand Duke Sergei contributed money to help ensure that Czarist Russia would have ties with the Holy Land. In those years, there was small village called Majdal in this location, some of whose residents were Russian Orthodox. The village and the church were destroyed in 1948. The site came under the custody of the Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem. For years, the place stood abandoned and neglected. When the big wave of immigration from the Soviet Union arrived, the need arose to supply a place of worship for the community in the north. Two years ago they were granted a license, and a year and a half ago the lovely church was dedicated. Father Romanus was a natural candidate to lead it. His great-grandfather had good ties with the royal Orthodoxy of Czarist Russia, which sought to aid the Orthodox Christians in the Holy Land during the Ottoman period.
When he was still a boy, Father Romanus liked to read the holy books his great-grandfather translated from Russian to Arabic. Looking back, he says, the whole trajectory of his life, including his leaving Haifa University to attend the Russian Orthodox Seminary in New York 20 years ago, seems to have led him directly to his current position. A position, one should say, that also involves a certain irony: To some degree, the non-Jewish immigrants were directed here to improve the demographic balance with regard to the Arabs.
The unspoken attitude was: "It doesn't matter if they're Christians, as long as they're not Arabs." And so these immigrants came and found spiritual shelter in the form of an Arab priest. "I feel more Russian than Arab," Father Romanus says. "My spiritual children are Russian-speakers by and large. Sometimes I suggest to the members of the congregation that maybe one of them ought to be their spiritual leader, but they only want me. I have a mission with them. And so there shouldn't be any misunderstanding - I know I'm accused of missionary work and I was even questioned once by the police about it. But we don't go where we're not wanted and we don't distribute books. I only go where I'm invited, and that's to Russian-speakers."
Feel the heartbreak
He first met Russians at the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, says Father Romanus. They would come from Tiberias, Nazareth Illit, the Krayot (the northern suburbs of Haifa), Acre, Migdal Haemek. They'd heard he spoke Russian and sought him out. He began to hold prayer services for them in Russian, once a month at first, and then every week. And now he does it several times a week. Every so often, they'd pass by the church in Migdal Haemek, see the ruins and "feel the heartbreak." The Greek Patriarch Irineos gave them his blessing to rehabilitate and operate the church.
But the rebuilding effort was disturbed by threats that before long turned to actions. When the church began operating a year and a half ago, a nun from the congregation used to sleep in the doorway, viewing this as a holy mission. One night, when she left the spot for a moment, someone set her mattress on fire and caused all her meager possessions to go up in flames. The acts of harassment have been unrelenting. Romanus is outraged: "I still remember studying the Scroll of Independence in school. It talks about a state without discrimination of religion, race or nationality. It's important for all citizens to feel they belong to this country, and it's important for the state not to be afraid of the non-Jews living in it. We are not endangering the state. We only want to pray."
It's possible to pray, but only in the dark. Though it began functioning a year and a half ago, the church has yet to be connected to the electricity grid, or to the water system. There's no plumbing, no bathrooms, no fence to protect it. Only the stones from the original fence are scattered around. The worshipers live in a state of constant apprehension; even the church bells which are supposed to ring loud and clear at the hour of worship are rung very softly.
The method is familiar: Whenever the establishment wants to get rid of certain residents, it hangs them out to dry, so to speak, in the hope that they'll get the hint and leave of their own accord. Father Romanus and his congregation get the hint, but they have no intention of going anywhere. "We're not leaving," Father Romanus declares, adding: "It's not good for the State of Israel to put itself in the same patterns of behavior like those of the totalitarian regimes, like the Nazis, like the Soviets, like Iran."
'It strengthens us'
And Gridin laughs and says that if Rabbi David Grossman, the chief rabbi of Migdal Haemek, wants to produce archbishops here, he should just continue the way he's been going. "The Christian Church arose out of persecution," he warns, and makes the sign of the cross. "It only strengthens us. Just imagine the reaction if the city of Moscow wouldn't supply water and electricity to the big synagogue in the city and what the reaction would be if the police there didn't provide the synagogue with protection."
And just as he mentions Moscow, Father Romanus gets a call - officials from the Russian delegation in Jerusalem are calling on behalf of the patriarch of Moscow to find out just what happened. They promise that a letter of protest is already on the way.
Moshe Levy, spokesman for the Migdal Haemek municipality, says the Church must take up the matter of the electricity with the Israel Electric Corporation. As for the water, he says: "The church originally declared its intention to rehabilitate the place as a historic site and did not inform us of its intention to operate it as a place of worship."
encouragement and support to the fragile Christian communities in Israel, including its doubly-fragile Jewish members. I can appreciate how hard it is to find God after leaving the atheist, Soviet regime, and sympathise with those who have been turned off by the Israeli Rabbinate. Though I myself have chosen the faith and practice of Orthodox Judaism, I hope that one day mutual understanding and respect between faiths and ethnicities will replace fear and suspicion in a truly tolerant Israeli society. I also pray for my Jewish brothers and sisters who have chosen the Christian faith that their children's children would one day find their way back to Judaism. But in a wider perspective, I acknowledge that Jews and Christians ultimately worship the same loving God, Avinu Shebashamayim. May our Father and your Father, our God and your God, bless you and your community with grace and favor always; and may we soon behold the day when the Redeemer comes to Zion, bringing peace and justice to our blood-stained, heart-broken, yet beautiful and holy land. Amen.
Please, more Hebraic Orthodox Christianity!
Where are the Jewish monasteries?,where are our
holy jewish bishops?,our Orthodox Jewish priests,
monks and nuns? Surely,our Holy Father Ahavel Ha
Shelishi desires Imeinu Kenesiya Kadosha for the
Jews and the Jews for Holy Mother Church!I appeal
to all Chaverim Araviim all Arabic Orthodox brothers and sisters to seek and cultivate the fulfilment of this blessed work! All Asia cries out for her Salvation! B'Y'shua Melech Israel!
Here are just some words of encouragement for anyone reading who is a Jewish Orthodox Christian. As a Jewish Orthodox Christian, I think it is important not to forget our Jewish identity. Just read the Gospel of Matthew or the book of Acts and you will see how Jewish the Early Church was. The Early Jewish Christians kept the Sabbath, attended the Synagogue for daily prayer and kept the Commandments. Even today in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which has Jewish roots, Christians practice circumcision, Kashrut, observe laws regarding purity and keep the Sabbath. Jesus was never against the Law, He just criticised the hypocrisy of keeping some aspects of the law to the tiniest detail whilst ignoring the essence and purpose of the law. Even non-Jewish Orthodox Christians need to be careful with rules such as those about fasting. Jewish Orthodox and non-Jewish Orthodox just need to remember that these laws or rule are not an end in themselves, but a means to attaining communion with God.
There is already so much in our Church which shows us our Jewish heritage. For example, the Liturgical day starts at Sunset, Saturday is still seen as the Sabbath (Sunday is the day of the Resurrection), the Holy Scriptures are processed around the Church for the congregation to see before being chanted (not read), many of our prayers include the clause "Blessed..." as do Jewish prayers, the Prophets from the all testament are still remembered on various feast days throughout the year, we still you the Tehillim extensively in our services, traditional alters have a menorah, we make bows at various points during our prayers, the Chabad movement like us remembers various Holy people important to the faith, and the list continues. More importantly, when it comes to some matters of theology, especially regarding the nature of man and sin, Orthodox Theology is actually much closer to Jewish Theology than it is to Western Christian Theology. For example, both an Orthodox Jew and an Orthodox Christian would be turned off by an Augustinian explanation of the fall, man’s nature, sin and redemption. For more information, you may enjoy the book “Surprised by Christ” by Fr James Bernstein.
Jewish Orthodox Christians can express their Jewish identities in many ways. For example, keeping the Sabbath day, praying traditional blessings over all of one's actions and celebrating Jewish feasts are all good examples. Just like every Orthodox Church has its own focus, so can the local Jewish Orthodox Church. For example, in the Serbian Orthodox Church there is a special custom called the Krsna Slava, a family's celebration of their conversion from Paganism to Christianity. This includes breaking bread, drinking wine and reciting certain prayers. This is only done in the Serbian Church. Similarly, in the Russian Church there are certain feast days and traditions which are only observed among Russians. Even in the West some Orthodox parishes celebrate local celebrations, like Father's Day, by mentioning special prayers and feasting. So there is no reason why Jewish Christians should not remember the important events in our people's history such as Purim and Hannukah, even more so the great feasts of Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot.
As Jewish Orthodox we have a lot to be proud of. The King of the Universe gave our small nation the honor of defending monotheism and through our people all nations were blessed with Christ being born to a Jewish mother, meaning He was a Jew!
Today we also have an important role. Firstly, to other Christians we have to show that there is nothing wrong with being Jewish and being Christian. Unfortunately anti-Semitism still exists in all circles, even some Jewish people feel ashamed to be Jewish. To an Orthodox, besides the fact that Christ Himself was a Jew, we can point to Holy people such as Mother Maria Skobstova , who has been canonised for her heroic effort to save Jews during the holocaust which ultimately lead to her dying in a concentration camp. Secondly, to our Jewish brothers and sisters we need to remind them that Orthodox Christians are monotheists and observers of the Noahide Commandments. Most importantly, we need to be an example of love to the world. In this age of so much hate, we need to show others the way of the Messiah. Hearing about the vandalism of the Church saddens me, but I want to encourage the local community to respond with love. Anyway, Abouna is right that such persecution only strengthens the community. Remember the words of Christ to “pray for those who persecute you” and that blessed are the peacemakers. Remember the words during the Liturgy: Blessed are you when you are persecuted...Rejoice and be glad. We need to love all people and never be caught with a bad word in our mouth about another. As followers of the Messiah, we need to start acting like them!
On the feast of Sukkot: Gut Shabbes! Khag Sameyakh!
Reuven.
I also am an Orthodox Christian of Judaic heritage. I am wondering if you do observe the feasts? To what extent do you do this, or observe the other mitzvot, and what sort of resources are available to guide us? Is this done under the guidance of a bishop or priest?
Thanks!
You may wish to consult Avot: Bernstein (Yaakov)
and Winogradsky(Alexander).
Shalom,B'Hatzlacha,SBT.
a Hebraic priesthood is already a reality and Eastern Orthodox Hebraism remains the Judaism of choice for multitudes in Eretz Israel.