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Israel closed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and set off a Holy Week firestorm
Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week for Christians, the lead-up to Easter, when Christians believe that Jesus rose from the dead. Usually, it’s observed in large services with liturgical readings, where palm leaves are distributed to parishioners to commemorate the day that Jesus arrived in Jerusalem before his crucifixion.
But this Holy Week, that wasn’t possible due to the war in Iran, which has limited gatherings in Israel due to safety concerns.
Still, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem — the Catholic representative in Jerusalem, where many Christian denominations share custody of Christian holy sites — had planned to observe Palm Sunday with a smaller, private prayer in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, in Jerusalem’s Old City to, as he said, “preserve the idea of the celebration in the Holy Sepulchre.”
Israeli authorities, however, turned Pizzaballa and another priest away. “Life-saving restrictions have been applied to all holy sites in the Old City — this includes for Jews, Christians and Muslims alike,” said a spokesperson for the Israeli police forces.
The decision — despite being quickly overturned — has set off a conflict, with American Christians worrying that Israel is persecuting Christianity
. The incident has chipped away at one of Israel’s strongest allies: the U.S.
The reaction to the Holy Sepulchre incident
Usually, Holy Week is a big deal in Jerusalem, the site where the events Christians commemorate during the holiday took place. So when Pizzaballa was denied entry to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, outcry began immediately.
U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee — a staunch Christian Zionist who is not Catholic — called for Israel to lift the restriction for Pizzaballa. Emmanuel Macron, president of France, condemned the decision, as did Pedro Sanchez, the prime minister of Spain. A statement from the Latin Patriarchate said the refusal “constitutes a manifestly unreasonable and grossly disproportionate measure.” Middle East journalists and commentators pointed out that the restrictions limit gatherings to 50 people, far more than the two Pizzaballa arrived with, and that both Jewish and Muslim religious leaders had been allowed to privately pray at their respective holy sites despite the restrictions.
Most loudly, outraged Christian influencers, such as Carrie Prejean Boller, Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson seized on the incident. They posted decades-old videos of Palm Sunday processions to show how things once were and photos of churches in Lebanon and Gaza that had been hit by bombs in the war over the past several years, implying that Israel has been targeting Christianity and framing the nation as a religious enemy to be defeated.
“This is the deliberate denial of Christian worship,” wrote Prejean Boller on X. “Allies don’t do this … enemies do.”
After being turned away, the cardinal took his prayer to Gethsemane, another holy site with a view of the gate by which Jesus entered Jerusalem, and mourned the war in a speech. “Today, Jesus weeps once more over Jerusalem,” Pizzaballa said.
The next day, Tucker Carlson released a nearly 90-minute conversation with Bishop Joseph Strickland about the church’s closure. (Strickland has publicly defended Carrie Prejean Boller from accusations of antisemitism and reprimand from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.) Throughout the conversation, Carlson pushed the idea that Israel has been “targeting” Christians, both physically and on some sort of spiritual plane.
“I wasn’t aware that the government, the secular government of Israel, owned the Holy Sepulchre. Where does this authority come from that you can just close someone else’s church?” said Carlson. “It suggests that there’s something else going on here, perhaps influenced by the spiritual war going on around us, that Christians would be the targets,”
Strickland responded with a theological ramble about Jesus being truth incarnate, culminating in implying that Israel is trying to get rid of Christians the way the Jews of the New Testament killed Jesus.
“Certainly that was the threat that the Romans and Jewish leaders wanted to get rid of. That’s historic reality, they plotted to rid themselves of this truth problem,” the bishop said. “In many ways we see the same thing repeated.”
A crumbling Judeo-Christian alliance
Israeli leaders quickly apologized for the police who prevented Pizzaballa from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and promised to ensure the patriarch’s access to holy sites for the rest of the week. The cardinal — who, as a figure who relies on a pact with Israel but leads a largely Palestinian flock, is known for measured statements — thanked them and called it a “misunderstanding.”
But Christian suspicion of Israel as a trustworthy religious ally and custodian of holy sites has been building for years. This is not the first time this year that Carlson has harped on the idea that Israel discriminates against its Christians, who are largely Palestinian; last year he did a podcast in February interviewing a Palestinian Anglican priest about limits on Christian worship and a declining Christian population
Videos of Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem spitting at Christian pilgrims go viral several times a year. Every church destroyed by Israeli strikes in Gaza or Lebanon is shared among Christians online as proof that Israel targets Christians.
“The United States, the most important Christian country in the world, is funding this,” Carlson said.
Historically, much American support for Israel has come not only from Christian Zionists — who believe that Israel’s existence as a Jewish state is theologically ordained — but from Christians who simply believe that Israel is a safer custodian of Christian holy sites, thanks to their shared so-called Judeo-Christian values, than a Muslim country might be. American Christians have historically seen Israel as an ally not only geopolitically, but spiritually.
That’s all changing. Earlier this year, Pizzaballa’s Patriarchate had also released a statement condemning “damaging ideologies, such as Christian Zionism, mislead the public, sow confusion, and harm the unity of our flock.” And now, conversions to Catholic and Orthodox Christian churches, both which oppose Christian Zionism, are spiking, with some converts citing Israel as a reason for their conversion.
And as Israel limits or decreases access — however temporarily, or for whatever reasons — to Christian holy sites, the idea that it shares a set of cultural values, like freedom of religion, with the U.S., has begun to erode. Online commentators are building a narrative not only that Israel limits Christian worship, but that it is a spiritual enemy of Christianity itself.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid shared his concerns about the growing phenomenon in a statement posted on X. “The entire Catholic world is turning against us,” he wrote. “No one is stepping up to say: ‘This is not a Jewish declaration of war on the Christian world.’”
The post Israel closed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and set off a Holy Week firestorm appeared first on The Forward.
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Jewish Democrats back Michigan AG Dana Nessel’s decision to skip state party convention
(JTA) — Local and national Jewish Democrats say they are sympathetic after Michigan’s Jewish attorney general, Dana Nessel, said she would skip the state Democratic Party’s nominating convention over concerns about antisemitism and harassment.
“I don’t blame AG Nessel for not wanting to go and basically put herself in situations that feel untenable in this moment of time and don’t add any value politically, personally,” Jessica “Decky” Alexander, the Michigan Jewish Democratic caucus chair, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Friday.
Alexander’s comment came a day after Nessel announced during a televised antisemitism roundtable that she would be skipping the convention next month, where party leaders will finalize the state’s Democratic candidate for Senate following a divisive primary that has focused in part on Israel and antisemitism.
“I don’t feel safe going. I feel like my presence isn’t going to be welcome. I don’t want to get chased around. I don’t want to get harassed. I don’t want to get yelled and screamed at. I don’t want to get booed off the stage, irrespective of what I’m saying,” Nessel said during the roundtable. “And I believe that if I go, that is what will happen because it’s been happening to me.”
She said she had filed a formal complaint within the party about a party official who had called her a neo-Nazi because of her beliefs. “Why is this person more accepted in our party than me?” she asked without naming the official. Her office responded to a request for comment by referring to the recorded livestream of the antisemitism roundtable.
Nessel’s declaration comes in the final days of the primary between Rep. Haley Stevens, a pro-Israel stalwart, and Abdul El-Sayed, a democratic socialist who is deeply critical of Israel. El-Sayed is surging in polls despite a reported $30 million spent against him by AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, and its supporters, whom he has made a target of criticism from the campaign trail.
Nessel’s comments also follow turmoil at the Michigan Democratic Party’s endorsement convention in April, where Stevens was booed by attendees. A third primary candidate who later dropped out of the race, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, said a convention attendee had targeted her Jewish husband with an antisemitic slur.
The incident has fueled alarm among Jewish Democrats, according to Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America.
“She’s not alone,” Soifer told JTA about Nessel on Friday. “We’ve heard from other Jewish Democrats who attended the Democratic Party convention earlier this year in Michigan, and there was a sense of discomfort amid what felt like a pro-Palestinian protest [that] may have even blurred the line for some into antisemitic sentiment — and it’s really concerning.”
Nessel has raised the alarm about antisemitism within the party for years, alleging in 2024 that Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a prominent pro-Palestinian voice, had been antisemitic when criticizing charges Nessel filed against pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Michigan.
For her part, Alexander said she would be participating in the nominating convention and said she believed the chair of the state Democratic Party, Curtis Hertel, had been “very accessible and very open to making sure that we, including our Jewish elected officials, feel safe in that space.” But she said she understood why Nessel was staying away.
“It would never even occur to me, but I’m not an elected official,” Alexander said. “It’s a different stake for me than it is for Dana. I understand her completely.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Jewish Democrats back Michigan AG Dana Nessel’s decision to skip state party convention appeared first on The Forward.
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Maine rabbis call for peace, urge politicians to stop calling Gaza war a ‘genocide’
(JTA) — Every congregational rabbi in Maine has signed onto a statement calling for peace and urging the state’s political leaders to stop using the term “genocide” to describe Israel’s war in Gaza, following a Democratic primary in which several candidates used the label for the first time.
But the rabbis also indicated that they, too, were unsatisfied with conditions in the Middle East and called on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to work toward a peaceful future.
“We call upon Maine’s leaders, and particularly its political leaders, to reject the irresponsible usage of the term in describing the Israel-Hamas War,” said the statement released on Friday. “We also call upon Israeli and Palestinian leaders to end the cycle of violence and to create a better world for both Palestinian and Israeli children.”
The statement, titled “A Call for Peace and Responsible Rhetoric,” argues that using the term as a “political slogan does not advance peace in the Middle East.” The term “erases essential moral and legal distinctions, diminishes the meaning of genocide, and inflames hatred for the local Jewish community,” the rabbis say.
“Compassion for Palestinians does not require the adoption of hateful and misleading language,” they continue. “Advocating for peace does not require participation in a ‘Holocaust inversion’ against the Jewish community. And political leadership does not require demonizing one community in the service of another.”
The statement comes days after Troy Jackson, a former logger and state Senate president, secured the Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nomination Saturday at the party’s nominating convention to replace Graham Platner, a staunch Israel critic who dropped out of the race earlier this month. Platner faced a sexual assault allegation, which he denies. Jackson now faces Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins in November’s general election.
Platner’s romp to the primary victory featured routine use of “genocide” to describe Israel’s actions. And ahead of the convention to replace him, Jackson and several other Democratic hopefuls who later exited the race began using the term “genocide” to describe Israel’s war in Gaza for the first time, a shift that drew scrutiny from some Jewish leaders and voters in the state.
The use of the term has become a “currency for acquiring power and position in Maine’s Democratic party,” Rabbi Rachel Isaacs, the leader of Beth Israel Congregation in Waterville, who also signed the statement, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
“Too many Maine Democrats are cynically willing to trade in that currency at the expense of our safety and dignity,” she said in an emailed statement. “We decided we needed to say something collectively, both about the specious and dangerous nature of the claim, and about how much damage has been done to our families and congregants.”
The statement Friday was spearheaded by the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine and signed by every congregational rabbi in the state, including Rabbi Bill Siemers of the Conservative Congregation Beth Israel in Bangor and Rabbi Erica Asch of the Reform Temple Beth El in Augusta. (Rabbis affiliated with the Chabad movement in Maine did not appear on the signatory list.)
Zach Schwartz, the director of the Jewish Community Relations Council at the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine, said the federation hoped the “unity displayed here in Maine can inspire Jewish communities across the US to also unite against the extremist rhetoric harming our community and our children.”
Rabbi Josh Stanton, the associate vice president of interfaith and intergroup initiatives for Jewish Federations of North America, also hailed the joint statement.
“Maine’s Jewish clergy are setting an important example with their call to put aside inflammatory rhetoric and look to the common good,” Stanton said in an emailed statement. “At a time of rising polarization and declining civil discourse, the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine’s efforts to unify the community around this important message are a mark of true leadership.”
Isaacs told JTA that she hoped Jackson would “support, understand, and advocate for all of Maine’s citizens, including the totality of Maine’s diverse Jewish community.”
“Work with us to figure out how to express outrage and legitimate critique of Israel’s government without succumbing to language that you might not know is an ancient antisemitic trope, or dismissing the security needs of Israel’s citizens,” Isaacs said of her message to Jackson. “Please have the courage to forge your own path, and not follow in the footsteps of Graham Platner, a man who should have never been normalized, endorsed, or empowered.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Maine rabbis call for peace, urge politicians to stop calling Gaza war a ‘genocide’ appeared first on The Forward.
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Boy George cedes role of King Herod in ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ production after releasing pro-Israel song
(JTA) — Boy George has withdrawn from his run as King Herod in London’s West End revival of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” days before he was due to take the stage and 24 hours after releasing “We Will Dance Again,” dedicated to the victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on the Nova music festival in Israel.
The 80’s pop star was scheduled to appear at London’s Palladium starting Monday as part of the production’s rotating cast playing King Herod, the Judean king who is best known by Jews for his expansion of the Second Temple and to Christians for his efforts to stave off the arrival of a challenger — the story of which is reflected in the rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.
Boy George will be replaced by actor Richard Armitage in the London production.
In announcing the cast change, Paul Kelmsley, the singer’s manager, did not directly mention the blowback the former Culture Club frontman was receiving for releasing a pro-Israel song but alluded to it.
“George has never been afraid to stand by his personal convictions, and I have always respected him for that,” he said. ”In this instance, I felt it was right to step aside, allowing the production to remain the focus, while ensuring everyone involved can move forward with mutual respect and goodwill.”
Boy George is defending his decision to release the song, saying he believes artists should be free to express their views even when they are unpopular. In “We Will Dance Again,” the singer rejects claims of genocide against Israel and proclaims, “If you’re ever confused, I stand with the Jews.”
Earlier Friday, Boy George lashed back at the vitriol he was getting online. “What is most shocking is the amount of gay folk attacking me, ” he posted on X. “If you support terrorism you can in the words of Divine ‘Take your toolkit and go f—_ a garage,’” he said, referring to a quote attributed to the taboo-breaking transgender artist.
“When I say ‘they want to kill every last one of us’ I am also talking about us queers, not just the Jewish community,” Boy George said. “When will you wake up?”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Boy George cedes role of King Herod in ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ production after releasing pro-Israel song appeared first on The Forward.
