Rabbi Avi Berman and Christians

Yeshiva University president - Rabbi Dr, Ari Berman (Jerusalem Post)

I’m delighted to see a major rabbinic leader on the same page as I am with respect to interacting with Christian ministers. Rabbi Ari Berman has broken ranks with other Modern Orthodox rabbinic leaders who are suspicious of their motives - a suspicion that has often extended to other religious Christians who are not members of the clergy but nevertheless have huge followings, such as the late Charlie Kirk.

When Kirk was assassinated, many of us were saddened that the Christian voice of such a huge and vocal supporter of Israel was silenced. But far too many of us were suspicious of his motives, just as they were suspicious of the motives of evangelical preachers.

Whether they believed there was a hidden agenda of converting Jews or of pursuing Christian Nationalism, the feeling was to stay away from these people at best - if not outright disparage them as having nefarious ulterior motives.

I never saw evangelicals that way. Having done a deep dive into their rhetoric (by virtue of listening to hours of televangelists preaching to their thousands of followers on TV about Israel and the Jewish people) I never saw any motive expressed other than a sincere desire to receive the biblical blessings promised by God in the Bible: that they would be blessed if they blessed us. I never saw any ulterior motive for their support of Israel other than the biblical one in which God promised our forefathers this land as an eternal possession. Never a word about replacement theology

That said, I never lost sight of the fact that their eschatological visions was different from ours…

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