Jerusalem Rally Urges to Check Missionary Activities in Israel

Efforts to form a public committee to combat missionary activities in Israel were underway today following a mass rally here which was addressed by Chief Rabbi Eliyahu Pardess of Jerusalem and two Deputy Ministers.

The committee will be made up of members of all political parties, as well as public figures not affiliated with parties. One of its tasks will be to convey to diplomats of countries with such missions in Israel the “sense of indignation” of the public concerning the activities of the Christian institutions and to ask the governments to recall those missions.

The Government officials who addressed the rally were Rabbi Kalman Kahana, Deputy Education Minister, and Dr. I. S. Ben-Meir, Deputy Interior Minister. The participation of the Jerusalem Chief Rabbi and the two Deputy Ministers was seen as an indication of growing public support for measures against continuing missionary activities.

The Deputy Ministers associated them selves with a resolution at the rally which called for laws against the conversion of minors and which urged proselytization without “the influence of material gain.

Another speaker was Avraham Ravitz of the Hever Hapeillim, an international organization of yeshiva students, which sponsored the rally. The organization initiated and assumed responsibility for the demonstrations by student zealots against mission schools in Jerusalem, Jaffa and Haifa on September 10. More than 100 youths were arrested and are awaiting prosecution on charges of criminal trespass.

Mr. Ravitz urged the Government to stay the proceedings. He reiterated that the student organization respected the churches and Christian cultural institutions of all denominations and he deplored the “fact” that the initial reports of the September 10 demonstrations, both in Israel and overseas, “misconstrued” the motives of the demonstrators asanti-Christian.