The largest number of Hungarian Christian pilgrims ever to visit Israel are making the trip with the goal of increasing interfaith cooperation.
“It is high time to dissolve the prejudices between the Christians and Jews,” Sandor Nemeth, senior pastor of the Faith Church in Hungary, said in an interview before leaving for Israel.
“Historical peacemaking is very much necessary between the Christians and Jews, and historical misunderstandings between them should be dissolved,” he added.
Some 2,500 members of the Faith Church, an evangelical movement that has 30,000 active members in Hungary and more than 400 million adherents worldwide, are making the trip to Israel.
“This is the largest crusade from Hungary to the Holy Land since the 12th century – but, of course, this time with peaceful means and purposes,” Nemeth said.
The pilgrims will take part in the European Evangelist Conference, which will be held Jan. 15-18 in Jerusalem.
The Hungarian Faith Church is one of the co-sponsors of the international conference, which is being held as part of the Jerusalem 3000 festivities marking the founding of the holy city.
Among those addressing the conference – which will bring together 5,000 pilgrims from 20 countries – will be Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Leah Rabin, the wife of slain Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
