71 U.S. Priests, Lay Leaders, 7 Canadian Mayors Visiting Israel to Study Post-war Situation

Seventy-one Catholic, Protestant and Baptist priests and church lay leaders from the United States have arrived in Israel to study the Jewish-Christian-Moslem relations in the light of the tensions resulting from the Yom Kippur War. One group comprising 30 priests-Journalists are touring the country under the auspices of the Commission on Interreligious Affairs of the American Zionist Federation and the Zionist Information and Organization Department. Most of them are in Israel for the first time. Apart from meeting Christian, Jewish and Moslem leaders they are also due to visit the Yom Kippur War battlefields.

Among the guests are editors and publishers of some of the largest circulated Christian periodicals in the U.S. such as Thomas Benz, editor of “Ecumenic Magazine” which has a reported circulation of 2.5 million copies, and Art Armstrong, editor of “Defender Magazine.” Armstrong said he intends to return to Israel next month to produce a documentary on “The Promised Land.” This tour is headed by Rabbis Max Schenk, the AZF Commission’s chairman, and Aaron Decter, Commission coordinator.

Another group of 30 leaders of the American Baptist Churches, on a tour arranged in cooperation with the American Jewish Committee through its Christian Visitors to Israel Program and the Israel Government Tourist Office, includes Dr. Santiago Soto-Fontanez,” editor of “Advance,” a monthly distributed to Spanish-language churches in the U.S. and Puerto Rico; Rev. Louis Johnson, pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in Detroit, a Black congregation; and Dr. Russell E. Brown, program planning director of the Baptist Board of International Ministries.

The Rev. R. Dean Goodwin, public liaison executive of the American Baptist Churches, who is leading this tour, said the purpose of the group’s visit to Israel is to “understand the current situation in the Middle East, with particular reference to Israel. We are strongly committed to the survival of Israel, while at the same time we are concerned with a just solution of the displaced Palestinians.” He added that first-hand examination of the problems will hopefully “furnish insights that we can translate into a proposed course of action for the American Baptist convention” in the U.S. next year.

At the same time seven Canadian Mayors are also on tour by invitation of the Ministry of Tourism and El Al. The delegation includes Pierre Benoit of Ottawa. Gilles Lamontagne of Quebec, Steven Juba of Winnipeg, Rod Sykes of Calgary, M. Sears of Saskatoon, Henry Baker of Regina, and Jane Bigelow of London, Ontario.