JERUSALEM, Dec. 21 (JTA) As Christian pilgrims begin to flood Israel for millennium celebrations, a poll released this week shows that Israelis have surprisingly positive attitudes toward Christians, although they lack a fundamental knowledge of Christianity.
The Gallup poll, commissioned by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, showed that a majority of Israeli Jews consider American Christians to be friendly toward Israel and are looking forward to economic dividends from millennial tourism.
It also showed that most Israelis have a positive or very positive view of Pope John Paul II’s plans to visit the Holy Land in late March.
However, the poll also showed that less than a third of Israelis know that Dec. 25 is Christmas, and most appear to have little understanding of the differences among Christian denominations and their differing attitudes toward Israel.
Conducted during the first week of December, the poll asked 479 Israeli Jews from a geographical and religious cross-section of the country 16 questions about their knowledge and experience of Christians and Christian themes.
Several Jewish religious leaders see the poll as a sign that Israelis need to become more sensitive to some Christians’ religious connection to Israel.
Christian tourists outnumbered Jewish visitors by almost 3-1 in 1999.
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, the founder and president of the Chicago-based International Fellowship, said the findings represent a goodwill opportunity “to forge ahead in building better relations and understanding” among religious groups.
The results, which he released in Jerusalem on Tuesday, indicated “overwhelmingly” that Israelis have positive attitudes toward Christians in general and those coming to Israel for the millennium in particular.
But, he added, “we find a general lack of familiarity on the part of
Israelis on who Christians are, what the differences among them are.”
Asked which group Israelis feel are “the friendliest Christians insofar as Jews and Israel are concerned,” for example, most said “don’t know” or “Eastern Orthodox.”
Only 7.5 percent said evangelicals, despite the fact that this Christian denomination to which both President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore belong strongly supports Israel both politically and financially.
The International Fellowship has been a major financial supporter of Israel through the United Jewish Appeal, now part of the United Jewish Communities.
The fellowship provides Christians with a vehicle, Eckstein explained during a trip to New York last month, to act in accordance with God’s promise to Abraham, the original Jewish patriarch: ” I will bless those who bless you.”
During that visit, Eckstein personally handed UJC leaders a check for $2 million part of what Eckstein estimates will be a total of $6.5 million to $8 million in donations this year to bring Diaspora Jews, particularly those from the former Soviet Union, to Israel.
At his news conference about the Gallup poll in Jerusalem, Eckstein skirted the question of why Israelis should be expected to know about Christians or Christian holidays when most non-Jews around the world know little or nothing about Judaism.
He also reported that 36.4 percent of Israelis feel they have more in common with American Christian supporters of Israel, compared with 45.2 percent who felt closer to American Jews who are ambivalent towards Israel.
However, in breaking down this figure among religious and secular Israelis, he found that 50 percent of secular Israelis feel closer to Christians, as opposed to 32 percent who feel closer to ambivalent Jews.
“That to me is shocking,” he said, adding that it raised serious questions about the state of Israeli-Diaspora relations and Jewish identity among Israelis.
Responding to the poll’s results, Rabbi David Rosen, director of the Israel office of the Anti-Defamation League and an interfaith activist, said he was not surprised that “the ignorance is as profound as it is.”
Rosen, who has been urging Israelis to learn more about Christians ahead of the millennial tourism rush, added, “Maybe Israel is mature enough to start seriously relating to the Christian world.”
For their part, evangelical Christians welcomed the poll’s results.
“We are pleased to see that Israelis are very enthusiastic about pilgrims coming,” Clarence Wagner, international director of Bridges for Peace, a group that works to forge closer ties between Jewish Israelis and Christians, said at the Jerusalem news conference.
He was also encouraged by findings that showed that most Israelis do not look at Christians as “missionaries and anti-Semites.”
When asked what Jesus’ path might be were he alive today, 19.6 percent of Israelis surveyed said “Christian preacher.” Fewer than half that number said “rabbi,” a choice made by more religious Jews 11 percent compared to 7.9 percent overall.
Jesus might have even translated his message into legislation since 4.6 percent of the survey sample said he would be a member of Knesset today.
(JTA staff writer Julia Goldman contributed to this report.)
