ARTICLES ABOUT ALUMNI
Making an Eye Opening Visit - Indonesian journalists post before taking a helicopter trip across Israel
Zee News covered Prime Minister Shimon Peres's meeting with the Indian Muslim Delegation - August 2007
Media Response II to Indian Muslim Peace Delegation - September 2007
Media response I to Indian Muslim Peace Delegation - August 2007
Ynet.com covered the University Chancellors and Presidents Seminar on July 2, 2007
http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-3420307,00.html
Haaretz.com covered the University Chancellors and Presidents Seminar on July 3, 2007. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/877813.html
West Peabody Pastor Speaks of “Other Worldly” Trip to Israel
Christian Clergy Seminar Participant (February 2007), Joel Anderle, was interviewed for the following article in the Jewish Journal
The group meeting with Haifa’s Chief Rabbi and a Christian Archbishop. |
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Bette Keva
Jewish Journal Staff
These days, when Rev. Joel Matthew Anderle ministers to his West Peabody church or reads the newspapers, the Evangelical pastor has a new way of relating to Israel, its land, its people and its problems.
The senior pastor of the Community Covenant Church has just returned from a week in Israel, compliments of the American Jewish Committee’s Project Interchange. He was among 14 ministers and priests from several states who visited Tel Aviv, Haifa, the Galilee and Jerusalem.
Despite the fact that the group had no free time and was told they would be more confused when they left, Anderle was riding a wave of excitement that hadn’t abated even days after returning.
“I loved it and am looking forward to going back,” he said. “It was powerful to see the Holy Land, to be at the Temple Mount, to go into the tunnels of the Western Wall, to see the way Herod put it together and how it changed, to see places where Jesus walked, to hear the passion of the folks that have made aliyah.”
Anderle feels he can do his job better now, he feels able to interprete — with more understanding — the stories of the New Testament.
For 24 years Project Interchange has been sending Gentile university students, political, ethnic, and religious leaders to Israel, said Larry Lowenthal, executive director of the American Jewish Committee in Boston.
Its mission is to educate American policy makers and opinion leaders by giving them the opportunity to experience Israel in all its diversity. The hope is that the 3,500 “emerging leaders” it has sent will add to understanding the region and further Israel and the United State’s quest for peace there.
Several speakers during the trip were particularly memorable, Anderle said. Aaron Lerman, a retired IDF colonel and political science professor at Hebrew University “gave us a lecture on trying to understand Israel and its neighbors. It was simply brilliant.”
Anderle has now seen the controversial West Bank separation barrier that he had read about in the newspapers.
“Only 4 percent is a wall,” he said of the network of fences, trenches, and in places 8-foot concrete walls built to reduce Palestinian terrorism.
“It’s horrible and ugly, but at the same time, most of it is a fence,” Anderle said.
Author Schlomo Avineri spoke to Anderle’s group about what it means to be Jewish.
“It’s a provocative question,” Anderle said. “The concept is very different from Christianity. What does it mean to be Jewish and democratic as a nation? We looked at maps, charts, models [and explored] what it means to be a nation in a constant state of war, to have all its young people serve, to see a cluster of 18-year-old women with machine guns.”
The Peabody pastor has learned that despite the substantial cultural issues that separate them, Jews, Christians and Muslims work together, such as on the staff of the Augusta Victoria Hospital on Mount Scopus.
“Israel has an identity that confronts the identity of those in the Palestinian Authority,” Anderle said.
“We talked to the Arabs who were upset,” he said. “There was no censoring.”
One Arab social worker told the group that he deals with prejudice all the time, and he lives and works where there are fewer resources for Arab children in Jaffa.
Anderle saw the multi-racial side of Israel with its Yemeni, Ethiopian and Russian children who are at risk and struggling without enough necessities.
Before leaving for Israel, friends told Anderle, “You will be freaked out. It’s like a police state,” but he did not experience that. “It’s far more of a first world rather than a developing country,” he said.
Before leaving, the AJCommittee group even saw fighting at the Lebanon border.
The Israelis were clearing land to create a bigger buffer to prevent Lebanon from infiltrating Israel. The Lebanese army (not Hezbollah) started firing, and Israelis returned fire and killed some Lebanese military, Anderle said.
“But, day-to-day, I don’t think anybody in the group felt fear,” Anderle said. That included going in and out of the Old City and into the Jerusalem open markets.
Anderle jogged in the mornings by himself, but he admitted some women on the trip did not feel as safe as he did.
In summation, Anderle said the trip was “other worldly.”