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'T fe c v & fy 'ia r t t i. By James O. Henry Chairman , History Department , BIOLA College Anti-Semitism in Russia A comprehensive report on the pol icies of the Soviet Union and its atti tude toward Jews since World War II has been issued by the American Jew ish Committee. The thirty-five page re port was based on studies made by the committee’s European offices, entitled “ The Plight of the Jews in Eastern Europe.” Herbert B. Ehrmann of Bos ton, president of the agency, in an nouncing its publication warned that Soviet policy “ threatened the extinc tion of the Jewish religion and culture in a vast region of the earth.” The report declared that the Jewish com munity behind the Iron Curtain “ is kept organizationally in an atomized condition.” In the Soviet Union, the report said, there are only some sixty rabbis, most of them old — “ one rabbi for every 50,000 Jews — most of them officiating in rented rooms which sub stitute for synagogues.” Not a single synagogue has been built since World War I, and the training of rabbis was prohibited for forty years until 1957, when permission was granted for the opening of a seminary for twenty stu dents in Moscow. 700 B. C. Winery Sought in Jordan A winery that may have flourished in 700 B. C. in the Biblical city of Giveon is the object of a University of Pen- sylvania archeological expedition. The city, mentioned forty-three times in the Bible,' was on the site now oc cupied by the town of El Jib in Jordan, eight miles north of Jerusalem. The expedition is headed by Dr. James B. Pritchar, research associate at the University Museum and Pro fessor at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley, Calif. During University of Pennsylvania’s excava tion work at the site in 1956 and 1957, more than fifty handles of wine jars were found. Each was inscribed with the name of a vintner. Dr. Pritchard said the handles had been found in the pool of Giveon, which the Pennsyl vania archeologists uncovered in 1957. Abundant other evidence was un earthed to indicate that wine-making was a flourishing industry long before King Nebuchadnezzer laid waste the city in 587 B. C. Ancient Hebrew inscriptions on the handles “ antedate the Dead Sea scrolls
This command of the Risen Christ is being carried out through over forty radio stations in the United States and nine foreign countries. Beamed to State of Israel every Saturday. Many write for the Prophecy Edi tion New Testament and are followed up by mail and personal calls when ever possible. Some are finding Christ as Messiah-Saviour. We need your prayerful support. Send for free copy of our maga zine, MESSAGE TO ISRAEL.
by at least 500 years,” according to Dr. Pritchard. Methodist's Found Diverse in Belief “ About one in ten Methodists is not convinced that Jesus arose from the dead and that the Resurrection is an assurance of eternal life,” according to a recent survey done for the Meth odist Division of National Missions by Dr. David E. Lindstrom, Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois, and a group of graduate students. But the percentages of the respondents who said they did “ accept completely” these essential doctrines of the Meth odist Church — 91.2 on the arisen Jesus and 85.8 on eternal life — were among the highest for any statement of belief included in the questionnaire. Five percent accepted the resurrec tion of Jesus with reservations; 1.2 percent rejected it completely and 0.6 percent rejected it with reservation. The study showed that in most mat ters of belief and of theology a large majority of Methodist laymen accept the teaching of their ministers. Atomic Waste A Problem Burial sites for low-level radioactive waste in seven Western states are be ing sought by the Stanford Research Institute under contract with the Atomic Energy Commission. The Commission’s San Francisco operations states that the institute was making a preliminary screening of land areas, to be followed by detailed studies. The initial objective is to find general areas in which sites ranging up to one square mile might be avail able. “ It is estimated that an area of about 150 acres as a minimum would be adequate for use as a site for burial of solid or packaged waste materials generated over a period of twenty years,” the Commission reported. The public little realizes what a dangerous thing this new source of energy it is handling really is.
Coulson Shepherd, Director (FOUNDED 1937)
- MESSAGE TO ISRAEL, Inc. BOX 68 2, G.P.O., NEW YORK 1, N. Y. WATCH FOR THE GOLDEN JUBILEE EDITION OF THE KING'S BUSINESS NEXT MONTH!
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DECEMBER, 1959
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