wfn.org | Nazareth Village impresses Jerusalem Post writer

[BethAH <BethAH@mbm.org>]

May 23, 2001
Beth Hawn
Mennonite Board of Missions
(219) 294-7523
<NEWS@MBM.org>

May 23, 2001

Nazareth Village impresses Jerusalem Post writer

ELKHART, Ind. (MBM/COM) – Israelis have discovered Nazareth
Village, and they like what they see.  A May 17, 2001, article in
the Jerusalem Post praised the village as an authentic recreation
of life in the time of Jesus and a place that is breaking down
barriers among Christians, Jews and Moslems.  The article, “Close
Encounters: Nazareth Village: Back to the first century” was
written by Allan Rabinowitz, a licensed tour guide and Post
writer.

Nazareth Village “tries to re-create the physical and social
milieu in which Jesus developed, and from which he drew material
for many of his parables and examples.”  Rabinowitz had high
praise for exhibits in the “state-of-the-art museum” and for the
village itself where the atmosphere of the first century is
recreated in a way that “enriches the New Testament texts as well
as Jewish texts, law and custom.”

Though the village is “unabashedly Christian,” Jewish groups,
individuals and various scholars – Israelis and others – who have
visited left feeling “excited and impressed,” he reported,
quoting Michael Hostetler, executive director of Nazareth Village
and a mission associate with Mennonite Board of Missions and
Commission on Overseas Mission.

Equally impressive is the fact that many of the employees telling
the biblical stories in the village are Muslim, a fact that
Rabinowitz said creates “a unique religious-cultural
intersection” with Christians and Jews.

Rabinowitz concludes the article on a personal and emotional
note.  “I found it moving to stand in the small, dimly lit,
full-scale re-created synagogue, whose materials and design are
based upon the remains of first-century synagogues throughout the
country . . . ”

“Yet, the Christians standing beside me undoubtedly pondered over
Jesus reading from the book of Isaiah in Nazareth’s synagogue
(Luke 4: 16-28).  It struck me then that the meticulous effort we
stood amidst, to replicate these ancient walls, might in some
small way help dismantle some modern ones.”

The entire article is online at
www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/05/17/Tourism/Tourism.26336.html.

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MBM Staff