Lela Gilbert, “Remembering Miracles” Passover & Holy Week

Ann-Marie Murrell April 20, 2014

216 1 minute read

Author and journalist Lela Gilbert, an American living in Jerusalem, Israel, writes about the increasing violence surrounding the upcoming Holy Days:

“For an entire week, both Jews and Christians remember, rejoice and return to the foundations of their faiths, both of which are deeply rooted in the miraculous.

But this year, the radiance of the holidays has been darkened by violence. On Sunday, the eve of Passover, a Kansas City Jewish Center and Jewish retirement home were attacked, allegedly by a former KKK “Grand Wizard,” and three people were killed. Ironically, all of the victims were Christians. The killer’s poisonous venom sickened both communities.

Also on Sunday, Nigeria’s infamous terrorist group Boko Haram murdered at least 200 Christians in attacks on several towns in Borno State.

And on Monday, just minutes after the Jerusalem siren heralded the Passover feast, a terrorist shot and killed an Israeli father near Hebron. The victim’s family also suffered gunshot injuries, and two were hospitalized.

Despite the millennia of their survival, Jews are never allowed to forget for long the anti-Semitic hatred that shadows them. And as the most persecuted religious group in the world, Christians also face unprecedented dangers.

The 20th century saw 850,000 Jews expelled from Arab lands between 1948 and 1970. Today, fewer than 5000 Jews remain in those Muslim countries, where Christians now face the same violence, pogroms, rapes and murders that drove out the Jews. As the jihadi saying goes, “First the Saturday People, then the Sunday People.”

Prayers for all our Judeo-Christian friends throughout the world.