Rabbis raise funds to fix torched Loaves and Fishes church
‘Condemnation is not enough; after a while it loses its credibility,’ says Elijah Interfaith Institute director
Marissa Newman is The Times of Israel political correspondent.
A crowdfunding campaign by a group of Orthodox rabbis and Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein raised over NIS 50,000 ($13,000) to fix the damage to a landmark church in northern Israel that was torched last month by Jewish vandals.
The Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes at Tabgha, on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, was set on fire June 18. Anti-Christian graffiti in Hebrew was scrawled on the church wall in an attack that drew condemnation from across Israel’s political spectrum, including from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Several Jewish suspects were arrested earlier this month in connection with the case.
“Condemnation is not enough; after a while it loses its credibility,” said Elijah Interfaith Institute Director Rabbi Alon Goshen-Gottstein, who is spearheading the effort. “When Jews reach into their pockets to support a cause, one knows they are serious.”
The project received the endorsement of 17 leading Orthodox rabbis, including Rabbi David Stav, Nahum Rabinovitch of Ma’ale Adumim, Shlomo Riskin of Efrat and former Jewish Home party leader Daniel Hershkowitz.
As of Monday, the campaign raised some NIS 56,000 ($14,838), topping its target of NIS 50,000 ($13,000) with two days to go.
“The church is visited daily by 5,000 people, making this act of vandalism the most visible to date in a series of attacks on religious sites of other religions,” a statement from the group said. “The accompanying graffiti appealed to texts from the Jewish prayer book, making it an attack on explicitly religious grounds.”
The church, which is believed by Christians to be the site of Jesus’s miracle of multiplying two fish and five loaves to feed 5,000 people, was set on fire June 18. Two people who were in the building — a 19-year-old tourist and a 79-year-old employee — suffered minor injuries from smoke inhalation. No significant damage was inflicted to the church itself, as the fire raged mainly on the roof. Some damage was caused to a book-storage room, offices, and an event hall.
In an entrance corridor of the building, Hebrew graffiti was found reading, “The false gods will be eliminated” — a quote from the Jewish liturgy.
The Church of the Multiplication, which is run by the Catholic Benedictine Order, is best known for its fifth-century mosaics, including one depicting two fish flanking a basket of loaves.
Elhanan Miller, AFP contributed to this report
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