Christians to repent online for antisemitism on Tisha Be'av
While Jews will be reading Lamentations in and out of synagogues, Christians will participate in a nine-hour online vigil of prayers.
By GIL HOFFMANThe ruins of the Second Temple that sit next to a part of the Western Wall(photo credit: REUTERS/AMIR COHEN)
Tisha Be’av, the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, will become a time for Christians around the world to repent together for two millennia of antisemitism through a virtual prayer event hosted on the 9-av.com website.While Jews will be reading Lamentations in and out of synagogues, Christians will participate in a nine-hour online vigil of prayers. There will also be a week of online tours of biblical sites and other key locations in Israel.The event is being organized by a steering committee led by Al Mccarn, Laura Densmore and Steve Wearp, a Christian and former national director of the March for Remembrance, which holds events against antisemitism in more than 50 US cities. This is his third year organizing Tisha Be’av events for Christians in Jerusalem and his first time hosting it online due to the coronavirus.“We struggled with how to do it this year, but we realized we have a much greater audience potential online,” Wearp said.It will also be easier for participants fasting for 25 hours of mourning to stay home instead of spending the day in the Israeli sun.The fasting of Christians will be “repentance for Christian antisemitism throughout the centuries,” Wearp said. They will learn about antisemitism through an online tour of Yad Vashem led by Holocaust survivors and righteous gentiles, he said.Former MK Yehudah Glick will take participants to the Temple Mount, the site of the Jewish Temples, whose destruction is mourned on Tisha Be’av. Hebron spokesman Yishai Fleisher will guide them to the Cave of the Patriarchs. Israel Bible publisher Rabbi Tuly Weisz will provide a special message of healing and reconciliation.“It was baseless hatred that led to the tearing down of the Temple, but it was the hands of the nations that tore it down,” Wearp said. Speaking for Christians, he said: “We treated the Jews with baseless hatred for 2,000 years. Now is the time to help rebuild the Temple as a place for baseless love and peace for the Jewish people. We want to help lift you up to accomplish what God has given the Jewish people so His glory will once again live here on earth. A lot of the burden rests on us.”
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