Their obvious differences make chassidim the prime targets not only of street thugs, but also of the New York Times
Close to a decade ago, the ever brilliant economist and essayist David Goldman noted that attitudes toward Israel among Christian churches correlate highly with the relative flourishing of said branch: “The most successful Christian communities embrace the State of Israel, while the least successful abhor it.”
The immediate impetus for that observation was the 2013 publication by the Church of Scotland of “An Inheritance of Abraham?,” a veritable potpourri of reasons for rejecting the Jewish claim of a historical connection to the Land Of Israel.
Once a hotbed of Christian Zionism — the phrase “a land without people for a people without land” was coined by a Church of Scotland cleric — the Church of Scotland has become an implacable enemy of Israel, even as its numbers dwindle to almost nothing. Since 1956, it has shed two-thirds of its members, and continues to lose five percent of its existing membership every year.
The same phenomenon is observable in the United States. The old mainline churches — Episcopalian and Presbyterian — have passed repeated resolutions urging divestment from Israel in recent years, as the number of their adherents shrinks. Meanwhile, the most ardent Christian supporters of Israel are the evangelicals, who are also the fastest growing element of American Christianity.
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