Jews do not march with Christians

B"H

The Israeli chief rabbinate (Rabbanut) made a new decree that no Jews should participate in the Christian parade during Sukkot.

Every year, thousands of Christians come to Jerusalem during the festival of Sukkot. This is nothing new, as already in Temple times many Gentiles used to come to the Temple and bring a Korban. There is nothing wrong with that halachically but I should mention that non - Jews had only limited access inside the Temple. In the past as well as in the future Temple. Nevertheless, they are invited to come and bring a Korban.

The Jerusalemites are used to marches and love them. Thousands of us especially participate in the March of the Flags on Yom Yerushalaim. I myself have been there for the past years.
However, the March of the Christians during Sukkot is always something foreign to us because we cannot exactly figure out what these people want from us. There are definitely great people participating, whose true intention is to show their support for Israel.

The negative side of this march is that countless Christian missionaries use it for their own vicious purposes. Handing out pamphlets to Jews is forbidden according to Israeli law but this doesn't keep missionaries away handing them out anyway. Everything is for the L - O - R - D that is how they think and don't even realize their own stupidity.

A few years ago, I was watching the march where some participants started to dance as if they were obsessed. Smiling around and running up to Jews in order to embrace them. So far, I had hardly seen anything more ridiculous. One lady came up to me and gave me a pamphlet showing a huge cross right in the middle. I was glad standing not too far away from a trash can, as I had no use whatsoever for propaganda material.
Last year I saw a, let's call her mentally unstable, woman carrying a huge sign with the words: "J. loves you as well".
What does it mean "as well" ? Is it like a person loving his pet ?

The march is organized by the so - called Christian embassy in Jerusalem which is very famous for missionizing Jews. The "embassy" also supports missionaries financially and wants to see results. No more Jews and only Christians. Well, this would be a terrible world.

Finally the Rabbanut in Israel took a necessary step forward and forbade all Jews participating in the march due to Christian missionary activities. It is a great decision and I couldn't agree more.

Of course, there are other opinions which actually come from an unexpected source: From Benny Elon who is a Knesset member of the National Religious Party. According to Benny Elon all Christians have the right to come to Jerusalem as it is written by the Prophet Zechariah.

No one denies this but does it depend on how someone is coming to Jerusalem. The prophet surely didn't intend inviting all the missionaries. Unfortunately, many Knesset members are just looking at the money Christian groups invest in Israel. It seems that money is more important than Jewish pride.
Everyone not participating in the march during Sukkot doesn’t miss too much anyway. Well, maybe yes, in case someone needs fire material for the upcoming winter and the missionary pamphlets probably burn very well.

As Rabbi Soloveitchik used to emphasize: What we need today is a little more Jewish pride.

It is high time to follow his advice.