BY ANSEL OLIVER, editorial assistant, Adventist News Network

he Florida Conference opened the Shalom Learning Center in Hollywood, Florida, in February in an effort to increase contact with people of the Jewish faith. Adventist administrators came from all over the world--including France and Israel--for the center's grand opening.

The center is located on the same campus as the Temple of Advent Hope congregation. Along with weekly, Messianic, Sabbath worship services, the center will hold weekend and weeklong seminars throughout the year, teaching Adventists about the Jewish faith and how to conduct messianic worship services.

"This is the first of its kind in the Adventist denomination," said Mike Curzon, who is known as "pastor" at the Temple of the Advent Hope and "Rabbi" during the congregation's Messianic service in the new building.

The center was built with donations from individuals, the conference, and Adventist-laymens Services and Industries, an organization of lay people dedicated to sharing Christ in the marketplace. Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, and Southern Adventist University in Collegdale, Tennessee, are developing a curriculum to include a practicum that would be served at the center. "I'm so glad a Jew can worship like a Jew and an Adventist," said Jim Zachary, chair of the church's Jewish outreach in North America.

"We have to remember Jesus was a Jew," said Richard Elofer, president of the Israel Field, who spoke at the dedication ceremony. "Unless we focus on the roots of Jesus as a Jew, the world will only get a western or American view of Jesus."

It's not merely Jews but also many Christians who want to worship in a manner close to that of the time of Christ. The center will teach the Jewish roots of the Adventist faith, the Hebrew language, and Jewish customs. "There is a need to know what not to do that is probably more important than what to do," said Teofilo V. Ferreira, who was president of the Adventist Church in Israel from 1974 to 1982.

Church leaders respect the traditional Jewish worship style undertaken by the congregation. Behind the platform is a cabinet, representing the ark, with a Torah scroll kept inside. The Torah is taken out and read during Sabbath services. The words are also sung to melodies traditionally heard in a synagogue.

The growing popularity of this worship is reaching people that the traditional Adventist service has not. There are about 30 attendees at each of Zaremsky's congregations. "We have more [Jews] attending these two services than I ever saw attend any Adventist Church," he said. Zaremsky compares it to a Spanish church in the United States, where most members speak English, but the services are still conducted in Spanish.

More people attend the congregations for Jewish holidays--sometimes as many as 100. Zaremsky uses holidays as evangelistic opportunities, inviting people to study the Bible with the church once a week. Curzon, raised an Orthodox Jew, plans to conduct evangelism at the center in the same way, calling it friendship evangelism. "We're not going to bother anyone. We're not going to go door-to-door--that's insulting to them," he said. "Don't bother them about proselytizing--you'll never see them again." Like Elofer, who has had success with friendship evangelism in Israel, Curzon hopes to double the number of members at his congregation as well.

Jewish Adventist congregations are now reemerging. A Hebrew Adventist congregation met 30 years ago in Times Square, New York City. The area changed, and the congregation moved and fizzled out. There are three new such congregations in New York that have appeared in the last two years--in Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island. There are other congregations in North Carolina, Oregon, and Texas.

RABBI OR PASTOR? Congregation leader Alex Schlussler with his wife Anjie.

The Florida conference has supported Jewish Adventist evangelism, and now maintains five such congregations in the state. The new center is located in Broward County, between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, the third highest concentration of Jewish population in the United States. The center is in a diverse area--along the same road are Jewish community centers, synagogues, the tribal headquarters for the Seminole Indians, and a Polish-American club.

"[Adventist Church co-founder] Ellen White made quite a few statements about the need for us to reach the Jewish people," says Zaremsky, who has been an Adventist for 20 years, but says he's still a Jew.

"A Jew will always be a Jew, even if he's a Buddhist," says Ferreira. "That's one of the reasons we have separate congregations." Ferreira explains that many modern Jews are "rationalists," questioning their faith. In particular is this question: "If God exists, why did He allow 6 million Jews to be killed during the Holocaust?"

During his time in Israel, Ferreira remembers one Adventist who lost 23 members of the family in the holocaust. Another woman had to hide for seven months between two walls in her apartment in Budapest, Hungary, while her non-Jewish husband slipped her food through a hole in the wall behind a picture. Adventist Jews in Israel had even more suffering--some lost loved ones in the Holocaust, and when they became Christians their families shunned them. Ferreira says the biggest threat to Judaism in the last 30 to 40 years is losing about 60 percent of its population to intermarriage.

While he encourages Jewish Adventists to follow the Jewish holidays, he doesn't think other Adventists need to. "I'm not saying you shouldn't, [but] there's no reason to." In the same manner, people can celebrate the Chinese New Year even though they're not Chinese. "We can draw lessons from them," Ferreira says.

The buildings where Jewish Adventists meet are not called churches, but houses of prayer. There are no crosses, but Stars of David, menorahs and prayer shawls. "It's the closest thing to biblical worship that you'll see," says Curzon.

Samuel S. Jacobson, now retired in Oregon, always maintained the burden for Jewish evangelism, say many Jewish Adventist leaders. His book, The Quest of a Jew, was instrumental in helping many Jews join the Adventist Church.

When I became a Messianic Jew I tried to find the right message," said Elofer. "I found it within the Seventh-day Adventist Church."

Cyclone Destroys Adventist Villages
The February 26 cyclone that hit the South Pacific Republic of Vanuatu with winds gusting up to 200 kilometers per hour (about 125 miles per hour) has destroyed at least five Seventh-day Adventist villages, says Bob Larsen, secretary of the Vanuatu Mission.

"These islands took the brunt of Ivy, which is the strongest cyclone I've ever experienced in my eight years in Vanuatu," Larsen says. "All but two or three of our church members' houses [on the islands of Ambrym, Epi, and Tongoa] have been blown out to sea. One of our primary schools and one of our churches also lost their roofs. "My heart goes out to our members and ministers. The cyclone has not only decimated their houses but their gardens as well. They've lost everything. It will take them a year to recover. The ministers who lost their houses say their greatest loss is that of their Bibles, books, and ministry resources." Pastor Larsen had received no reports of injuries, but the mission was still unable to make contact with two of the hardest hit islands, Maewo and Pentecost, at the time of this report [March 3]. The Reuters news agency reported the cyclone claimed one life and forced the evacuation of 2,000 persons.

Vanuatu, located northeast of Australia, is a Melanesian 80-island archipelago. The Vanuatu Mission includes 52 Adventist churches with more than 15,000 members.
                             --Adventist News Network, South Pacific Division

Adventist Facilities Looted in Haiti
As chaos erupts in the wake of political upheaval in Haiti, looting and other violent activities in the capital city of Port-au-Prince have affected many sites, including Haitian Adventist Hospital and the Adventist university, both within minutes of downtown.

There was looting Monday in the vicinity of the hospital and university, according to Israel Leito, Inter-America Division president, who has been in contact with church leaders in Port-au-Prince.

"The guard at the institution was attacked and his weapon taken, medicines were taken from the hospital, a pick-up truck was stolen, as well as things from the print shop and our packing company and ADRA office there," says Leito.

He adds that the university was closed for the day, and no reports of casualties among church members have been reported. However, he says that because of the increase in carjacking, people are either on foot or using public transportation. Church services will continue as scheduled on Sabbaths (Saturdays).

The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is in the process of getting containers ready with medicines and clothing to be shipped to Haiti, according to Wally Amundson, ADRA director for Inter-America. "We are waiting for official indication on when the port [in Haiti] will be ready to receive and clear goods," he says.

"Cash reserves have been set aside for emergency response there and will be available to them tomorrow," says Amundson. The funds will be used for the purchase of food and items of necessity, and the transporting of such items locally.            --Adventist News Network

NEWS COMMENTARY

BY JENNIFER JILL SCHWIRZER, writing from Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania

omething got into American media recently, and led a few good souls to do their part to stop the insanity of media indecency. In two separate and unrelated incidences, not one, but two stars received substantial slaps.

Shock-jock Howard Stern's show was pulled from all Clear Channel Communications radio stations because of the media giant's newly adopted zero-tolerance policy for unacceptable behavior. The biggest radio station owner in America, Clear Channel faced six-figure fines from the Federal Communications Commission in January over vulgar and inappropriate material. This led them to adopt the zero-tolerance policy. On Tuesday, Stern's show featured an interview that was replete with graphic sexual references and overt racism, and the boom was finally lowered upon him.

Janet Jackson was scrubbed from a television movie about singer Lena Horne. Ms. Horne was angry about the event that occurred during the Super Bowl halftime show, and pressured ABC to drop Jackson from the project. ABC executives resisted Ms. Horne's request, but Ms. Jackson finally dropped out of her own accord.

Media indecency has escalated out of control in recent years. In the 1960s, Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke slept in separate beds. Today prime-time viewing serves up heaping helpings of sexual innuendo and immorality.

Media censorship of any kind is considered by some Americans to be an assault on the free speech clause of the first amendment. Yet Adventists, along with Christians of other denominations, long for a return of the days when television was family-friendly and American society was a safer place to raise children. Historically, cultures with low moral standards have either languished or died altogether.

This issue is relevant to Seventh-day Adventists because of our reluctance to endorse the legislation of morality. We need to do our part to elevate our society back to its original moral height without condoning a restriction of human rights. That can be a very fine line to walk.

Catholics Under Fire

BY GARY KRAUSE, communication director for the Office of Global Mission of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Things just got worse for the Roman Catholic Church as a shocking new report estimates that four to five percent of priests in the United States have been involved in sexual abuse. It's nothing less than a spectacular failure for the world's largest Christian denomination.

There's no defense for the Catholic Church on this one. Nothing can justify sexual abuse. Jesus reserved His sternest comments for people who mistreat children. The damage abuse does to His cause and to His violated children is immeasurable. Often abuse results in depression, social impairment, an inability to form proper relationships, and even suicide. The fact that it's at the hands of professed spiritual shepherds completes the tragedy.

But in our judgment, let's be careful not to include all Catholics. And whatever we may think of the Roman Catholic Church as an organization, let's remember those Catholic workers who, often at great personal sacrifice, have served God to the best of their abilities according to the light they have. For every failed priest there are others who, whether misguided or not, have foregone marriage and family to serve others-often the poor and oppressed. Even allowing for the worst estimates-which are horrifying-it still means 19 out of 20 priests have not been involved.

When the Adventist Church comes under fire for misconduct by leaders or church members, we're quick to defend our reputation by emphasizing our good works: community welfare, an international development and relief agency, excellent hospitals . Naturally we're eager to show our good side, and jealous for the name of our church.

In the same way, while praying for and grieving for the victims of this terrible tragedy, let's not forget the other side of the Catholic story. Fairness and Christian charity deserve nothing less.

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