Presbyterians (USA) to divest from Israel

By an overwhelming vote of its general assembly, the Presbyterian Church USA, boasting 3 million members, is siding with Palestinian Arabs and against Israel, choosing to divest from the Jewish state as it did only with apartheid South Africa. With the decision, approved in a 431-62 vote at the 216th annual general assembly of the PCUSA, the denomination is believed to be the largest organization or institution to join the divestment campaign against Israel. It is the first Christian denomination to do so. In 2001, the combined value of the church's foundation and pension fund was estimated at $7 billion. Leaders of the liberal mainline Protestant church approved several other anti-Israel resolutions at their gathering in Richmond, Va., and also refused to halt funding for "messianic congregations" that target Jews for conversion. The Presbyterian resolutions came just as Jewish organizations were hailing the results of a historic international interfaith meeting in Buenos Aires last week, where Roman Catholic officials for the first time signed on to a document equating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.

(RNS) The Presbyterian Church (USA), under fire from Jewish groups for its funding of messianic Jewish congregations and a move to divest from Israel, is appealing to both faiths to respect whatever "fragility of trust" still exists between them.In a three-page statement issued late Tuesday, Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick defended recent church votes that one prominent Jewish group called "hostile and aggressive." "I encourage Presbyterians to maintain their relationships with people of other faiths, with sensitivity to the fragility of trust in the present climate of violence and terror," said Kirkpatrick, the church's highest elected official.Church headquarters in Louisville, Ky., has been "inundated" with hundreds of angry phone calls and e-mails from Jews who protested votes on Jewish evangelism and the Israeli-Jewish conflict during the church's recent General Assembly in Richmond, Va. Delegates narrowly voted -- 260-233 -- to maintain funding for churches, including one in suburban Philadelphia, that are geared toward Jewish converts to Christianity.The Philadelphia congregation, Avodat Yisrael, received $260,000 from various church agencies and has been called offensive by Jews for its use of Jewish ritual music and sacred objects such as Torah scrolls and menorahs in Christian worship.