Shiloh Celebrating 39! 🎂 Now a Major Settlement Bloc, Part 2

Thirty-six 36 years ago, when we began looking at Shiloh as a possible place to live in, it was considered "the end of the world," not only far from nearby Jewish/Israeli cities, but there were no nearby yishuvim, Jewish communities. The very few buses we had went by Jelazoon, an Arab refugee camp, and Ramalla. And to get to Ofra, one had to brave narrow cliff-side roads in addition to an unfriendly Arab village.

Recess in Ohel Shiloh Boys Elementary School

Today, Shiloh is surrounded on three sides by lots of Jewish communities of all sizes, Eli, Maale Levona, Givat Harel, Adei Ad, Eish Kodesh and more. The City of Ariel is a ten minute drive westwards followed by Petach Tikva twenty minutes further, and the Jordan Valley's Alon Road on the east is now connected to Shiloh via a road leading from Shvut Rachel and Kida, making even Beit Shean and Rimonim easy trips.

In Shiloh there are two large regional schools teaching up to the 8th grade, one for boys and the other for girls, besides a full complement of pre-schools and infant daycare. Kids are bussed in to study in the schools from Samaria, the Jordan Valley and of course from Gush Shiloh bloc of communities.

Here are some photos:

fruit and vegetables in the local supermarket

Shiloh's caravan neighborhood is between Shiloh and Shvut Rachel; dozens of young families rent there.

a night view of the pool, open during summer months

agriculture in Shiloh

Thousands of visitors come to Shiloh Hakeduma every week, or is it everyday, to see what has been discovered in the site of Ancient-Biblical Shiloh.

Even amateur archaeologists like myself have fun discovering something old. 

Yes, we enjoy the modern and the biblical here in Shiloh!

Pilgrims' Progress and Feast in the Holy Land

Posted by Jewish Israel

While we Jews were celebrating in our sukkahs, a very different spirit of worship descended upon the Jerusalem Convention Center (“Binyanei Ha’Uma”) - compliments of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) and their annual Feast of the Tabernacles.

There are active missionaries at ICEJ's Feast of the Tabernacles and there are those in attendance who openly engage in missionary activity which targets the Jewish people for conversion.

Does the Feast lend credence to and empower the evangelizing network in Israel?

In this post-holiday wrap-up, Jewish Israel connects the dots in an alarming tour which follows a missionary trail – in and out of Africa, to the Ukraine, to Jerusalem and Revava – which can no longer be ignored...more

Look what’s hanging over Jerusalem on Erev Tisha b’Av

Posted by Jewish Israel

This banner welcoming the conference for the Church of the Pentecost Missions hangs over the Rimonim Shalom Hotel in Jerusalem’s Bayit Vegan neighborhood. The banner quotes the new testament passage: “being transformed into the image of christ in a changing world”.

Properly welcoming tourists of other faiths into Ir Hakodesh and into Eretz Yisrael surely doesn’t warrant this shameful display. That it hangs over us at a time of year when we’ve been remembering tragedies associated with avodah zarah (strange worship), among other sins, and on the eve of our commemoration of the destruction of the First and Second Temple in Jerusalem, is distressing.

But jesus-friendly banners in Jerusalem may be the least of our problems. Is it possible that the Muslims know something we don't?...more

Ministry of Tourism sells Israel...down the tubes

Posted by Ellen W. Horowitz

The Israel Ministry of Tourism has launched a new website dedicated to Pope Benedict XVI’s first Papal visit.

Israel is a Jewish state and to produce a site and video presentation which promotes the "holiness" of Christianity at the expense of Jewish identity is a sham and a shame. Talk about replacement theology! The video repeatedly hails jesus as lord and savior, while Israel is reduced to a "modern, democratic state" on the cutting edge of Hi -Tech, Bio-Tech and Agri-Tech (oh, I forgot... there was Jewish content... I caught a glimpse of the Chief Rabbi bowing to the Pope).

It was also reported on Israel National News that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that, "It is possible to bring an additional one million tourists per annum to Israel in the near future."
Netanyahu said he believe that Christian historical sites have a great unrealized potential that could assist the Israeli economy in general, and the development of the Galilee in particular. The Prime Minister has previously raised the need for a comprehensive plan that would lead to a revolution in the tourism sector by rehabilitating various sites, increasing incoming tourism, creating jobs and increasing revenues.

The Jerusalem Post also reported on an increase in Christian pilgrims, but the stats were a bit suprising..."Last year, more than a million incoming tourists defined themselves as Catholic, 300,000 as Protestant, 360,000 as "other Christian," and 75,000 as Evangelicals, according to the Tourism Ministry statistics that were released during a tour of Christian holy sites in Nazareth ahead of the Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the Holy Land next month."

Hmmmm...the evangelicals seem to have come up a bit short... Does this mean that the Catholics are our new best friends?

While you ponder that question, take a look at the video (which is also on YouTube) and if it offends you, write to the Minister of Tourism at smiseznikov@knesset.gov.il