AN EVENING WITH SOME MESSIANIC JEWS

'You get to know Jesus Christ because he loves you, honey. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, forget it, that's from the pit of hell. For you to be saved, honey, all you have to do is ask Jesus to come into your heart and mean it. Praise the Lord!' Ruthie clapped her hands. 'Hallelujah.'
I was back in the Jaffa Gate Hostel and had joined some of the other residents in the reception area. The hostel had no heating system and Ruthie, a little old American woman, was swaddled from waist to toes in a tartan blanket. With a fuzz of white curls standing out round her head and an effervescent air she looked like a poodle fresh from the dog parlour. She and her companions - a youngish Puerto Rican called Rico and Dahleen, a middle-aged South African woman - were Messianic Jews, Jews who believe that Jesus Christ was the Messiah and follow his teaching. Ruthie had been ignorant of her Jewish blood until she was about sixty. During a previous visit to Israel she had the very strong feeling when she arrived in Jericho that 'these were her people'. She then did a search for her mother's name in the diaspora list and found that she was indeed Jewish. Rico, a second generation Puerta Rican, was able to trace his family back, via the Canary Islands, to Spain which had expelled all Jews during the Inquisition of the fifteenth century.
'I've got a DVD I'm going to give you. It's about a doctor who dies and goes to hell and comes back to tell us what he saw. Amen!' Ruthie continued. Dahleen and Rico in the meantime were discussing a book about the Ark of the Covenant and the symbolic meaning of the materials used for the priests' clothes. 'Praise the Lord, I'd like to read this,' Ruthie broke in. 'Hey Hilda honey, what brings you here anyway?'
I told them about my interest in learning more about the Palestinian perspective.
'That's good. You should see both sides,' said Ruthie.
'But it's not so easy to get to know the Jews so it's difficult to see both sides.'
'Oh no, it isn't,' said Rico. 'Not if you read the Bible. I could point you back to Genesis chapter 12 and show you where all this began. The fact that Israel is here proves that there is a God.'
'Israel is the sign for the nations that there is a God and he is going to come back and there is going to be a judgement,' Dahleen chimed in. 'Get into that Bible, honey, and study it, because you've got to know that Bible backwards and forwards for the last days.'
Ruthie backed her up. 'You've got to know the word of God like you've never known it before.'
The Palestinian manager appeared at the reception desk. They all stopped talking and turned their attention to the Ray Charles movie that was showing on the television.
'They're really nice guys here,' Ruthie whispered. 'We don't want to upset them.'
'But why are you all living in the Muslim Quarter,' I asked.
'Because it's cheaper,' replied Dahleen with a short sharp laugh.
The manager left and Rico started reading aloud from the Book of Revelations. 'And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.'
'What's the beast supposed to be?' I asked.
'It's the new world government,' said Rico.
'Read on, read on,' cried Ruthie.

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