12
NE DETROIT JEW1911NEili
Friday, October 2, 1981
British Minister, Wife Discover Zionism
Wishing all our friends
and relatives a happy and
healthy New Year
JERUSALEM — Joan
McWhirter first saw Israel
from the deck of a freighter
which had brough a group
from the Holy Trinity Ang-
lican Church in Brighton,
England, on a pilgrimage to
the Holy Land.
She was entranced, this
tall, striking woman who
for years had edited Brit-
ain's largest Bible maga-
zine with her husband,
James. And when she
reached Jerusalem she
knew that she was home.
The McWhirters were
profiled by Diana Lerner in
a recent issue of Israel
Scene magazine.
"This," she says, "was
where I was meant to be.
It was the fulfillment of a
mission." -
Mrs. McWhirter returned
to England to persuade her
husband, a Free Church
minister and evangelical
preacher, that God wanted
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JOAN McWHIRTER
them to live in Jerusalem
and be part of the re-
building of the Jewish
Homeland.
Rev. James McWhirter,
however, was not to be eas-
ily convinced.
"I was anti-Zionist," he
explains in his 'rich Irish
brogue. "I had visited the
West Bank as a journalist,
as a guest of UNRWA (the
United Nations agency con-
cerned with refugees) when
the territory was in Jorda-
nian hands.
"I'd been taken around
the refugee camps and was
outraged by what I saw. I
saw only human tragedy,
not the politics that caused
these wretched people to be
used as a whipping post
against Israel.
"I expressed these sen-
timents in articles I wrote
when I returned to
England. And I got my-
self into hot water with
some of Britain's leading
Christian Zionists."
Rev. McWhirter was
scarcely pleased, then,
when his wife returned from
Israel ablaze with Zionist
enthusiasm. But Mrs.
McWhirter, he relates with
wry amusement, was not to
be put off.
"She said to me: 'Look, old
man, I've been tied to your
coat-tails for all these years.
And now I am going to live
in Israel. I'm off.' "
And she was. When the
Yom Kippur War broke out
in October 1973, Joan
McWhirter promptly volun,
teered to fly to Israel to help
roll bandages, pick oranges,
wash dishes ... do anything
she could to be of use.
"But of course," says
Rev. McWhirter "the Is-
raelis were only taking
young people with spe-
cial skills and they
turned Joan down.
"But my wife, you know,
is a woman of great deterz..
mination and character. -
She exchanged our big old
car for a little one, packed it
up, drove to Marseilles in
the south of France and
caught the next ship to
Haifa."
Once in Jerusalem Mrs.
McWhirter lost no time set-
tling down to serious study
of Hebrew and Israel, using
the archives of the External
Relations Department of
the World Zionist Organiza-
tion, which promptly recog-
nized Joan for the treasure
she is and put her to work
speaking to visiting Chris-
tians in Israel and sending
her to Britain on lecture
tours.
Rev. McWhirter good-
humoredly acknowledging
that he was no match for the
attraction of Jerusalem, fol-
lowed five months later.
"And before long," he says,
"I was hooked.
"I got into Joan's li-
brary while she was
away on a speaking tour
in England and I started
to read," he says. "I
wanted the facts about
Israel and the Palesti-
nians. I wasn't emotional
about it like Joan was. I
sat and read everything I
could lay my hands on.
"Then I wrote to her: 'I'm
getting converted,' I said.
She replied: 'At last the
penny is dropping into your
thick skull. "
So the McWhirters sold
their Brighton home and
settled in Jerusalem in the
picturesque Muslim Arab
quarter of Azaria, the bibli-
cal village of Bethany
where, according to tradi-
tion, Jesus raised Lazarus
from the dead. And in seven
years they have made a con-
siderable impact on their
adopted city.
They have worked
tirelessly for the Christian
Embassy, where Joan is
now in charge of educa-
tional material. And her
series of cassette tapes, "A
Voice from Jerusalem,"
which describes Jerusalem
the city, its landscape, its
history, its prophetic de-
stiny as Israel's eternal cap-
ital — are now being dis-
tributed to radio stations,
schools, non-sectarian
organizations and Chris-
tians throughout the world.
In response, a grateful
city bestowed upon her
last year the Distin-
guished Citizen of
Jerusalem Award for her
service to the Holy City.
"Joan,'6 said Mayor
Teddy Kollek at the pre-
sentation, "has done
more than anyone for
Jerusalem."
Rev. McWhirter, 82, the
Zionist "convert," has be-
come a tireless proponent of
Israel's title to the Land of
the Bible. The McWhirters
are, in short a formidable
team and have made - many
friends here — Arab and
Jew, Christian and Muslim
— and in return find life and
Israel to be "one round of
thrilling discoveries."
The United Nations Gen-
eral Assembly in 1947, by a
majority of 33 to 13, with 10
abstentions, adopted the
majority recommendations
of the UN Special Commit-
tee on Palestine, calling for
the partition of the country
into independent Jewish
and Arab states, joined by
an economic union with an
international zone consist-
ing of Jerusalem and its
environs.
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