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Deity Over Disney

Florida Jews preach tolerance over _park that mixes Moses, Jesus.

JOYCE MOED CHARMAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

West Palm Beach
or Dawn Short and Jennifer Willis, the wait to
visit a newly opened "messianic Jewish" theme
park was worth it.
Ticket sellers bluntly told Short and her
friend Willis when they arrived on Saturday that the Holy
Land Experience was too crowded to accept more guests.
But instead of heading home, Short, a Methodist, and
Willis, a Pentecostal, spent some time in Orlando and
returned to the park in the afternoon.
'We were determined to get in," said Short, who made
the two-hour drive from her home to Orlando after read-
ing about the religious theme park in a local newspaper.
Once inside, Short says she learned more about the
Bible in just two hours than she did in years of Bible
school.
Since the newest addition to Orlando's theme park row
opened Feb. 5, 30,000 visitors have bypassed the world's
most famous mouse to visit Holy Land Experience, a con-
troversial park that tries to re-create biblical times through
stage productions and a Middle Eastern marketplace.
The $16 million park mixes Jewish and Christian symbols.
Some Jewish leaders assert that the park's founder — a
Jew who embraced Jesus — has created a giant prosely-
tizing tool. But others say an understated response is
better.
"We have to understand that in a democracy, we have
to tolerate all situations," said Rabbi Joel Levine, spiritu-
al leader of Temple Judea of West Palm Beach. He chairs
the Cults and Messianics Task Force of the Jewish
Federation of Palm Beach County.
Rabbi Levine added: "I think the Jewish community is
doing a good thing by letting people know what Holy
Land is: a Christian amusement park."
"Every piece of literature created by the park states its
evangelical purpose," said park founder Marvin
Rosenthal, who directs an Orlando-based Christian min-
istry, Zion's Hope. The ordained Baptist minister was
born into a Conservative Jewish family and says he never
formally converted to Christianity.
"The organization is entitled to build a theme park,
but our problem is the way it's being presented," said
William Rothschild, assistant regional director of the
Anti-Defamation League's Palm Beach office.
It's part of Rosenthal's "ministry to entice as many
Jews as he can, to expose them to a mixture of Christian
and Jewish values. We're concerned about it. We feel that
what they're presenting is the philosophy that you can be
both — and if you're not both, you're not complete —
and that invalidates Judaism."

F

A Holocaust memorial was dedicated
in Miami Beach; Elie Wiesel spoke.
Alexander R. Bensky of Detroit
was elected to the board of direc-
tors of the Tiger Stadium Fan Club.
Detroit bowlers captured seven
first-place finishes at the B'nai
B'rith Women's Tri-Regional
Bowling Association tournament.

,

A worker garbed in period costume emerges
Garden Tomb at Holy Land Experience.

om Calvary's

The first Israeli Embassy in the
Arab world was opened in Cairo.
Hugh Orgel was appointed
Jewish Telegraphic Agency's Tel
Aviv correspondent.
Detroiter Miriam Hamburger was
awarded the National Community
Service Award from the Jewish
Theological Seminary of America.

A Dream Fulfilled

For $17 a ticket — $12 for children — Rosenthal aims to
transport guests 7,000 miles away and 3,000 years back in
time. The journey starts when Moses led the Israelites out
of Egypt and ends just before the Roman destruction of
Jerusalem in the first century. There's a 45-foot by 25-foot
model of first-century Jerusalem. Guests also may wander
through Calvary's Garden Tomb, a re-creation of Jesus' rest-
ing place, where actors portray his death, burial and resur-
rection.
A high-tech production of Israel's ancient priestly system
— replete with lightning bolts and fog — awaits visitors
within a model of the Wilderness Tabernacle. Replicas of
the Qumran caves let guests peek at the place where the
Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the 20th century.
Costumed actors sing and perform scenes from the Bible
in the marketplace, near a replica of Herod's Temple and
alongside a re-creation of the Via Dolorosa.
Rosenthal, a frequent visitor to Israel, dreamed of build-
ing a religious theme park for nearly 20 years. In 1989, he
heard about 19 wooded acres tangled in a bankruptcy pro-
ceeding.
With the backing of some wealthy investors — including
Robert and Judith Van Kampen, whose collection of rare
bibles will be part of a future museum at the park — he
paid $1.2 million for the land, a fraction of its worth.
Later, state officials offered to pay $1.4 million to build a
highway interchange on four acres. To Rosenthal, that was a
sign God was smiling on his plan. "The Bible is God's
word, and there's no better place to share that than one of
the most major tourist locations in the world."
It's not his intent to target Jews for conversion and so far,
less than 1 percent of the visitors have been Jewish,
Rosenthal said. But, he added: "I do believe Jesus is the
messiah, and to believe in him is the most Jewish thing a
Jewish person can do."

❑

A Chanukah menorah, 6 feet, 8
inches high, was donated by
Germany to the Israel Museum.
Detroiter David Miro, attorney and
former president of Congregation
Shaarey Zedek, received the 1970
National Community Service Award
from the Jewish Theological
Seminary of America.

1503Ar,
, AINIONSKSAtt,„

A perpetual fund for the law school of
the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
was established by the Chicago
Decalogue Society of lawyers.
Synagogues in Budapest and other
Hungarian towns were smeared with
swastikas.
Detroiter Max Pleasant has been
named assistant director of Farband
Camp in Chelsea.

WANAVAN
"Otatk

K W&

The two-week strike of Israel's
metal industry ended.
Detroiter Morris Jacobs was selected
as one of the delegates from the Zionist
Organization of America to the World
Zionist Congress in Jerusalem.
The Israel government con-
tributed fruit and citrus fruit con-
centrates valued at $33,000 for
U.N.-relief activities in Korea.

—Compiled by Sy Manello,
editorial assistant

2/23
2001

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