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First visit of Rabbi Dr. Keller
July 1970, the chief rabbi of the Western Galilee visites Nes Ammim the first time after his fight against the village.
His speech in answer to Dr. Pilon’s introduction: “It is for the first time that I come to Nes Ammim. But I knew the name before the village came into being. I fought against the foundation of it. Not because – God forbid – I am against Christian people who sympathise with us and want to do something good for the land and people of Israel. My problem was with Christians who want to live and work here. But I heard you all have positive intentions. For Christians it is a religious obligation to win non-believers for their faith. This means they cannot be happy when they see people around them who serve God in a different way. During the exile we were powerlessly submitted to this converting passion of the Christians. But we opposed it. Despite persecutions we remained faithful to our religion. However we suffered great losses of people during the last twelve centuries and have become very sensitive on this point. Every one Jew is treasured. We don’t want to loose one more Jew because of conversion. One of the questions that are always put to me is: “How do you, Rabbi Keller, view Jesus Christ?” My answer is always short: “During twenty centuries we have lived amongst Christians and amongst Moslems. What we suffered by the hands of the Christians was much worse than by the hands of the Moslems.” The only alternative the Christians offered us was to break out of our Judaism. And all we suffered was in the name of Jesus Christ. What happened to Jesus has thrown a shadow over us during all those centuries. We have got an image of the Christian religion that we as a people will not easily forget. This puts the Christians under a great obligation. Now we see how Christians struggle with the question. Nes Ammim puts to them: ”How can I remain loyal to my tradition without being a missionary?” What does interest me is how the younger people among you think about this. I would like to hear that.“ Answer by Kees Smitsman (rose grower): “We have the same values, Jews and Christians, we believe in the same God of Abraham. We don’t understand what happened. One thing is certain: Jesus Christ never taught us all this, he could never have had this intention. We are ashamed when we compare what He had taught with what we have done. We have lost the track. We are linked to the past and then we take guilt upon us. Whether we want it or not, we are linked to the past. We are under obligation to find the way back to one another – on the ground of the Bible which is a Jewish Book. We don’t have the obligation to force our faith upon somebody else. So that’s not our reason for being here…” The discussion with the inhabitants was satisfactory to Rabbi Keller and he promised to help us in future. For many years he taught Judaism once a year – for the newcomers of Nes Ammim.
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