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Three out of four Israeli Jews don't know date of Christmas: poll
21-Dec-99
Agence France Presse
Agence France Presse
Three out of four Israeli Jews don't know date of Christmas: poll
JERUSALEM, Dec 21
Three out of four Israeli Jews cannot identify the date of Christmas according to a poll published Tuesday, as Israel plays host to floods of Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land for millennium celebrations.
The nationwide survey by the Gallup Institute also found that only 27 percent attached "special significance" to December 25, which Christians revere as the day Jesus was born in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago.
Forty-four percent of Israeli Jews also attach no importance to December 31, the eve of the new millennium, according to the poll of 479 people.
"Most Israelis know very, very little about Christians," said Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, president of the Chicago-based International Fellowship of Christians and Jews which commissioned the survey.
But he added: "What they do know, they appreciate and feel an affinity towards."
The poll also found that two out of three Israelis do not have a Christian friend and 62 percent are not personally acquainted with even one Christian.
But it also found that most Israelis welcomed the visit by the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II, to the region in March 2000.
The Holy Land is home to three of Christianity's holiest sites, where Jesus was born, lived and died. The poll found that a majority believe Jesus, were he to return today, would be a Christian preacher rather than a Jewish rabbi.
Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse
December 21, 199
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