Chirstianity Tiyul in Ein Kerem

by Sammi Reyes,   11^th grade,    New York

Christianity is currently the leading religion on the Earth yet not the oldest religion to exist.  Surprisingly, Christianity started as a sect of Judaism and it was told to new followers back then that this would be an easier Judaism.  On October 2nd, we went to Ein Kerem, a holy Christian neighborhood right next to Jerusalem, to learn all about the origins of Christianity.

Mary's Spring in Jerusalem's Ein Kerem neighborhood

As we learned about Paul, his vision, and how he spread Christianity to make it what it is today, my question that has been for years, was clearly being answered.  As a biased Jew, I had always wondered why Judaism is not the leading religion in the world if it is the first monotheistic religion, so to speak.  Although Jesus was a practicing Jew as his real name was Rabbi Yehoshua and Paul, for the longest time had been against the early Christians. One day, Paul had a vision of Jesus on the crucifix and ultimately agreed with the other Christians and began to convert to create a following. 

Church of the Visitation in Jerusalem's Ein Kerem neighborhood

Despite all this, Ein Kerem does have significance.  Ein Kerem is claimed to be the place, while trekking back to Bethlehem and pregnant with Jesus, Mary stopped and met up with her sister where she was told that she was carrying son of God.  We visited the church in which was created on the site of the meet up and we were able to see the prayer of fertility in about 50+ languages as well as a sculpture of the two sisters meeting.

  

When Paul committed to spreading the new sect, the sect of Jesus, he displayed Judaism as difficult and told people that would Christianity would be easier.  He did this because he saw it was hard to convert Jews because they believed that he was claiming Jesus as the Messiah and the Jews did not believe him.  They were skeptical because they knew that claiming a false Messiah has lead to bad things in the past.  He described that the people would make a new covenant with God and that they would worship Jesus.  He tells the people that Judaism is withering away and that Christianity would be the center and new religion. 

Entance to St. John Ba Harim Church in Ein Kerem

The Christians, later in history, would use the crucifixion of Jesus as an anti-Semitic note and blame the Jews for his death.  During that time in the Middle Ages, there were tensions between the Jews and Christians but since then, they have “leveled out”, per say, and we can tolerate each other ideals and values.