LYNN NEARY, HOST:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR news. I'm Lynn Neary. Pope Francis will visit the Middle East later this week, and he'll be stopping in Israel where Christians make up just two percent of the population. But the number of Christians in Israel is slowly rising, and the makeup of that population is changing, too. NPR's Emily Harris reports.
EMILY HARRIS, BYLINE: Kids go to Catholic Sunday school on Saturday in Israel because most Israelis observe the Jewish Sabbath, which falls on Saturday, and Sunday is a workday here.
(SOUNDBITE OF SUNDAY SCHOOL)
HARRIS: After hymn practice last week at the Our Lady of Valor Pastoral Center in Tel Aviv, Father David Neuhaus baptized two children in front of an overflow crowd.
(SOUNDBITE OF BAPTISM)
HARRIS: Most people attending were Filipino who came to Israel as temporary workers. But some, like Marisol Kayanan, have been here two decades. She brings her children to this church because services are in Hebrew, which the kids speak in their public school. School also teaches the Jewish Bible or Torah. Kayanan says that makes church a challenge.
MARISOL KAYANAN: For the children, it's difficult because in school they are learning from Torah and then here is about Jesus and everything.
HARRIS: This permanent Catholic center opened just last month. Dozens of Christian churches rent basements or office space around this south Tel Aviv neighborhood. They serve legal and illegal Asian and African migrants. Father Neuhaus.
DAVID NEUHAUS: It's a whole new mode for the church to be in. This year, we're going to have over 60 children for First Communion. This is extraordinary for the church of the holy land to be going out on a mission into the heart of Jewish society, Tel Aviv.
HARRIS: Not a mission to convert Jews, Neuhaus he emphasizes, though he was born Jewish. He hopes these Christians from Asia and Africa living in Israel can build relationships with Jews that are not a reminder of the Crusades or the Nazis or other Jewish suffering at the hands of Europeans.
NEUHAUS: What we are looking for and looking toward is a conversion of hearts where Christianity will not be associated with the cause of Jewish suffering.
HARRIS: Although migrants add to the number of Christians in Israel, they are a tiny minority. Pollster Tamar Hermann of the Israel Democracy Institute doubts churches like the new Catholic Center in south Tel Aviv will impact Israeli society.
TAMAR HERMANN: It wasn't opened because of local people expressing some need. It is for people who, in the foreseeable future, they would not get citizenship, they would not take part in the political discourse.
HARRIS: But most Israeli Christians are citizens, though from different cultures and ethnic backgrounds. Some emigrated with Jewish family members from the former Soviet Union. Russian Orthodox services are held in ornate 19th-century churches around Jerusalem. Roman Gultaev attends regularly. Most non-Jewish Russians have culturally assimilated in Israel. But as a practicing Christian, Gultaev feels he doesn't quite fit in.
ROMAN GULTAEV: (Through translator) Of course I feel like an Israeli citizen. I served in the army. I went to school here. I lived here 25 years, more than half my life. I am a citizen, but in society, there isn't a place for people like me.
HARRIS: The vast majority of Christians here are Israeli Arabs. At three-quarters of the Christian population, they have well-established institutions that don't mix much with migrants or Russian Christians.
PETER HABASH: We have no connection with them. Our church has only Arabs.
HARRIS: Peter Habash, former head of the Arab Orthodox community in Jaffa near Tel Aviv, says this separation is partly due to language and partly culture and politics.
HABASH: You are a Christian, and I'm a Christian. So what? You are not from my people. I am from Palestinian people. So a lot of Christians that are all over the world. Some are the allies of Jews. Some are the allies of the Palestinians. It depends on their own opinions.
HARRIS: The Pope arrives in the Middle East on Saturday. He'll meet with Christians, Muslims, and Jews and visit holy sites in Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian territories. Emily Harris, NPR News, Jerusalem.
Copyright © 2014 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.