BRIDGING THE DIVIDE

by Eliezer Braun 

 

An Israeli Jew ventures into the Christian Evangelical World

 

One of the most challenging parts of writing a book is answering the question of where to begin. The only answer that continually comes to mind is…”by randomly selecting one of a thousand thoughts.”

 

We are created with an almost endless range of human emotions. I believe that it is the way we relate to our inner voice and the manner in which we express ourselves to others, and to God, that ultimately defines the path that we take in life.

My goal in writing this book is to expand the bridge of understanding between Jew and Gentile. If that is accomplished in any measure, then the time invested in writing the following pages will have been well worth it.

 

 

THE DREAM

 

I am going to describe a dream that I have had a number of times. The first time I dreamt this, I sat up in bed and said to myself “what was that?” Now that I have had the same dream several times, I realize that it ties in with everything I have written in the following pages.

 

The dream goes like this:

The Israeli army and police receive orders from the Israeli government to evacuate all Jews, including my family, from our homes in Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem. There are massive protests around Israel for and against uprooting settlements. Prime Minister Netanyahu and other pro settlement political leaders appear on Israeli television with tears in their eyes. They say they have been forced by international pressure to compromise the settlements. They say that all settlers will be compensated according to the size of their homes and the number of years they have lived in Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem.

The next thing I see in the dream is my family and neighbors standing in front of our homes. We are crying and holding signs begging not to be evacuated. Our possessions are in front of our homes waiting to be picked up and moved to a temporary location until permanent homes are built for us inside the pre-1967 border.

 

We see the army and police trucks coming to evacuate us. Our tears get bigger and our cries louder. As they reach our street, they announce on a megaphone, that they too are crying for us, but that they must carry out the evacuation orders of the government. They appeal to us not to resist. The moving trucks pull up in front of our homes and begin loading our possessions.

All of a sudden, a great commotion is heard that no one can identify. It sounds like a huge freight train is approaching. Everyone is looking toward the hilltops. The noise is getting louder and louder and coming from every direction.

 

Suddenly, thousands, tens of thousands, a million, ten million or more Christian Zionists holding Israeli flags appear on the mountain tops. No one knew they were there. The Israeli intelligence services – the best in the world – hadn’t a clue that they were there. It was as if they emerged from within the mountains – an utterly unexplainable miracle. They are quickly descending toward all the Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem. They are so many in numbers that they spread out over the mountains, encircle the Jewish communities and fill up the streets of our neighborhoods. All of them carry signs saying, “We stand with and protect the homes of our Jewish brothers and sisters with our bodies if necessary.”

 

Now our friends are standing on all the bulldozers, brought in to destroy our homes once we leave. Television reporters and crews from all over the world appear to cover this breaking international drama. The army and police are frozen. They do not know what to do because their path is blocked by millions – tens of millions of Christian Zionists - keeping them from evacuating the Jewish settlers and destroying their homes.

 

Prime Minister Netanyahu appears on television and asks to speak to the nation of Israel. He says that as Prime Minister, he was unable to resist the pressure of the international community; however because of millions and millions of Christian Zionists, he is unable to carry out the evacuations and therefore revokes the orders. Every family can safely return to their home. We will never again be bothered. He asks our Christian friends to assist us in moving our belongings back in to our homes.

Prime Minister Netanyahu says that he never realized how powerful a friend we have in Bible believing Christians and that he will never again give in to international pressure to compromise the Land of Israel.

 

For those that did not read my first book, I will start with a short auto biography of myself.

I am a Jew, born and raised in the United States of America.

I grew up in Chicago, Illinois, USA and visited Israel for the first time in 1968 at the age of 14. Even then, it was clear to me that one day I would make Israel my home. In 1983, I moved to Israel with my wife, Ellen, and three young children ages 5, 2 and 8 months. Our fourth child was born on the Jewish High Holy Day of Rosh Hashanah on September 19, 1990 in Jerusalem.

We returned to the USA for a period of four years from 1994-1998 when I served in the capacity of an Aliyah (Immigration) Representative for the Jewish Agency and Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles, California. It was during my tenure in that position that I was invited as part of the Israeli Consulate’s speaker’s bureau in Los Angeles, to speak in several Churches in the greater Los Angeles and San Diego metropolitan areas.  I did not know at the time that this would be the journey I was about to embark on and dedicate myself to for the rest of my life. It is amazing how our lives can turn in directions that we never anticipated.

 

Upon returning to our home in Karnei Shomron, Israel, in the summer of 1998, the Governor of 40 communities in Biblical Samaria called and asked to speak with me. It was a great honor to receive a call from such a distinguished Israeli politician.

I did not have a clue why the Governor asked for an appointment with me. Upon entering his office he told me that he was aware of the fact that I had spoken to Christian friends of Israel on the West Coast of the USA. My immediate thought was that I was going to get a lecture about how inappropriate it was for a Jew to enter a Church. As a son of Holocaust survivors, the Governor was acutely aware of the role that Christianity played during centuries of anti-Semitism that culminated in the Holocaust.

 

What a surprise!

 

It is an understatement to say that I was totally surprised when the Governor asked me to build relationships and ask for financial support from Christian friends of Israel. He requested that I be his personal representative to what he called the Bible believing world-wide Christian community. And so began, in November of 1998, the greatest and most challenging professional adventure of my life. I set out to become an Israeli Jewish link to the Bible believing Christian world.

At the time, I did not grasp the meaning of the term “Bible believing Christian.”

 

Now the term is crystal clear. One cannot separate the Bible from Israel and the Jewish people.  With more than one thousand Biblical references to Israel and the Jewish people, a Bible believing Christian is someone who unequivocally stands in support of the Nation of Israel and the Jewish people.

 

When I speak, I express this even more succinctly. If one reads the Bible and believes in a covenant keeping God, then they must see the fulfillment of the return of the descendants of Abraham to Israel, as the greatest proof of a living and covenant keeping Almighty. If God does not keep His promise that He made thousands of years ago with Abraham, then the Bible is a lie. When this revelation comes in your life, then Israel becomes a nation like no other. The Jewish people become a people that you cherish, and desire to protect, like no other people on the face of the earth.

 

When you understand how God is glorifying Himself through Israel, then you become what I call an “Israel addict.” Visiting Israel over and over again becomes a necessity in your life. It is as if visiting Israel oxygenates your connection to God and the Bible. It invigorates your faith and deepens the purpose of your existence on earth.

 

The words of Zachariah 8:23 come alive, and you seek out relationships with Jews, because those relationships bring you closer to God’s Biblical blueprint for planet earth.

"In those days, ten men from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, 'Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.’”

 

 

 

The Beginning

 

Once you have the “Israel” bug, you don’t come to Israel for a vacation. You come to Israel because you feel at home. You know that you are in God’s dwelling place and cannot get enough of the spiritual high that you experience in Israel.

As a result of the Governor’s request, I began reaching out to non-Jewish supporters of the Shomron (Samaria) in 1998, for the purpose of fostering meaningful relationships with diverse groups of Christians around the world. I travel and speak frequently to what I believe are Israel’s best friends. I make yearly visits to Christian communities in North America, Europe, Scandinavia, the Caribbean, the Far East, and Africa, promoting the work and mission of Shuva Israel and the Shomron Liaison Office. I gather prayer and financial support for Shomron-related projects through Shuva Israel.

(www.blessingisrael.com & www.goshomron.com)

 

As a result of the efforts in supporting the Shomron initiatives since 1998 and speaking to Christian groups worldwide, I have seen something that very few Jews have experienced. I have felt first-hand the outpouring of unconditional support from the Israel loving Christian community.  I have experienced the poetic words of King David written thousands of years ago…

“A Song of Ascents of David. Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!”  King David – Psalm 133:1

 

I hold a B.A. in Psychology, an M.A. in Educational Administration from the University of Illinois, and an M.A. in Judaic Studies from Spertus College of Judaic in Chicago, USA. I am sure that my University education, completed many years ago, is a factor in the open mindedness with which I approached building bridges of understanding with the Evangelical world. There are times when I feel out of my natural element. At those times, I look for a telling smile or the nod of a head in the audience, to reassure me that I am among friends – and it is always there. There are still times I feel a degree of foreignness albeit a small one.

I look at this positively and not as a negative. God made a separate covenant with the descendants of Abraham. It was intended that we remain different and separate from the rest of the nations. We cannot fulfill our God given destiny if we assimilate into the surrounding cultures/nations.

The Bible mandated the Jewish people to be a “light unto the nations.” The Jewish people brought monotheism (the belief in one Supreme Being) to an idolatrous world.

Ephesians 2:12

“That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.”

The Bible mandated the Gentile world to bless Israel.

Isaiah 62:6

“On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; all day and all night, they shall never be silent; those who remind the Lord be not silent.”

Isaiah 62:10-11

“And FOREIGNERS shall build your walls and their kings shall serve you. And they shall open your gates always; day and night they shall not be closed, to bring to you the wealth of the nations and their kings in procession.”

Isaiah 61:5

“And strangers shall stand and pasture your sheep, and foreigners shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.”

I use the example of a family to understand the need for us to retain our separate identity, while at the same time standing shoulder to shoulder in unity with Bible believing Christians for the sake of Israel.

My wife and I have four children. Each one is unique. The children in every family are characteristically different. Children, and siblings, certainly differ one from the other. Each has varying interests, abilities and unique destinies; yet at the same time, they are born of the same parents and share a common protective roof. I view the unique role of Jews and Christians similarly. We have the same Father in Heaven, while at the same time having specific God given roles to fulfill during our time on earth.

How wonderful are our friends that understand their mandate to bless Israel and the Jewish people. We stand together in unity with the understanding that we each have a God given role to play in the nurturing of the nation of Israel.

I am occasionally asked by my Jewish neighbors how I relate to Evangelical Christians in light of the theological differences that separate us. I like to answer that with the following analogy: My parents and I have differing opinions on abortion, homosexuality and just about every political issue. However, they are my parents, and despite our differences of opinion, I love them unconditionally. This is how I view my relationship with pro-Israel Christians. Yes, we have differences; however, I will not let that stand in the way of my love for those who love Israel and the God of Abraham.

I have made incredible personal friendships with Israel loving Christians over the years. I have the benefit of knowing there are millions of Bible believing Christians that love, pray and support the State of Israel unconditionally. This gives me a feeling of comfort. I do not feel the nation of Israel is alone. There are voices and bold people in the world that will stand with Israel regardless of the cost. They are not deceived by the liberal press, or the false words of others regarding Israel. It only makes the true lovers of Zion that much more determined to stand by our side.

The negativity that Israel encounters from the nations of the world is prophesied in numerous passages in the Bible.

Ezekiel 36: 2-3

“So said the Lord God: Since the enemy said about you, ‘Aha!’ the high places of the world have become our inheritance. Therefore, prophesy and say; so said the Lord God: Yea because those around you were appalled and longed for you to be an inheritance for the remnant of the nations, and you were brought up on the lips of every language and the gossip of every people.”

What Biblical Scripture better describes the treatment of tiny Israel today by her neighboring enemies, European Parliaments and the liberal media?

Unlike my fellow Israelis, I have been fortunate since 1998 to experience an outpouring of Christian love for Israel. It is a great sense of comfort in dealing with the daily pressures of living in the “pressure cooker” we call the State of Israel.

 

Isaiah 40:1

“Comfort, O comfort My people, says your God”

 

 

 

     Norway

 

The first two years of Ministry were very difficult. Progress was made by the slowest of increments. Anyone that knows me well is familiar with the fact that I am not blessed with an abundance of patience. I didn’t start feeling a significant breakthrough until my first trip to Norway in the later part of 2000.

The first of two significant developments in the fourth quarter of 2000 completely changed the difficult beginning of Shuva Israel.

Norway encouraged me to plod forward and opened many doors in Europe.

The second major development, which I will discuss soon, was Resurrection Fellowship, a Church of 3,500 in Loveland, Colorado.

Just about everyone knows the expression, “God closes one door only to open another.”

In the latter part of 2000, I reached a low point; I was considering giving up Ministry. We have an expression in Hebrew which translates into “all beginnings are difficult”, but in this case, it felt like “this beginning is completely impossible.”

Toward the end of 2000, I was asked by one of the few contacts I had made in the USA, to take an international group of twenty Christians on a one-day tour of Samaria. I couldn’t imagine why I should consent; it seemed like a waste of time. My energy level was non-existent and I wanted to look for a “normal job.”  I reluctantly agreed to lead the group on a tour.

During dinner, I explained to the group that Shuva Israel was having a rough time moving forward. I asked for leads that anyone was able and willing to share.

A Finnish lady, speaking through a translator, wrote down the name and phone number of the leader of a pro-Israel organization in Norway. She suggested that I call her.

The next day I went to my office. I sat for a long time with nothing to do and no one to call. It felt like two years of effort with no results! I slipped my hand in my pocket and took out the piece of paper with the name and phone number. I ripped it in four or five pieces rolled it in to a ball and aimed at the trash basket in the corner of the room.

After another ten minutes of daydreaming, I went over to the wastebasket, pulled the pieces out and taped them together. Fairly certain that it was my last telephone call on behalf of Shuva Israel; I made the call to Norway - one last chance.

Much to my surprise, a Norwegian lady answered on the other end. I gathered the strength to describe how the governor asked me to be his personal envoy to the World Wide Bible Believing Christian community. I didn’t mention that the first two years of Ministry were phone calls that led to other phone calls that led to other phone calls. I built up a large notebook of phone numbers which was good for a chain letter but not for generating speaking engagements for the Ministry. She was very excited and informed me that she would be in Israel the following week. She said she would like to visit the settlements and learn about our projects, as well as meet new immigrants that Shuva Israel was beginning to fund.

Ten days later, I picked up my Norwegian guest in Haifa and brought her out to Samaria. She was visibly moved by our vision and invited me to go on a speaking tour with her in Norway later that month.

A few weeks later, I found myself in Oslo. This was the first stop on what would become three weeks of speaking engagements that took us from Oslo in the East, to Bergen in the West, and up to Trondheim in the North. I had speaking engagements every night. They were larger than the gatherings in the US up to that point, with groups between 40 to 100 people!

What was I doing in Norway? Norway was primarily known in Israel for the failed Oslo Peace Accords that resulted in greater violence and loss of life in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

After several trips to Norway, I began to sense the answer to “why Norway?” Many Christians I spoke to in Norway felt that Norway was defying God’s Biblical injunction to bless Israel. Therefore, they assumed the responsibility of balancing the Norwegian government’s anti-Israel policies by supporting many Israel organizations.

 

Isaiah chapter 60

“For the nations and kingdom that will not serve thee, Israel, shall perish; yes those nations shall be utterly destroyed.”

I encountered a unique phenomenon in Norway that I have not experienced in any other country. I frequently meet Norwegians that give to many Israel organizations. These supporters simply add Shuva Israel to the list of Israel ministries that they bless.

The reception I continue to receive every year in Norway is always beyond my expectations.

 

 

 

An embarrassing experience

 

I’ll never forget one of the homes I stayed in. We arrived at this house during a snowstorm. I entered the home and took off my shoes (that is a must in Norwegian homes). We went to get comfortable in the living room. As I sat down on a wooden chair, my weight proved too much and I ended up on the floor with the chair broken in numerous pieces. I thought I was going to die of embarrassment. My hosts did get a good laugh but were gracious beyond imagination. They brought me a metal chair to make sure there was no repeat performance.

 

 

 

          How many people fit in to a small Prayer House in Norway?

 

One of the places I spoke was in a small church in the southern part of Norway. The church was in a very old wooden house with maximum seating capacity of about forty people. The reception began at 7:30pm. No one showed by 7:20, so I asked the organizers if we should cancel the evening since it was obvious that no one was coming.

“Eliezer,” he said, “it will be a full house. Just wait and see.”

Eighty people stuffed themselves in to this little Church. They came between 7:25-7:35. Not a single person was in attendance at 7:20 yet we began the reception with the house bursting at its seams at 7:35!

I learned a little bit about Norwegian culture that night. Norwegians are very punctual. They rarely show up more than ten minutes early and almost never come more than five or ten minutes late.

 

 

 

      Mexico

 

As punctual as Norwegians are, the exact opposite is true of Mexico.

I received an invitation to come to Mexico for three weeks of speaking engagements in the summer of 2010. The organizers gave me a list of locations and times for each meeting. I was picked up every day and driven to the Churches.

The meeting for the first evening was called for 6pm and was a two hour drive from Mexico City. The driver said he would pick me up at six. I did some basic math and asked how we would make a 6:00pm meeting that is a two hour drive if we leave at 6pm?

“Eliezer, you worry too much. It’ll be fine.”

When I arrived at 8:00pm, the members of the Church were sitting around tables arranged in a large square. They brought food and grills to prepare dinner for the entire Church. Three generations of families were involved in preparing the food. It is one of the most beautiful traditions that I have experienced. The importance of family and community was a wonderful thing to observe and be a part of during those three weeks in Mexico. I felt at home as the Jewish family and community structure is very similar.

When I arrived, people packed up their food and utensils and the meeting started. That is what we call in English “flex time.”

 

 

 

   Humbled in to learning an important lesson

 

Reflecting on my first trip to Norway, the experience of almost throwing away the name and phone number of my first contact in Norway, taught me a number of valuable lessons. It gave new meaning to the following pearl of wisdom:

“Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.”

I was humbled. Had I left the telephone number in the wastebasket, I would have never gone to Norway. I may have given up on ministry! To date, Norway gives about thirty percent of Shuva Israel’s worldwide income every year!

Once the door was jarred opened in Norway, Denmark, Finland, The Faroe Islands and the Netherlands were soon to follow.

Norway taught me to exert the effort and try my best to pursue each contact. My first impressions are often wrong. Contacts I arrogantly judged to be of little significance become valuable. Numerous connections that excited me ended up leading nowhere and fizzling out. I am learning to be much less judgmental.

 

 

 

                        Resurrection Fellowship, Loveland, Colorado

 

Together with Norway, another development helped me plant my feet firmly in Ministry. A large Church in Loveland, Colorado recharged my batteries, propelling my energy level to a new high.

A friend of mine took me to meet the pastor of her church. Knowing how much I needed the support of a large church, my friend said, “Eliezer, my pastor has never offered an entire Sunday service to another ministry in the last 20 years. Don’t press him. At best, he’ll ask you to come and make your presentation to the congregation during the week. Don’t expect anything more and let him do the talking.”

Pastor John got right to the point. “Eliezer, what can I do? How can I help?”

I looked at my friend. She shrugged her shoulders as if to tell me that contrary to her advice I was free to say whatever I wanted.

“Pastor, I would love the opportunity to share ‘Shuva Israel’ with your congregation on a Sunday morning.”

“Eliezer, I would be honored to have you. Let’s set a date. By the way, I am going to do something that I have never done before in the 20+ years I have led this church. I am going to take up a second offering from the entire congregation for Shuva Israel.”

As we left his office, my friend turned to me in shock and said, “Eliezer what just happened in there?!”

“I think we call it ‘a God thing,’” I said. “The pastor was clearly moved by God to take an extraordinary step to help Shuva Israel.”

We set a date for me to come and speak at the two Sunday morning services in his church five months later.

The pastor didn’t ask me for letters of recommendation or references. He didn’t say my appearing before the church had to wait for an on-site inspection. He expressed no need to verify that I was who I claimed to be. His spirit was so moved that he simply said yes.

Years later when I asked him about our first meeting, he said, “Eliezer, it was simple. I heard from the Holy Spirit and God moved on my heart.”

In March, 2001, I appeared at the two Sunday morning services in his church. I spoke in front of about 3,500 people. I was a little nervous. I had never spoken to such a large crowd before. I actually dropped out of a public speaking course during my senior year in high school because I was afraid to make a five-minute presentation in front of my class of ten people. In that church, I spoke in front of some 1,700 people at each service! This was my first experience speaking to such a large audience excited about Israel.

Everything I said was greeted with loud cheers and applause. I reveled in the atmosphere of their unconditional love and acceptance. I remember thinking to myself as I spoke, “At times it feels like Israel doesn’t have this many friends in the whole world and here I happen to find them all in this one room!”

I am invited to this church once a year. The offering collected during my yearly visit, along with the ongoing monthly support we receive from hundreds of the church members, constitutes a nice share of Shuva Israel’s annual support in North America. I am still looking for a way to clone Pastor John and this special Church in Colorado.

 

 

 

 

My dear friend Pastor John Stocker-Colorado, USA

 

I remember parts of the pastor’s speeches during my visits to the church over the years. I often quote him during my speaking engagements. An Israeli Jew quoting an Evangelical preacher! This symbolizes the unfolding of a most unique dynamic.

With Pastor Stocker’s permission, I am including part of one of his speeches in the following pages. I hope this will serve as an inspiration to those reading this book and help them understand how vital Israel should be to every Bible-believing Christian.

 

 

 

 

 

“Why Christians must support Israel”                               March 11, 2001.

Pastor John Stocker-Senior Pastor of Resurrection Fellowship, Loveland, Colorado.

 

“Every born again Christian ought to be as passionate about their love for Israel and about helping the Israeli people as what this pastor is.

Let me tell you a couple of the reasons why I feel the way I feel and believe that you should join me in my pursuit of blessing Israel.

Folks, I want to ask you a question. If someone walked up to you today and said to you, ‘prove to me that Christianity is valid and prove to me that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the only true God, and that Allah is not the true God’, what would you say to them? You’d have a hard time proving anything. Hello?! Think about it for a minute. How can you prove anything? How can you even prove that God exists? It’s quiet in here right now! Let me tell you something. You need something to say to those people.  When somebody comes to you and says, ‘can you prove that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob exists?’ You ought to have something to say to those people.

The one thing, and just about the only thing that I know that I can say is simply this: I can take you to the Scriptures, not the Koran and not the book of Mormon. I can take you to the Holy Scriptures and I can show you that thousands and thousands of years ago, God made a covenant with a man named Abraham. God said to that man some very specific things and made promises to him. One of those promises was that He was going to give him a land, and that that land was going to be passed down from generation to generation. And then God spoke to his son Isaac and his son Jacob and reconfirmed the promise of that land. And then God also said something else. He said that ‘if my people do not serve me…my chosen people do not serve me…I will drive them…I will punish them…I will drive them out of that land.’ Then God said something else. He said, ‘I will never ever cut them off, never reject them, and at some point in the future, I’m going to bring them back to the land that I promised Abraham that I would give to him. I will bring those people back and I will establish them in their land’, and as Eliezer has already pointed out, in the last verse of the book of Amos, ‘They will never again be plucked up out of that land.’  Now church, please hear my heart when I say to you, that the validity of your Christian faith depends on whether or not God is a God of His word. Either the Bible is true or it is a myth, and if any part of it is a myth then all of it is a myth.

 

And if what God said to Abraham is not real and is not going to be fulfilled? I just tell you right now…we’ll just close the doors (of the church), lock ‘em up, close shop and say that we have been believing a lie. I made a statement a number of years ago. I shocked people when I said it.

Afterward I asked myself, ‘John, have you spoken too quickly?’ I thought about it a lot and I’ll say it again today. If the State of Israel ever ceases to exist and those people are driven out of that land, I will become a Muslim. NOW YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY I AM SO PASSIONATE ABOUT THIS CAUSE? Some of you are thinking…’Well I don’t think that’s right that you would say that, Pastor; your faith should be stronger than that.’

Well, my faith is in the word of God and if the word of God isn’t true then I have nothing to put my faith in. And so, for me, this has become a cause. I am a zealot. I realize that at stake is the very believability of the word of God. God tells us this is the way it’s going to be.

Where do the Replacement Theology people come along? I need to talk about Replacement Theology. Some of you don’t know what that is. It’s basically a belief system, a teaching that says that the Church has replaced Israel, that the promises God made to Abraham have been fulfilled in Christ and that when Israel rejected God and served idols, then God rejected them. It states that God has picked a new people and that they are the Church. Israel as a nation has been cut off from God and God no longer deals with them as a nation. Folks, that would be believable except for one fact. That fact is the modern nation of Israel. Yet in spite of the fact that they have not accepted Jesus, God is obviously still bringing them back out of the nations to their homeland, establishing them in their homeland, and causing all the things God said would happen to these people to happen. And so your Replacement Theology goes out the window.

You can say whatever you want to, but the facts are this is what is happening and God has not forsaken Israel. God has not forsaken the Jewish people. So you look at all of that and begin to realize why this is one of the most important things to the heart of God. And if you want to know why it’s so important to my heart, well it’s because it’s important to the heart of God. Boy, I hope you get a hold of that. I hope you understand that Israel is a passion in the heart of God. It is more important to Him than just about anything else in the world.

I will educate people that they have the wrong attitude; the kind of attitude that allowed six million Jews to die because Christian people said, ‘It’s not my thing.’ I said I would educate from the pulpit. I will also educate by taking people to Israel. Once they are there, they are never the same. I’ve had entrenched anti-Semites go with me to Israel and, while there, repent with tears. So we keep going to Israel.

And last but not least, I’ll give whatever I can to see to it that that land is established as a Jewish homeland for the Jewish people.

So that’s where I’m at. You want to know why I do something for this man (Eliezer Braun/Shuva Israel) that we don’t even do for our own missionaries, which is give a whole Sunday morning service? Because this, to me, is even more important. So, will you do what God tells you to do? Will you allow yourself to stand side by side with the Jews in the re-establishment of their Homeland and in the bringing to fulfillment the Scriptures that God gave thousands of years ago…that prove, Halleluya, that the Bible is true and the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the one true God….and proves that God is still alive and well on Earth today…and He is going to do what He said He is going to do! What a day we are living in, folks! What a day we are living in. I thank God that I am alive to see it. I’m telling you, I began to weep when I was watching the video (Shuva Israel Video) because I’ve been there and I’ve seen it.  I walked through the land of Israel and I’ve seen the fulfillment of Bible prophecy before my eyes. It’s the most incredible experience to see it first hand for yourself, and if you know your Bible, be able to say it’s happening exactly as He said it would.”

 

 

 

There are tens of millions of Bible-believing Christians in North America. If all of them carried this message in their heart, the State of Israel would have the political and financial support necessary to withstand the pressures of the entire international community.

Every year, I return to this wonderful church. Every year I receive the emotional and material support that recharges my aging batteries. I continue searching for more churches like this one. I constantly try to find rare gems and precious stones such as this pastor and his church.

During my first visit there in 2001, the pastor turned to his church and said…

“If there is someone in this church that wants to write out a million dollar check to Shuva Israel, know that this pastor would be honored to personally co-sign the check. We are building a new school building. Yes, it will take millions of dollars for us to complete the building. But never think that by giving to Israel, you are taking away from the church. This church has been blessed over and over during the past twenty years. Why do you think that is? - Because we bless Israel. I know I’m not supposed to say this, but I know that after blessing Shuva Israel today, this church will be blessed many times over. I’m just going to sit back and continue to watch it happen.”

People say to me, “It’s easy for you because you have millionaires in your congregation.”

“Well, why do you think we have wealthy people in this congregation?” I reply, “Because we bless Israel.”

By my next visit to the Church in July, 2002, they had all the funds in the bank to build the school. No mortgage or loan. All of it was in the bank…in cash. Why? - Because they unselfishly bless Israel. What better demonstration of the verses of Genesis 12:

1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

I get chills down my spine thinking about hundreds of millions of Bible-believing Christians, one day lining up in unconditional support for the State of Israel. I want to reach as many as I can before my days on earth come to an end.

                                           

 

Growing up in the USA

 

I grew up in Skokie which is a suburb of Chicago, Illinois, USA. Skokie was known nationwide for two main reasons. One, it was a village with large numbers of Holocaust survivors and two, it was one of the first school districts that was mandated by the United States government to forcefully integrate its public schools in the early 1960’s. I remember as if it took place yesterday, watching as the first bus of black school children were dropped off in front of my elementary school. So began the process of ending more than a century of discrimination against black Americans in every aspect of American life.

One of the perplexing thoughts I had during this process of school integration, was the generally negative attitude that our Caucasian and Jewish neighbors expressed regarding racial integration. They feared that blacks attending our schools would gradually lead to their purchasing homes, and changing the character of our neighborhood.

Even as a young boy, I couldn’t understand how a town filled with so many Holocaust survivors, that suffered the most despicable crimes at the hands of Germany, could have any notion of prejudice for another group based on the color of their skin.

As I grew up and learned more about Jewish history and the Holocaust, I began to understand the insecurities and painful memories of Holocaust survivors. I believe that their attitudes were defined not by prejudice, but by the fear of any change in the status quo. Change in status quo included changing the demographic make-up of the neighborhood they chose to make their home in the USA.

Distrust and fear of change is etched in the collective memories of Jews….particularly because the “final solution” for the destruction of European Jewry was hatched in Germany. Prior to the introduction of the Nuremberg Laws in the 1930’s, Germany was considered the most well educated, industrially advanced, cultural capital of Europe. Jews were welcome in all areas of academia and government. If there was any European country that one expected not to turn on the Jews, it probably would have been culturally and intellectually diverse Germany. Yet, in the span of no more than several years, Germany turned on its Jewish population - many of who openly expressed their pride at being part of, what they considered the superior Germanic culture. Many German Jews, including my Grandparents, considered themselves fully integrated into German society. They felt only marginally, if at all, Jewish. To the majority of German Jews, the political success of Hitler, and rise of fascism, was born out of the humiliation Germany suffered in World War I, and was merely a passing phase. The majority of German and European Jewry failed to comprehend the gravity of the situation.

 

 

 

My first encounters with anit-Semitism

 

Let me share with you my two earliest experiences with Christianity.

My first encounter with anti-Semitism was at the age of eight. I was playing a game of “civil war” with my best friend from grammar school. Each of us had a couple hundred plastic soldiers. I was playing the South/Confederacy and he the North/Union. We threw dice. If I threw a six and he threw a five, I knocked down six of his soldiers. The game went on a few hours until I finally knocked down all of his soldiers. As I stood up to proclaim the South’s victory, he turned to me and said, “You killed my soldiers just like you Jews killed our savior Jesus.” He ran upstairs and started crying and yelling to his mother that I killed Jesus. His mother tried to calm him down, but he was inconsolable for at least fifteen minutes. Afterwards, I asked his mother to identify this man called Jesus. I remember her responding, “Larry, (my English name) I’ll try to calm Ron down so that he’ll go downstairs and play with you again, but Catholics believe that Jews killed Jesus, and that’s why Jews have suffered greatly and faced rejection throughout the generations.”

She never answered my question about who Jesus was. I wonder if she even knew that Jesus was a Jew, a Rabbi. I later discovered, she was certainly not aware of the following New Testament Scripture.

Luke 18:32 “He (the son of Man) will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock Him, insult Him, spit on Him, flog Him, and kill Him.”

I left my friend’s house in a very confused state of mind. How could I be a murderer?  How could we be held responsible for the death of this Jesus, who, to the best of my recollection, I had never met? I remember telling myself that it must have happened at least a few years before, perhaps when I was too small to remember.

This was my first childhood encounter with Christianity.

My second experience was soon after the first. I attended public school throughout childhood. My elementary school was across the street from a Catholic Parochial School.

One day walking home, three boys wearing the mandatory dress code of the Catholic school crossed the street, knocked my books out of my hands and called me a “dirty Christ killing Kike.” I was not sure how they knew I was Jewish. Perhaps it was a fair assumption since more than half of the students at my elementary school were Jewish.

There is great truth to the words that if we look hard enough we can find a “silver lining” in almost every situation.

As negative as these two early experiences were, they served as a wake-up call. They forced me to deal with the undeniable fact that I was born a Jew. They created an inner curiosity to define the relevance of my Jewish identity and helped mold the person I am today.  Once my curiosity about Jewish history, anti-Semitism and our neighborhood holocaust survivors was peeked, the inevitable door connecting and leading me to Israel began to open up.

 

 

 

In Pope Benedict’s book regarding the final hours of Jesus’ life, it says…

“The death of the Lord was not about punishment but salvation. That blood does not cry out for vengeance and punishment; it brings reconciliation. It is not poured out against anyone; it’s poured out for many…for all.”

I hope that the words of Pope Benedict and the relationship that his predecessor, Pope John Paul, had with the Jewish Community will serve to change almost two thousand years of ingrained Catholic anti-Semitic behavior toward the Jew. I hope that the collective body of Christianity will listen and internalize Pope Benedict’s words. His message is clear. Christianity has acted in direct contradiction to the very purpose of Jesus’ death. Instead of representing redemption and salvation, the Church has used Jesus’ death as a springboard to inflict countless persecution and misery.

One side of the scale sees much of Christianity infected with replacement theology, which manifests itself via completely unbalanced world opinion against Israel. On the other side, there is an increasing number of Christians, particularly in North America and Africa that realize the real place of Christianity is standing together with Israel and the Jewish People.

The Reformation created an alternative for Christians to leave the Catholic Church. Unfortunately it did not change European Christian attitudes and behavior toward the Jew.

Jews carry horrible memories of forced expulsion, burnings at the stake, pogroms and forced conversion carried out in the name of deicide (the killing or presumptive killing or killer of a god.)

 

 

 

Martin Luther: “On the Jews and Their Lies” written in 1543

 

Martin Luther describes Jews as a "base, whoring people, that is, no people of God, and their boast of lineage, circumcision, and law must be accounted as filth." Luther wrote that they are "full of the devil's feces ... which they wallow in like swine," and the synagogue is an "incorrigible whore and an evil slut.”

Luther encouraged Christians to carry out seven actions against the Jewish people.

1. for Jewish synagogues and schools to be burned to the ground, and the remnants buried out of sight;

2.  for houses owned by Jews to be likewise razed, and the owners made to live in agricultural outbuildings;

3. for their religious writings to be taken away;

4. for rabbis to be forbidden to preach, and to be executed if they do;

5. for safe conduct on the roads to be abolished for Jews;

6. for usury to be prohibited, and for all silver and gold to be removed and "put aside for safekeeping"; and

7. for the Jewish population to be put to work as agricultural slave labor.

There is no question that Martin Luther’s tirade against Jews was a major factor influencing animosity of Christianity toward Jews from the time of the reformation until the Holocaust. It took until the 1980’s for some Lutheran authorities to formally distance themselves from Martin Luther’s words.

In November 1998, on the 60th anniversary of Kristallnacht, (*) the Lutheran Church of Bavaria issued the following statement: "It is imperative for the Lutheran Church, which knows itself to be indebted to the work and tradition of Martin Luther, to take seriously also his anti-Jewish utterances, to acknowledge their theological function, and to reflect on their consequences. It has to distance itself from every expression of anti-Judaism in Lutheran theology."

(*)Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, was a pogrom, or series of coordinated attacks, against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938, carried out by SA paramilitary and civilians. German authorities looked on without intervening. The attacks left the streets covered with broken glass from the windows of Jewish-owned stores, buildings, and synagogues.

At least 91 Jews were killed in the attacks, and a further 30,000 arrested and incarcerated in concentration camps.^[2] Jewish homes, hospitals, and schools were ransacked, as the attackers demolished buildings with sledgehammers. Over 1,000 synagogues were burned (95 in Vienna alone), and over 7,000 Jewish businesses destroyed or damaged.

Martin Gilbert writes that no event in the history of German Jews between 1933 and 1945 was so widely reported as it was happening, and the accounts from the foreign journalists working in Germany sent shock waves around the world. The Times wrote at the time: "No foreign propagandist bent upon blackening Germany before the world could outdo the tale of burnings and beatings, of blackguardly assaults on defenseless and innocent people, which disgraced that country yesterday."

The pretext for the attacks was the assassination of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan, a German-born Polish Jew in Paris, France. Kristallnacht was followed by further economic and political persecution of Jews, and is viewed by historians as part of Nazi Germany's broader racial policy, and the beginning of the Final Solution and The Holocaust.

It is very difficult for me to refer to the words of Martin Luther in this book.  I feel that it is very important to mention the anti-Semitism inspired by leaders of Christianity. In so doing, I hope to help you, the reader, understand why Jews have been running as far and as quickly away from Christians as they can get. Martin Luther’s writing exemplifies how incredibly difficult it is for Jews to overcome distrust of Christianity.

Our friendships are breaking through the thick cement wall of two thousand years. It is so very difficult yet the most noble of tasks.

 

 

 

.                            A sense of humor is very important

 

We have been blamed for killing Christ, causing the black plague in Europe, using the blood of Christian children to prepare Matzoth (unleavened bread eaten by Jews during the Passover holiday), manipulating the world through control of international finance…you name it. We’ve been the doormat of the world, blamed for many of humanity’s ills and woes.

It reminds me of an old joke I heard at least twenty years ago. I take a risk at telling this joke because the last time I repeated it to a non-Jewish audience, they forgot to laugh.

Two Jews were sitting in a café in pre-World War II Germany. One of the Jews started reading a sheet of Nazi propaganda. The other Jew said, “What are you doing? Are you a self-hating Jew?”

“Not at all,” replied the first Jew. “When I read the Jewish papers, all I read about is persecution, pogroms and Arab riots against the Jewish pioneers in Palestine. When I read Nazi propaganda, I get a much more positive twist on events. Jews control international finance, rule the banks and own the property. According to them we’re about to take over the whole world. You know what? It makes me feel a lot better to read what they write about us.”

Throughout history, the only defense mechanism at our disposal was our sense of humor. If you want to know why so many comedians in the United States are Jewish – it is because we have been making fun of ourselves for centuries. We Jews laugh at each other until our stomachs are about to burst, and our faces almost turn blue, but if the same jokes are told by non-Jews, then it becomes anti-Semitism. Go figure that one out! That is just how sensitive and paranoid the Jewish reflex is to years of being at the mercy of other people.

 

 

 

   A close call in Germany

 

Thank God, my grandparents left Germany and Austria prior to the Nuremberg Laws. They departed not out of fear of anti-Semitism but because economic opportunities were more promising in the United States. My mother’s parents held their German identity with such pride that they adapted with great difficulty to their new life in the USA. So difficult was their adjustment in the USA that they planned to return to Germany in the early 1930’s.  With American newspapers and radio as their source of information, they were unaware of the rumblings of anti-Jewish fervor gaining momentum in Germany. My grandmother purchased a steam boat ticket and packed her foot locker in preparation of returning to Germany. The day before she was set to sail for her return trip to Germany, she received an urgent telegram from her family in Berlin, informing her that conditions for Jews in Germany were deteriorating and that under NO circumstances should she board the ferry set to sail the following day for Hamburg.

If not for that telegram, I would not be writing these lines today 80+ years later. If not for that telegram, I would not be composing the words of this book. If not for that telegram begging my Grandmother not to return to Germany, my family would not live in the Biblical Mountains of Israel as expressed in Ezekiel 36, 37 and numerous other Scriptures in the Bible.

The rest of my mother’s entire family were never heard from again as they perished in the gas chambers and crematoriums of Nazi Germany.

 

 

 

The Nurembeg Laws-1935

 

The Laws for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor

(15 September 1935) Moved by the understanding that the purity of German blood is essential to the further existence of the German people, and inspired by the uncompromising determination to safeguard the future of the German nation, the Reichstag has unanimously resolved upon the following law, which is promulgated herewith:

 

Section 1

1. Marriages between Jews and citizens (German: Staatsangehörige) of German or kindred blood are forbidden. Marriages concluded in defiance of this law are void, even if, for the purpose of evading this law, they were concluded abroad.

2. Proceedings for annulment may be initiated only by the Public Prosecutor.

Section 2

Extramarital sexual intercourse between Jews and subjects of the state of Germany or related blood is forbidden.

(This concept was unofficially termed Rassenschande - 'defilement of blood'.)

Section 3

Jews will not be permitted to employ female citizens under the age of 45, of German or kindred blood, as domestic workers.

Section 4

1. Jews are forbidden to display the Reich and national flag or the national colors.

2. On the other hand they are permitted to display the Jewish colours. The exercise of this right is protected by the State.

Section 5

1. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of Section 1 will be punished with hard labor.
2. A person who acts contrary to the prohibition of Section 2 will be punished with imprisonment or with hard labor.
3. A person who acts contrary to the provisions of Sections 3 or 4 will be punished with imprisonment up to a year and with a fine, or with one of these penalties.

 

Section 6

The Reich Minister of the Interior in agreement with the Deputy Führer and the Reich Minister of Justice will issue the legal and administrative regulations required for the enforcement and supplementing of this law.

Section 7

The law will become effective on the day after its promulgation; Section 3, however, not until 1 January 1936.

 

 

 

      The law of return

 

The Third Reich determined the minimum definition for being a Jew as anyone born from one of four Jewish grandparents. Many adherents to Christianity, including priests and nuns, suddenly became Jewish because they had a Jewish grandparent. Many Jewish converts to Christianity were once again considered Jews!

In 1950, the State of Israel passed the “law of return” granting Israeli citizenship to new immigrants according to the very same criterion. According to the law, anyone “Jewish enough” to have been victimized by Nazi Germany and fortunate to have survived the holocaust was automatically granted citizenship upon request. The “law of return” remains in effect today, and serves as the basis for thousands of Jewish immigrants making Israel their home every year.

The definition of “Who is a Jew” for the purpose of immigration rights to Israel is different than the rabbinic definition of “who is a Jew,” which is determined by the religion of the mother.

 

 

 

     A difficult and sensitive subject

 

During his last days on earth Jesus commanded his disciples (the apostles) the following.

Matthew 28:19, 20

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Without a doubt, this is the most sensitive subject when trying to bridge the relationship divide between Christian and Jew. I am referring to the prevailing Jewish attitude toward evangelism. I think it is of great importance to sensitize Christians to Jewish feelings on the subject.

My original thought was not to touch this most difficult subject. I decided to include it, and attempt to write in such a way that will help my thousands of Christian friends understand why Jews are so deeply sensitive to the very mention of the word Evangelism, and the name Jesus Christ.

I think it is important for me to shed light on the subject because so many of the Churches I speak in (particularly in Norway, Finland and Denmark) have very little contact with Jews. It is not uncommon for me to be told I am the first Jew they have met. If they have previously met a Jew, it usually was in a context of a business matter.

 

 

 

Anti-Semitic Stereotypes

 

One of the accusations and stereotypes repeated for centuries, including today, is that Jews love money. Verbal and physical anti-Semitic attacks have been motivated by the myth that all Jews are rich and have achieved wealth through deceit and greed. Conspiracy theories have Jews controlling international finance and banking and at fault for the economic woes of the world.

I remember a reception where the Pastor asked me to join him on the pulpit and pray over the offering. When I ascended the pulpit, he put his arm around me and said, “Eliezer, as a Jew I thought you’d like to be close to the money, since we all know that Jews love money.” The Pastor meant no harm and certainly didn’t intend to demean me. Until I mentioned it, he was not aware that the words he uttered to his congregation reinforced one of the most destructive anti-Semitic stereotypes.

What few people know is that Jews were forced in to finance or what is called “usury.”  Jews were forbidden to enter most trades and professions. Christianity considered usury, money lending and banking, filthy and religiously detestable professions.

The First Council of Nicaea, in 325, forbade clergy from charging interest in excess of 1% per month. Subsequent ecumenical councils spread this to cover all laity.

The Lateran III council declared that anyone profiting from interest derived from loans, was denied sacraments and a Christian burial.

Pope Sixtus V further declared usury "detestable to God and man, damned by the sacred canons and contrary to Christian charity."

Deuteronomy 23:19 Thou shalt not lend upon interest to thy brother: interest of money, interest of victuals, and interest of anything that is lent upon interest.

Deuteronomy 23:20 Unto a foreigner thou mayest lend upon interest; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon interest; that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all that thou puttest thy hand unto, in the land whither thou goest in to possess it.

According to the Hebrew Scriptures, Jews were not allowed to charge interest to fellow Jews, but allowed to engage in the practice with non-Jews.

The combination of Christianity forbidding interest taking on loans, while interest bearing loaning was one of the few professions open to Jews, the cast was set for centuries of anti-Semitic stereotyping of Jewish control of finance.

 

 

 

When traveling to Israel, most Christians stay on tourist buses and rarely have contact with Israeli Jews, much less invited for home hospitality. Ellen and I have opened our home in Samaria to thousands of Christian visitors from many countries. I think we are but a handful of Israeli Jews to do so.

In Ministry since 1998, and after thousands of speaking engagements and visitors in our home, I will honestly admit that I do not have an answer that will please both Jews and Christians regarding the matter of Evangelism. So, why do I travel and why do Ellen and I host so many Christians in our home?

I think that there are many situations and issues in life which are seemingly unsolvable. Certainly, the core Christian desire to spread the Gospel, and the Jewish knee jerk reaction against any attempt at proselytizing, fit in to that category.

I feel that we have very much in common. We serve the same Father in Heaven. We share the Five Books of Moses, The Prophets and The Writings, albeit with varying interpretations. We certainly share the importance and excitement at the fulfillment of the prophecies regarding God’s plan of returning Israel to her land.

In Mark 12:28-34, the New Testament speaks directly about our Father in Heaven, as well as the importance of relationships with our fellow man. It repeats the two foundational principles in the Old Testament that God is One, and that we are commanded to love humanity.

MARK 12:

28 One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; 30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 The scribe said to Him, “Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that He is One, and there is no one else besides Him; 33  and to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as himself, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 When Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that, no one would venture to ask Him any more questions.

I see that there are two relational possibilities. One is for there to be no relationship. The second is for us to dialogue, seek the common ground and unify around Israel. I would think that Mark 12:28 is the formula that defines the common ground that our relationship revolves around.

In today’s world of mass communication and economic interdependence, Jews are at the forefront of science, medicine, technology etc. We are faced with the challenge of defining and retaining our Jewish identity while being exposed to the internationalization of the world. With that in mind, secluding ourselves to maintain our Jewishness is simply not a realistic option.

 

 

 

Why the legalistic observance of commandments?

 

Christian visitors to Israel have seen the ultra-orthodox Jews wearing the black coats and the curled hair locks by their ears that clearly separate them from not only the Gentile world, but also from their fellow Jewish brothers and sisters.

I have often been asked why they dress differently and retain such a distinct look. My Christian friends often ask why Orthodox Jewry adheres to such a legalistic observance of the Biblical commandments. At the same time I hear, what seems to be, the contradictory opinion that all Jews need to come back to observance of their faith. This implies quite the opposite of our scrupulous observance of God’s law as legalistic.

I explain that the Orthodox Jewish mindset does not see observing the commandments as burdensome. The Orthodox Jewish life is filled from dawn to dusk with joy at being blessed with the opportunity to show our love for God through the keeping of His commandments.

This was the dress code of the ultra-Orthodox Jew in their communities in Europe. They continue to maintain this dress code in Israel and in Jewish communities around the world. Most of Israel’s ultra-orthodox do not serve in the Israeli army, nor do they formally recognize the authority of what they call “the secular” government of Israel. For them, the State can only be reestablished with the coming of Messiah, who will usher in a fully Torah observant, theocratic nation in Israel - to be followed by the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem.

While their numbers are increasing in the army and the work force, their dress code remains unchanged. They live in mostly homogeneous ultra-orthodox communities. It is difficult to understand how such an isolated existence is compatible with “being a light unto the nations.”  At the same time, it is precisely their insistence on maintaining their distinct outward appearance, and emphasis on full time Torah study, that ensure that we retain our identity.

The lack of dialogue and isolationism leads to misunderstanding and negative stereotyping. The Jewish people have suffered immensely from this throughout history. I cannot accept that the only way Jews can preserve their identity is to cut ourselves off from the rest of the world. Not only is it unreasonable, but I believe it is unbiblical. I believe that it is good to have both the stringently observant ultra-orthodox, as well as the eighty to eighty-five percent of modern orthodox, traditional and secular Jews of Israel, that are expanding the boundaries of modern science and technology for the benefit of mankind.  As such a small religious minority in the world, we need to both preserve our identity, while at the same time, pushing the limits of our potential. It is a delicate balancing act.

 

 

 

   Jews, Israel and Islam

 

Occasionally I have been asked why Jews do not react with the same negativity when approached by a Muslim wanting to preach the “virtues” of Islam, as we do when a Christian witnesses to us about Jesus.

Jews lived in peace for centuries in Arab countries prior to the birth of Islam.

The animosity between Jew and Muslim finds its origin all the way back to Abraham. The Bible clearly defines Jews as descendants of Abraham’s son Isaac and the Arabs descendants of Abraham’s son, Ishmael.  Ishmael was the son of a slave woman named Hagar, and Isaac, son of Sarah, promised to receive the inheritance and blessings of Abraham.

Genesis 16:9-12

“Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” 10 The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.” 11 The angel of the Lord also said to her: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery. 12 He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers. ”

Genesis 17:19

"Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you are to call him Yitz'chak (Isaac) [laughter]. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. 20 But as for Yishma'el, I have heard you. I have blessed him. I will make him fruitful and give him many descendants. He will father twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. 21 But I will establish my covenant with Yitz'chak, whom Sarah will bear to you at this time next year." 22 With that, God finished speaking with Avraham and went up from him.

The conflict started with Ishmael’s jealousy at Isaac being chosen to receive their father’s inheritance. Ishmael mocked Isaac.

As a result, Abraham’s wife, Sarah, convinced Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away. This created more animosity in Ishmael towards Isaac.

God promised Hagar that her son, Ishmael would beget twelve princes and that they would become a great nation. Ishmael went to live in the wilderness region that became known as the Arabian Peninsula. Ishmael’s twelve patriarchal sons became the peoples known as Midianites, Edomites, Egyptians and Assyrians. The Bible and Islamic tradition both agree that Ishmael became the leader of all the great desert peoples of the Middle East.

In a prophecy that certainly has been true to this very day, an angel prophesied to Hagar that Ishmael would “live in hostility toward all his brothers”

This animosity found much deeper expression with the birth of Islam, which effectively came about when according to Islam, Muhammad received his first revelation from the archangel Gabriel in the year 610.

While some Arabs are Christians, the vast majority adhere to Islam and the teaching of the Qur’an. The Qur'an contains rather contradictory messages for Muslims regarding Jews. In one section it teaches Muslims to respect and treat Jews as brothers. In another part of the Qur’an it tells Muslims to attack Jews refusing to convert to Islam.

Furthermore, the Qur’an contradicts the Old Testament scriptures by saying that it was Ishmael that Abraham took up to Mt. Moriah and offered as a sacrifice, and that Ishmael is the proper recipient of Abraham’s inheritance. The animosity that began between Isaac and Ishmael is very obvious today in the continuing conflict between Arab/Muslim and Jew. The Muslim/Arab world is determined to destroy Israel as proof that they are the legitimate heirs to the promises of God to Abraham and his descendants.

Despite this, as previously mentioned, Jews lived in relative peace with Arabs and Muslims. The fact that Jews were a minority in Arab countries and accepted their status as second class citizens was proof in the Arab mindset that Jews were inferior. It was proof that the descendants of Ishmael were truly the chosen ones. Under these “favorable” conditions, Jews lived as a protected minority in Arab/Muslim countries.

That all changed when Jews started immigrating in large numbers to Palestine, and upon the declaration of the State of Israel in May, 1948. The reestablishment of the modern State of Israel pushed the ancient argument between Isaac and Ishmael to the forefront, and led to the present state of enmity between Arab/Muslim and Jew.

The intense hatred of Islam toward the Jew is a relatively recent phenomenon. Unfortunately, the intensity of that hatred is now making up for lost time.

 

 

 

       Ethnic cleansing?

 

One of the most ridiculous accusations by the Palestinian Authority against Israel is that of ethnic cleansing. During my first trip to Israel in 1968, the vast majority of the populations of Bethlehem and Ramallah were Christian. After years of harassment by their Muslim neighbors, most of the Christians have emigrated to the west. Today, only about 10% of the population of Bethlehem and Ramallah are Christian. Christians are brutally beaten and murdered in Gaza by Hamas, or other vigilante groups. Now that the lid of Islamic extremism in Egypt has been uncovered, the ten percent Christian Coptic population is feeling a sense of insecurity that was previously not present. Coptic Christians are increasingly being attacked, Churches ransacked and burned, as well as members of the community suffering the same fate as Christians in Gaza.

In Jerusalem, Christianity, Judaism and Islam have free access to places of worship. Under Jordanian rule from 1948-1967, Jews did not have access to their Holiest site, the Western Wall. Today, the population of Jerusalem is approximately 35% Arab. They have the right to apply for Israeli citizenship. Out of fear for their lives, the vast majority have not applied for citizenship, however receives the same social benefits as Israeli Jerusalemites.

The accusation of Israeli ethnic cleansing is so far-fetched! One only needs to look at several African and Middle Eastern countries, such as Nigeria, Sudan, Lebanon, and the recent addition of Egypt to understand the true meaning of ethnic cleansing.

 

 

 

    Jews and Christianity

 

Let’s go back to the question of why Jews have been, and continue to be, considerably more defensive with Christianity than with Islam. As opposed to Islam, which has a relatively short history of anti-Semitism, the Church has a history of many centuries of hatred toward the Jewish people. Jews have been accepted, and then rejected, on the whim of countless European Political and Church leaders over a period of more than one thousand five hundred years. Catholic popes sent crusaders in the name of Christ on their missions, while fully absolving them of any guilt for the massacres they were about to commit. Prior to beginning their mission, the Catholic Church granted massive armies absolution to kill, rape and plunder at will, with absolutely no fear of punishment and retribution.

As previously mentioned, the reformation, and Martin Luther, was no better. Initially friendly to Jews, Martin Luther wrote a scathing attack on Jews just before the end of his life. He was frustrated at his lack of success in converting Jews to Christianity - this, together with his anti-Semitic writing prior to his death, are deeply etched in the collective memory of the Jewish people.

During the Spanish Inquisition, Jews who chose to convert to Christianity rather than burn at the stake, were often dragged from their beds and killed on the suspicion that they were secretly practicing Judaism in the privacy of their homes. Even when that was not the case, the accusation was used by Christians to get rid of Jews for one reason or another. This was a particularly “effective” method used by Christians not wanting to pay back loans taken from Jews.

In Venice, Italy, dead Jewish landowners were exhumed from their graves and put on trial as a means of “legally” confiscating their property.

European Christian behavior toward the Jew is a long and awful chapter in the annals of human history. It certainly contradicts New Testament Scripture:

Matthew 7:1-2

“Do not judge and criticize and condemn others, so that you may not be judged and criticized and condemned yourselves.

For just as you judge, criticize and condemn others, you will be judged, criticized and condemned and in accordance with the measure you deal out to others it will be dealt unto you.”

James 2:13

“For to him who has shown no mercy the judgment will be merciless, but mercy exalts victoriously over judgment.”

To the educated Jew, an Evangelical sharing the Gospel is the flip side of the crusaders sword. One represents physical genocide, and the other represents spiritual genocide of the Jewish people.

These are part of the memories that are stirred up when a Christian aggressively preaches to the Jew. This is why I face opposition from some of my Jewish brothers in my effort to reach out to Christians. This is the reason that some Israeli Jews will not accept financial support from Christians. They fear that the support will be used as leverage to preach the Gospel, and cite countless historical facts of Christian behavior in rendering the opinion that there is no such thing as unconditional Christian support of Israel.

With this said, I want to emphasize that the vast majority of all the Christians that I have had contact with since the beginning days of Ministry in 1998, have shown the utmost respect and sensitivity toward me. I am positive that neither of us would do anything that would knowingly offend the other. The fact that these meaningful relationships have developed, without either of us feeling that we have compromised ourselves, is testimony to the fact that we can come together under the umbrella of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

I believe that we are defining a new way that will satisfy the need for all of us to be who were are meant to be. Perhaps I am naïve, but I believe we are on the correct path, and that we are up to the challenge.

 

 

 

I can ramble on about Church instigated hatred toward the Jew spanning the last two thousand years. That is not my purpose. I most likely would be repeating some historical facts that you already are aware of, or can be easily found through a computer search.

Several years ago, someone approached me after a speaking engagement and asked, “Eliezer, why do you think Jews have been hated for so long. There must be a good reason behind all the hatred.”

It was as if he was placing the blame for anti-Semitism squarely at the feet of Jews themselves. The notion was preposterous. At the time I thought; “how could a person ask me such an utterly offensive and entirely inappropriate question?” Upon further consideration, I realized that I needed to find a way to answer the question. I couldn’t just leave it suspended in mid-air. If I did, it could dangle unanswered in front of this person for the rest of his life.

We sat down and I tried to answer the question as best I could, while at the same time possessed with an overwhelming sense of astonishment at having been asked the question in the first place. I later sent a more detailed answer via email. Some of my emails to him contained much of what is written in the following pages.

 

 

    Why anti-Semitism?

 

I was taught, and certainly always thought, that the persecution of the Jew was motivated by the fact that we were viewed as being inferior; similar to a bully beating up a smaller and weaker kid on the block.

I asked myself the question – why would anyone expend so much effort to eliminate inferiority. If indeed inferior, Jews presented no threat whatsoever. Why would Hitler appoint Heinrich Himmler to devise the plan to exterminate European Jewry?

Why expend the effort, and divert the resources, to build a massive infrastructure to eliminate a supposedly inferior religious group, that through their inferiority posed no threat to Nazi hegemony of Europe.

The final decision to exterminate European Jewry was made either by the time of, or at the Wannsee Conference, which took place in Berlin, in the Wannsee Villa on January 20, 1942.

Here are the words of Adolf Hitler in January of 1939.

“Today I will once more be a prophet: If the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevization of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!”

On December 16, 1941, at a meeting of the officials of the German General Government, Hans Frank referred to Hitler's speeches as he described the coming annihilation of the Jews:

“As for the Jews, well, I can tell you quite frankly that one way or another we have to put an end to them. The Führer once put it this way: if the combined forces of Judaism should again succeed in unleashing a world war, that would mean the end of the Jews in Europe. ...I urge you: Stand together with me ... on this idea at least: Save your sympathy for the German people alone. Don't waste it on anyone else in the world ... I would therefore be guided by the basic expectation that they are going to disappear. They have to be gotten rid of. At present I am involved in discussions aimed at having them moved away to the east. In January there is going to be an important meeting in Berlin to discuss this question. I am going to send State Secretary Dr. Buhler to this meeting. It is scheduled to take place in the offices of the RSHA in the presence of Obergruppenführer Heydrich. Whatever its outcome, a great Jewish emigration will commence. But what is going to happen to these Jews? Do you imagine there will be settlement villages for them in the Ostland? In Berlin we were told: Why are you making all this trouble for us? There is nothing we can do with them here in the Ostland or in the Reich Commissariat. Liquidate them yourselves! ... Here are 3.5 million Jews that we can't shoot, we can't poison. But there are some things we can do, and one way or another these measures will successfully lead to liquidation. They are related to the measures under discussion with the Reich.... Where and how this will all take place will be a matter for offices that we will have to establish and operate here. I will report to you on their operation at the appropriate time.”

 

 

 

Europe in the 1930’s and 40’s became a killing ground not only for Jews but also for the Former Soviet Union. Estimates are that between one to three million Soviets were purged by Joseph Stalin. Why were they purged?  They were hunted down and murdered because they were considered “enemies of the state” - a threat to the iron hand rule of Joseph Stalin, and the despotic ruling politburo.  While the purges focused on members of the communist party in order to consolidate Stalin’s power, terrible campaigns of repression were carried out against peasants, minorities and especially professionals, and the intelligentsia.

Artists, writers, actors, economists, the military elite…anyone suspected of the possibility of joining a “fifth column,” were summarily executed, or sent to Gulag labor camps, where they died from starvation, forced labor, or a combination of the two.

A disproportionate number of Jews to the overall Soviet population were professionals - members of the arts and part of the Soviet intelligentsia.

Stalin and Hitler killed people not because of their inferiority, but because they were perceived as threats to absolute authoritarian rule.

The leader of any modern democratic country will tell you that it is precisely these talented citizens that provide the genius behind private sector productivity; that fuels job creation; that drives the engine of economic growth and prosperity.  Indeed, in today’s world based economy, countries encourage immigration, and offer citizenship to the intellectual and skilled elite from all over the world. This causes brain drains in places like Mexico, Africa and Arab/Moslem countries where the best minds choose to relocate to North American, Europe and/or other countries where the work environment encourages the development of human capability to its fullest potential. This is how it works in a healthy democracy.

In totalitarian Germany and The Soviet Union, forcing complete obedience meant that Stalin and Hitler eliminated anyone perceived as a potential threat. Those not eliminated were psychologically forced into obedience, and became complicit in the evilness of their authoritarian leaders.

It was the superior intellectual achievements, not inferiority, of German Jewry that posed a threat to Hitler. Hitler knew that obedience to the teachings and moral code of the Bible, along with the centrality of the relationship with God, and value of human life, combined with the inbred argumentative nature, and intellectual acumen of Jews, stood directly in the way of complete authoritarian rule.

Hitler knew he could count on the vast majority of European Christianity to “turn the other cheek” in order to save themselves and maintain the Christian status quo. This is why, by and large, he did not interfere with the Christian status quo in those countries under German domination.

The bells of Catholic Churches across Europe rang in celebration of Adolf Hitler’s birthday during the Second World War. A special prayer was recited in Catholic Churches honoring Hitler’s birthday. Can you imagine the depths of the evil that seeped into just about every crevice of Europe at that point in history?

• Nazi Germany and her axis of evil went insane and dragged anti-Semitic Europe to a new low.
• Japan expanded her “empire” thousands of miles beyond her borders.
• California prepared for a Japanese invasion. Contingency plans were made as far away as Chicago and New York, to deal with the possibility of Japanese bombing followed by a ground invasion.

So vicious were the Japanese during World War II, that American pilot’s greatest fear was being taken captive by the Japanese as prisoners of war. Their fear stemmed from the beginning of the Japanese invasion of China in 1937.

The Japanese army surrounded the Chinese city of Nanking, which at the time had about half a million civilians and some one hundred thousand Chinese soldiers. Assured by the Japanese of their safety, the Chinese soldiers surrendered.

What happened at that point is well documented. The Japanese received orders to kill all the Chinese soldiers, as well as many civilians. They were murdered in the most gruesome manner, which included beheading, machine gunning hundreds at a time, women strapped down, raped and murdered, dogs tearing human flesh apart, people burned alive, babies thrown on to bayonets etc.

Japanese newspapers boasted at the numbers of killed Chinese, as if they were recording the score of a soccer match.

Historians put the death toll in what became known as “the Rape of Nanking,” at more than 300,000 Chinese civilians, and all the Chinese soldiers.

Allied soldiers were so fearful of falling into Japanese hands, that given the chance, many preferred to end their own lives than being taken captive.

One percent of Allied prisoners of war died in German POW camps. Some 30-40% of captured Allied soldiers died in Japanese POW camps.

 

 

 

The United States, Britain, France and Russia had intelligence about the concentration camps, but chose to do nothing. Bombing the railroad tracks to Auschwitz, and other death camps, would have at least slowed down the flow of European Jewry to the gas chambers, but not a single bomb was dropped for that purpose.

As inconceivable as it is, I have read estimates of between 12-15 million Soviet civilian deaths, and between 60-80 million combined civilian and military deaths during WW II.

In short, it was a world gone mad.

 

 

Government makes a huge difference

 

We can see that there are two fundamentally different governmental frameworks in the world today.

1. Democracy - encourages and allows freedom for the mind to explore, create, innovate and produce for the benefit of mankind. Democracy strives to include its citizens in national debate and decision making through proportionate representation. The ethos of such a society is every member feeling they have an opportunity to make a difference, and contribute to the betterment of life and human kind, through a myriad of possibilities - most importantly by creating the environment for the individual to live up to their potential.

 

2. Autocracy/Dictatorship – Rule of society by an individual together with an inner circle completely loyal to the leader….devoted almost to the degree of elevating the leader to the status of deity. The leader and his inner circle reign absolute; the country’s economic activity and decisions are centralized under the authority of the government. People are given virtually no control over their lives and lack freedom of movement. Control by the State saps people of their energy and desire to innovate and be productive. This is the case in remaining Communist regimes such as Cuba and North Korea. It is also the case in theocratic dictatorships such as Iran and Saudi Arabia. These regimes work by a combination of fear and control.

 

Fear and control is the diametric opposite of an environment conducive to free thinking, innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship.

 

Religious practices in these countries are either completely outlawed, or are allowed to barely exist under total state control.  God is replaced with an almost frenzied irrational devotion to leaders such as Hitler, Stalin, Kim Jong (Korea), Fidel Castro etc. The positive to be deduced as an outsider peering inside these countries, is that it shows that people have a deep spiritual need for a God figure. Their leaders deemphasize religion, or ban it outright, because they demand total allegiance. They can’t compete with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, so they try to remove Him altogether – as if that were possible.

In most Muslim countries, Islam is enforced in much the same dictatorial way as communism. It is used by leadership as a means by which to achieve complete control and manipulation of the population.

The exception to the authoritarian rule is China. China has succeeded, at least temporarily, in combining a Communist government with run-away capitalism. Dissidents and corrupt capitalists are jailed and often put to death.  As long as the people of China let the government maintain control of the political arena, the Communist government allows a relatively free and decentralized economy. It is an odd quid pro quo that somehow works, despite defying the understanding of many in the western world. China has thus far prevented high unemployment. If that situation should change, then it could foment a change in the status quo.

 

 

 

 

      The miracle of modern Israel

 

People often ask how the economy of tiny Israel with a population of 7.5 million exceeds the combined Gross National Product of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. We would be able to add Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq to the list, if not for the fact that they have the largest reserves of oil in the world, exporting millions of barrels daily.

Throughout centuries, Jews were forced to adjust. Jews were constantly on the move from country to country. They adapted to new cultures, learned new languages. They managed to survive under the most stressful circumstances imaginable. Add detailed legalism of Rabbinic Judaism to the mix, and you have the recipe for a people uniquely molded to reestablish the nation state of Israel, thriving beyond almost our own comprehension.

For two-thousand years, Jews endlessly studied, debated and strictly observed the laws outlined in the Five Books of Moses and the Oral Tradition called the Talmud. The Talmud contains hundreds of years of rabbinic interpretation. Without this interpretation, it is difficult to understand how the written word of the Five Books of Moses is to be applied to daily life.

An example of this would be the verse that calls for “An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” etc. Does this literally mean that if, God forbid, someone pokes out your eye that it is Biblically correct to exact justice by poking out the eye of the other person? Of course not! The Rabbis go in to a lengthy discussion and lively debate on exactly what we do in such a case. What were the circumstances under which the person lost the eye? Was it done intentionally or by accident? Were there witnesses etc. and etc.?

Over the centuries, Jewish minds were developed by studying the interpretations of the law, arguing and adding innovative thoughts of their own to Rabbinic interpretation.

Think of it as the Jewish people having immersed themselves in 2,000 years of tuition free law school at Harvard, Yale and Cambridge.

When it comes to arguing a Biblical passage, there is no hierarchy. Every participant in the discussion/interpretation of Jewish texts is encouraged to voice their opinion and back it up with logical explanations. Age, background and family status are irrelevant. The king and pauper are equally challenged to shed new light on Biblical exegeses.

Apply this to modern Israel. It is not unusual when high tech firms develop new products, that regardless of position, all employees participate in the discussion. A secretary can come up with a novel idea and the software engineers will design the supporting program.

This model of cooperation exists throughout many sectors of the Israeli economy. Competitors frequently cooperate and share information. In most other countries, competitors try to put each other out of business. In Israel, most companies share information with each other, with the understanding that in the end, all will benefit by expanding the sea of information.

Where did this unique approach originate? - From our endless study of rabbinic interpretation of the Bible. This is why the government of Israel is exerting great effort to encourage a larger percentage of the ultra-Orthodox to enter the work force, and the high tech industry in particular. Through their exhaustive study of the Bible, their interpretive genius is a perfect fit for Israel’s innovative information highway based economy.

 

 

 

It is interesting to note that in 2010/2011, Israel discovered huge deposits of natural gas in her territorial waters off the coastline in the Mediterranean Sea. The weeks following these discoveries, Israeli newspapers carried editorials expressing the opinion that the discoveries are not necessarily a good thing. Why? Every country in the world would be thrilled with the discovery of just about any natural resource. Israel will become an exporter of natural gas to Europe, bringing in billions of dollars that will benefit the Israeli economy. These dollars will trickle down to the citizens through increased public funding of education, and other social services, that struggle to get adequate budgets because of Israel’s large defense burden.

That is precisely the point of contention according to some intellectual thinkers in our country. If Israel gets a huge boost to her economy with “easy money” then, they contend, we may turn into a lazy nation that stops using the greatest resource we have – our minds - as we “sit back” and enjoy the flow from the gas wells in the Mediterranean. Perhaps this example gives insight into the constant state of self-analysis that is part of our national ethos.

Now put this legal mindset in the context of the time frame of the apostles and disciples of Jesus and early Christianity. When they spread the gospel to Jews they were almost completely rejected. There were many Jewish sects at the time. The early followers of Jesus were received as another radical sect of Judaism.

In order for the early Church to spread the Gospel to the pagan world of Hellenism that prevailed in both the Greek and Roman cultures, they were forced to eliminate the legalistic observances of the Pharisees.  The early Church gradually became very distant from the life of Jesus, and those that surrounded him during his life.

Hellenistic culture seeped into the early Church. The Jews carried the torch of belief in one sovereign Almighty Supreme Being. Greek and Roman culture taught the acceptance of all the mythological gods such as Zeus, Apollo, Ares, Pontos etc. Greek and Roman pagan culture divided the one supreme God of Abraham into different gods of the earth, sky, doom, sea, storms, darkness, heaven, day, night, dreams and so on. They reasoned that there was no difference in the father of the gods and the Father of all Creation. After all, so they said, “We are all worshipping the same gods no matter what names we give them and the different ceremonies and customs we pray to them in.”

Think of Hellenism as a kind of ancient Euro zone….an ancient liberal attempt to bundle all of mankind together as one ….an ancient philosophy of humanism and one world ism…the thought that there are no Greeks or Romans or Jew, but that we are all pieces that together fit the same puzzle.

Originally Jews were related to as one of many diverging religions within this humanistic philosophy.

 

 

 

     Rabbinic Judaism

 

Jews would have none of Hellenistic humanism. They pursued, with fervor, the “legalistic” observance of rabbinic law.  The importance of community and observance required Jews to live and pray together in close knit communities. The necessity of Jews living together created an impression of elitism. The Gentile world around them resented Jewish separatism. They asked what kind of a god would require a people to isolate themselves from the rest of mankind. What kind of god would require the mutilation of an 8 day old baby boy’s foreskin through circumcision, or forbade the eating of perfectly good meat not slaughtered by a Jew preforming rabbinic prescribed ritual slaughter.

Why would God choose such a people? What a foolish notion.

The Hebrews “stubbornly” held on to the notion that they were to be a light unto the nations – a priestly nation to the world, and that the rest of the world would come to know and pray to YHWH (*). But with the time devoted to study, large families and scrupulous observance of the commandments, where would Jews find the time to bring the message of YHWH to the rest of the world?

Since Jews were too busy with study and daily observance to bring YHWH to the pagans and at the same time the Hellenistic/pagan world would never adapt itself to strict observance….the door opened for the “uncircumcised” replacement of Israel.

With this in mind, so goes the argument, the Rabbinic Israel of the Pharisees no longer needed to exist. They were usurped by the New Israel of the Church.

The biggest thorn in the side of the “New Church” has been the continued existence of Rabbinic Judaism - Therefore, the “logical” conclusion? Get rid of the Jews physically, or through voluntary or forced conversion.

While the cultures and empires of Ancient Egypt, Philistine, Assyrian, Persian, Babylonian, Byzantine, Rome and Greece disappeared onto the rubbish pile of history, the Jews defied all logic and survived! Despite the genocidal attempts at both physical and spiritual annihilation of the Jewish people by the Spanish inquisition, tyrannical Nazi German and Communist Soviet Union, the Jewish people not only survived, but are returning to their ancient land.

---*(YHWH is the corresponding English of the four Hebrew letters that represent God’s Name)

Here in Israel, we are fulfilling our divine destiny. Much of the world is still bent on our destruction. Islam is quite open about its intentions through their public declarations to drive Israel in to the sea. Others mask their anti-Semitism, and desire to rid the world of Jews, through calls to boycott Israeli products, academia, science and research. With the support of governments around the world, the United Nations is obsessed with passing anti-Israel resolutions. If not for the United States of America, Israel would be completely politically isolated in the world.

The stories about Israel featured by the international media feed the anti-Israel obsession of replacement theology that is still, whether consciously or sub-consciously, part of the European Christian mindset.

 

 

 

What you never hear about Israel in the International Media

 

I recently saw a television clip of a Muslim mother from Gaza that lost her first three very young children to a congenital heart condition. Israeli doctors heard of her case. They arranged to bring her and her 6 month old infant from Gaza to Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba, in the center of Israel. The baby was treated in the infant cardiology ward of the hospital - for free - by some of the finest Jewish cardiologists in Israel. The infant now has an excellent chance of leading a normal life.

During war time, terrorists and the victims they try to murder, often end up lying in beds next to each other or in the same hospital wards. They both receive the same advanced medical treatment. Do you think that the same would be the case if the situation were reversed?

There are thousands of such stories that never reach the liberal media.

And boycotting Israel? There is nothing more detrimental to the future of mankind, than cutting off the genius that the Jewish people have to give for the benefit of the entire world.

Jews make up between 22-24% (depending on the definition of who is a Jew) of Nobel Prize winners. They only make up 1/24^th of 1% or 2 in 1,000 of the world’s population.

Israel has the highest percentage of graduate degrees, and produces more research papers per capita than any other country. It is a world leader in inventions, medical and scientific discoveries. Israeli high tech has produced thousands of start-up companies that provide countless jobs in numerous countries around the world. Israel is an innovator in the desalination of water, and the world leader in purifying and reusing waste water. Currently, approximately 70% of Israel’s agricultural water needs are met through reclaimed waste water.  The same 70% of drinking water will soon be generated by desalinization of sea water from the Mediterranean. These technologies are critical in providing an increasingly thirsty world population with water.

Computer micro-chips, micro-processors, and operating systems are developed in Israel. Much of the security technology for fighting hackers and computer viruses is developed by Israeli companies.

The first cell phones, as well as AIM, ICQ and many other computer functions and games, are Israeli innovations, as well as Google, which operates on an Israeli system.

Israel is a pioneer in solar energy and countless medical innovations. Israeli research is on the breaking edge in the fight against cancer, Parkinson’s and a long list of diseases affecting millions worldwide.

Teva Pharmaceuticals, an Israeli company, produces close to 10% of all prescription drugs manufactured in the world.

Drip irrigation and numerous Israel water technologies can help water a crop starved Africa.

Israeli rescue and medical teams are first responders to earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural disasters around the world.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the list of past, present and future Israeli accomplishments that benefit all of humanity.

It would appear that some of the world would rather pollute the earth, live in poverty, and die of starvation and disease before taking what the Jewish people have to offer.

And why is this? I tried explaining to the gentleman that asked me,  “why the hatred of the Jew”…..because of the insatiable obsession to steal the Jewish birthright of being a “light unto the nations,” and transfer it to envious others that refuse to acknowledge that God made a permanent and irrevocable covenant, with the seed of Jacob.

As I often say during speaking engagements…

“If the State of Israel and the Jewish People were to disappear, then Bible believing Christians would have a huge problem. It would mean that we have a non- covenant keeping God. If God does not keep His covenant with Israel, what would make you think that He will keep His covenant with you?”

This is not a covenant that I or any other Jew asked for. This is a covenant - a responsibility - which God decreed upon us. It was by no means to make us better, or superior, than anyone else. It was to ensure that we would remain different - bringing the light of One Indivisible God to a world that accepted the existence of many gods. Depending on what god they “served,” they practiced forms of witchcraft, human sacrifice and a multitude of heathen worship preventing adherence to the most fundamental principles of civilized behavior.

 

 

 

      An amazing lesson from Patriach Abraham

(This perspective was introduced to me by Pastor John Stocker-Resurrection Fellowship, Loveland, Colorado, USA)

Genesis 12:1 & 2

“Now the Lord said to Abraham, get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy fathers house unto a Land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great Nation. I will bless thee that bless you…And thee shall be a blessing.”

Abraham lived in the Ur of Caldess, which is modern day Iraq. For a shepherd to move a long distance from where he was, all the way to the land of Canaan, was very difficult. It took a huge leap of faith.

Genesis 12: 1 & 2 show us that God taught Abraham about trust and faith. He said to Abraham. “I am going to bless you and you will be a blessing. I will make you a great nation.”

God told Abraham that his children, the Jewish people, will be a blessing to all mankind. And God revealed to Abraham that HE is the source of all blessing.

The idolatrous practices of the pagan nations were of a totally different spirit than the blessing that Abraham passed on to the world. The pagan nations acted in a slanderous manner in their religious beliefs and practices. They portrayed God, as “you better appease me or else I am going to do you harm.” This is why we continue to see heathen religions perform all kinds of awful things: like sacrificing children; crawling on their knees until they bleed; laying on a bed of nails and lots of other manners of worship. They think they are appeasing an angry god, so that vengeance and anger won’t be taken out on them.

Unfortunately, there are still many religious practices today that portray the God of Abraham in much the same way….”you please me or I am going to do you harm.”

That is wrong, and totally foreign to the message of the God of Abraham. Our God has in His heart a desire to bless all of humanity. He is called the God of All blessing.

 

Psalm 68:19

“Blessed be the Lord who daily loads us with benefits. He is the God of our salvation.”

He is a merciful God. He desires to bless us every day of our lives. He loads us with His blessings and benefits.

If you are reading this, perhaps you think that you don’t have any of those blessings in your life.

I had surgery on both of my knees. I’m still in pain, but thank God, I am walking and getting around. I’m still sucking in air. What a blessing. Once we see God as the source of all blessing, then every breath of air we breathe, and every step we take, is recognized for what it is – a gift from God.

The uniqueness of Abraham is that he was in touch with the blessings of God, and the reality of a God, who is the source of all blessing.

I look at Abraham’s life and am totally amazed. I repeat Genesis 12:2 – “I will bless you and you shall be a blessing.”

I think it needs to be repeated because the world we are living in today is teaching it just the opposite. They teach, “You be a blessing and then God will bless you.”

Through the story of Abraham, God said “this is how it works in My economy. I, God, will bless you and then out of that blessing you have received from Me, you shall bless others.”

To be a blessing to others, we have to already be blessed! Before we give, we have to receive, in order to take from what we have to bless others! How can we bless others if we haven’t already been blessed?

If we go to the next chapter in Genesis, we find that Abraham and his nephew, Lot, are both greatly blessed by God. They had large families, flocks and wealth, almost beyond their imagination. They were getting so successful that their servants were fighting over the best pasture ground, water and so on.

Abraham went to Lot and said to him, “Listen, we have a problem between us. Our servants are fighting, and I feel that there is strife between us….So my nephew, there is plenty of land around here for you to pick where and what you want. Just let me know what you choose, and I’ll take my family and flocks in the other direction. That way we will both have our space.”

Lot looks around and sees the lush and fertile Jordan Valley. He says to Abraham, “I’ll take all that.” So it is obvious that Lot is looking out for #1 – himself. The Jordan Valley is like the Garden of Eden. Its fertile soil produces the most incredible fruits and vegetables. And Lot said, “I’m taking care of myself.”

Those of you, who have been to Israel, know that the land that lies outside the Jordan Valley is full of barren hills and rocky mountains. The land is full of stones, making the planting of crops difficult. They didn’t have drip irrigation, D-9 caterpillars, and other modern agricultural methods that we have today.

What would possess Abraham to tell his nephew to take whatever land he wants, when it was apparent that he would take the most arable land? I think there is only one possible answer. To teach man, beyond any doubt, that God’s blessing rests upon him regardless of where he is…because regardless of where man is….he will either be blessed, or not be blessed by God.

Abraham knew that regardless of what land he took, God’s blessing was upon him. The land would provide shelter and produce food for his family and flocks.

If you read further on in the 12^th chapter of Genesis, you will see that after Abraham and Lot parted ways, it says in Genesis 13:14…

“And the Lord said unto Abraham after Lot was separated from him…now lift up your eyes…north, south, east and west…all the land you see, to thee will I give it and too thy seed forever.”

This is an amazing promise. God says “I’m giving it all to you FOREVER.”

We have a problem! Lot said he was taking the lush Jordan Valley. God said…

”To you Abraham I am giving it as an eternal covenant.”

God tells Abraham He appreciates his desire to make peace with his nephew, Lot. But, God tells Abraham that the land is not his to give away.

I look at this in modern day context. I think about the world pressuring Israel to give away more and more land, and I realize that it is not ours to give away. God made up His mind a long time ago to give custodial powers to the Jewish people for all eternity.

Perhaps we need to run Bible classes for all the political leaders that are trying to divide up God’s land. It’s not theirs to give away.

 

 

 

President Obama At Cairo University

 

President Barak Obama made a speech at Cairo University during the first part of his presidency. During that speech, Obama became the first president of the United States to adopt the official propaganda line of the Palestinian Authority.

President Obama’s naivety toward the threat that Islam poses to the civilized world is expressed in his following words. He whitewashes the reality of numerous violent clashes between Islam and the world.

 “I've come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect, and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.”

President Obama – what of the thousands of Muslim honor killings and thousands of female circumcisions performed on young girls, without sterile instruments and anesthetics? What about women denied the right to have driver licenses in Saudi Arabia and other conservative Islamic regimes? And President Obama, how can you speak of justice and dignity under Islamic regimes, when they forbid the right of Christians to build Churches, and freely assemble for collective prayer?

If we cannot identify a problem we have no hope of containing much less defeating it.

Barak Obama became the first President of the United States to call for the establishment of a Palestinian State. In so doing, he revised thousands of years of history, as there has never been an Arab, or Islamic State, west of the Jordan River.

Unfortunately, some of the leaders of the Israeli political establishment have acquiesced to the forming of a Palestinian State. In the case of Prime Minister Netanyahu, this resulted from extreme external pressures primarily from the European Union and US State Department.

More of President Obama’s Pollyanna (*) attitude:

(*Pollyanna is defined as ‘an excessively or blindly optimistic person’)

“It is easy to point fingers -- for Palestinians to point to the displacement brought about by Israel's founding, and for Israelis to point to the constant hostility and attacks throughout its history from within its borders as well as beyond.  But if we see this conflict only from one side or the other, then we will be blind to the truth:  The only resolution is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security.”

The President adopts the Arab propaganda line which is, that because of Jewish suffering, Israel displaced the Palestinians. They say, “Europe committed the crime and the Palestinians are paying the price” – very contradictory considering that many within the Palestinian Authority deny the Holocaust.

If the Jewish State was established prior to WW II, perhaps there would have been no Holocaust. 

The President made no mention of the fact that there was a constant Jewish presence in the Land from the time of Abraham. He makes no mention of previous international resolutions guaranteeing Israel a homeland west of the Jordan River. No mention of the fact that the so called Palestinian identity was created by the British and early Jewish pioneers, who brought economic opportunity to a mostly desolate and barren area.

He quotes the Qur’an several times but leaves out any reference to the Biblical promises to Abraham.

The worst aspect of his speech at Cairo University is that President Obama creates symmetry between the two sides by pointing the finger of blame equally for the continuation of the conflict. In essence, he adopts Arab propaganda which states that the State of Israel was founded because of the Holocaust. It is the Palestinians that have suffered because of European mistreatment of the Jew during World War II. He further adopts Arab propaganda by citing the Israel – Palestinian conflict as the main stumbling block to harmony in the Middle East.

The truth is that Israel is used as a convenient “whooping dog” to divert attention away from internal problems within Arab and Muslim society.

 

 

 

I will not fall into the trap of the liberal press, by ignoring that there is another side of the story that needs to be mentioned.

Therefore, to be fair, it is also important to point out that President Obama has been supportive of Israel in numerous ways. Whether this is due to congressional and public pressure, or his personal disposition toward Israel, is anyone’s guess.

President Obama has increased security assistance to Israel every year, including unprecedented support for Israel’s Iron Dome rocket defense system.

President Obama has increased security funding to Israel every year of his administration, and his budget includes a record-high $3.1 billion in military assistance, in addition to missile defense spending.

President Obama has directed the Pentagon to expand U.S.-Israel security cooperation, committing $205 million dollars to assist in shielding Israelis from mortars and rockets, as part of an ongoing effort to “deepen and expand the quantity and intensity of cooperation to the fullest extent.”

President Obama prevented Palestinian efforts to circumvent direct negotiations with Israel, and unilaterally seek statehood recognition through the United Nations.

He used the first Security Council veto of his presidency, to stop condemnation of Israeli settlements, and stood by Israel in pushing back against the one-sided Goldstone Report. Prime Minister Netanyahu called President Obama’s support for Israel at the United Nations “a badge of honor.”

When Israel’s embassy in Cairo was attacked by protestors in September 2011, President Obama called on Egypt to protect the embassy, and offered his support to Prime Minister Netanyahu; the next day, Netanyahu publicly thanked the President for his help, calling it a “decisive and fateful moment.”

When Israel’s Carmel Forest caught fire in 2010, the worst natural disaster in Israel’s history, Prime Minister Netanyahu turned to President Obama for help. The President directed his administration to “get Israel whatever it needs…Now!”

The question is which Obama is the real Obama? My guess is that President Obama is a masterful politician: With many Israeli politicians, and a percentage of the Israel public, favoring a Palestinian State, he probably does not see any conflict between support for Israel and his call for the establishment of “two states for two people.”

 

 

 

It should be evident that democratic Israel is the only beacon of hope and stability in an area of the world where today’s friends can become tomorrow’s foes. The United States is a long distance from the Middle East. America’s economy is still dependent on the free flow of Middle East oil via the Straits of Hormuz. In a crunch, the USA knows that it only has one stable ally that it can depend on in the Middle East.

Muslim and Christian Arabs make up approximately twenty-five percent of Israel’s citizen population. The vast majority favors the creation of a Palestinian State. However, given the choice between living in a Palestinian State, and continuing to live as Arab citizens of Israel – 95% chose to remain citizens of Israel. Why? Because they know that they enjoy freedom and opportunity, unique in the Middle East, only to the majority Jewish State of Israel.

 

 

 

World hypocrisy!

 

People discuss the Middle East as if it is the most difficult conflict in the world to understand. I think that it is quite simple to describe and relatively easy to understand.

The short version goes something like this…Israel would like to exist and much of the world, as well as many Israelis, have been conned into believing that a Palestinian State will solve the dispute.

If this is correct, then why not make a list of all the other groups in the world that have a stronger, or at least equal, claim for Statehood.

-The Flemish and Wallon separatists in Belgium

-Jura in Switzerland

-Frisian in the Netherlands

-Chechnya and South Ossetia in Russia

-The Basque in Spain

-The Scottish Nationalists and Plaid Cymru of Wales want to separate from Great Britain

-Turkish, Iranian and Syrian Kurds

-Islamic movement in Nigeria

-Disputes between France and Corsica and the Tamil Tigers and Sri Lanka

-Border disputes between Iran, Bahrain, The UAE and others in the region

-Hawaii whose native culture was overrun by American colonialism the later part of the 19^th century.

And on and on and on…..

 

 

 

The difference between Israel and her neighbors

The Arab/Israel problem is caused by the so called Palestinians, and many other Muslim and Arabs that do not recognize the right of Israel to exist. If there is truth in President Obama’s statement that Israel carries an equal burden of guilt for the lack of peace, then how does one explain the existence of numerous terror groups including Hamas, Hezbollah, The PLFP (popular front for the liberation of Palestine), and Fatah etc. on the Arab side, when Israel has nothing close to the equivalent?

When Israeli vigilantes exact revenge in response to terror attacks, they are subject to the full authority of the law. When Arab terrorists murder innocent Israeli citizens, they are greeted as heroes and protected by the lack of law and order that prevails in a functioning democracy.

How does one explain that Arabs dance on the bodies of their dead enemies, while Israel mourns the fact that defending herself results in the unwanted death of terrorists, and innocent civilians, who are deliberately put in the aim of fire to stir world opinion against Israel?

Is the asymmetry of the Arab/Israel conflict not made obvious by the prisoner swap of Gilad Schalit for more than 1,000 terrorists?

Is the asymmetry of the Arab/Israel conflict not evident by remembering that Arabs danced in the streets and on rooftops across the Middle East, upon hearing that the twin towers in Manhattan were downed - with the loss of thousands of American lives?

Hezbollah leader Nasrallah, expressed the core difference between Israel, civil society and the Islamic movement that he leads in the following statements:

“We know how to defeat the Jews. They love life and we love death. Therefore, we will show them death.”

"There is no solution to the conflict in this region except with the disappearance of Israel".

"Our problem with [the Israelis] is not that they are Jews, but that they are occupiers who are raping our land and holy places."

(Nasrallah contradicts the previous statement with the following three quotes)

"If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew.”

"What do the Jews want? They want security and money. Throughout history the Jews have been Allah's most cowardly and avaricious creatures. If you look all over the world, you will find no one more miserly or greedy than they are."

“There is no better blood than the blood of the Jews.”

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu highlighted the complete asymmetry of the conflict by the following statement.

“If the Arabs put down their weapons we will have peace. If Israel lays down her weapons we will have no State.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

    Peace, peace – there is no peace

 

Polls among Palestinians repeatedly show that the overwhelming majority do not recognize the right of the Jewish people to a State; do not want Israel to exist; do not recognize Israel as having any historical or religious basis for existing. This has been the case since 1948, when the British left and the United Nations divided the area into both a Jewish and Palestinian State. The Jews accepted the United Nations partition, despite the fact that it contradicted earlier internationally recognized resolutions granting a much larger area for a Jewish State, including the now contentious territories of Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem. Israel accepted the UN partition, even though these borders left an area the width of 11 kilometers at its narrowest point - inviting Israel’s enemies to split the infant nation in two at the very onset.

Five Arab armies attacked the just declared state. To just about everybody’s surprise, the little Jewish State survived. This happened again in 1967 when the dictator of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser, said he was going to extinguish the State of Israel. Jordan and Syria joined Nasser. Israel attacked first and survived. This is how Israel came in possession of the Biblical areas west of the Jordan River called Judea and Samaria as well as East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and The Sinai Peninsula.

Several years ago, Israel evacuated the Jewish population in the Gaza area. In exchange for its unilateral withdrawal and gesture for peace, Gaza came under the control of Hamas. Thousands of rockets have been fired into Southern Israel from a radicalized Islamic Gaza.

My wife and I recently stayed at a bed and breakfast in the Golan Heights. The B & B is owned and operated by one of the families that were evacuated from their home in the Jewish community of Neve Dekalim in the Gaza district. I could only imagine the pain that this family, with their young children, endured by being forcefully evicted from their home. What for? So that Hamas can now use the area that used to be a peaceful Jewish community, to fire life threatening missiles at the Israeli population in the southern half of Israel?

After the War in 1967, whose purpose was to annihilate Israel, the Arabs met in the city of Khartoum, Sudan, and announced what became known as the “3 no’s.”

No recognition of Israel

No negotiations with Israel

No peace with Israel

 

 

 

Years later, Israel, Egypt and Jordan agreed to make peace. Egypt and Jordan made peace with Israel because they realized that it was in their best interest to court the United States and Western Europe, removing them from the Soviet sphere of influence. The United States offered very generous economic and military aid to sweeten the pot.

Israel evacuated the entire Sinai Peninsula captured from Egypt, as well as the oil fields that would have guaranteed Israel long term energy independence.

It was easy for Egypt and Jordan to separate their conflict with Israel from the “Palestinian problem.” They never really cared about the Palestinians. They are only interested in using the Palestinians as a political deck of cards for continued propaganda against the State of Israel in international forums.

If the Palestinian issue is so important, then why didn’t the subject of Palestinian statehood come up when Jordan had military jurisdiction over the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) from 1948-1967? Why is there no call for a Palestinian state in Jordan, which has a population overwhelmingly Palestinian? There is no mention of the fact that the minority ruling Hashemite leaders are transplants from Saudi Arabia. They were given Jordan as a present for allying themselves with Britain, by joining in the “great Arab revolt,” that led to the downfall of the Ottoman Empire and control of the area under the flag of Union Jack.

The truth is that they started talking about a Palestinian State once they were under Israeli rule, because after 1967, it became a means by which to destroy the State of Israel.

How can anyone claim that the settlements are an obstacle to peace? After the war in 1967, there was not a single Jew living in Judea, Samaria, East Jerusalem and The Sinai Peninsula – and the answer to Israel’s request for peace treaties with her neighbors was?

No recognition of Israel

No negotiations with Israel

No peace with Israel

 

The ironic twist is that if not for the settlements, the Palestinian Authority would not be interested in negotiating with Israel. What would they negotiate about? Tel Aviv, Haifa, Netanya, Ben-Gurion international airport?

 

 

 

I am a political novice. I can only offer the analysis of someone looking at the politicians and speculating what is really going on behind closed doors. With that said, my analysis of the current situation is as such:

Israel is very divided over if, and what, the next step in the political process should be. However, Israel is united over the fact that it must remain a Jewish and democratic State. Most Israelis are in favor of further territorial concessions as a way of removing the need for us to dominate between three and four million Arabs living in Judea, Samaria, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.  The thought is that unless Israel disengages from the Palestinian population, and withdraws to “defensible” lines closer to the ‘67 border, settlement growth will remove the option of two states. That will create the demographic reality whereby the Palestinians will push for a one-state solution where they will become a majority.

The unilateral pullout from Gaza in 2005, and the botched government attempt to rebuild the lives of 8,000 Jews evacuated from their homes, has made further large scale evacuations of settlements repugnant to most of the Israeli public.

Originally Ariel Sharon’s vision was that of “unilateral disengagement.” This assumed that Israel had no peace partner, and that Israel needed to make its own decision as to what is the best course of action to secure Israel as a Jewish State in the future.

His grand plan was disrupted by intense rocket attacks on Israel following the 2005 Gaza withdrawal, a violent Hamas takeover of Gaza, a war in Lebanon in 2006 which resulted in Hezbollah shooting thousands of missiles at Israel’s Northern civilian communities, and a debilitating stroke which left Prime Minister Sharon in a comatose vegetable state.

All this, together with the current upheaval in the Arab world, has for now, left Israel with an unstable position from which to advance political talks. The biggest question is with whom to negotiate?

I do not believe that Israel will make further territorial withdrawals – not because the majority is steadfast in our belief of God’s Biblical promises, but because of security needs. Every time there has been an Israeli consensus in the past for serious negotiations, the Palestinians have put their foot in their proverbial mouth, and pulled the plug for one reason or another.

Again, it is as if God is hardening Pharaoh’s heart, reminding Israel not to despair - but to continue building and settling the Biblical Land of Israel.

I think that it is rather obvious to the objective mind, that if it were up to the Israeli people, there would have been peace a long time ago.

The vast majority of Christian audiences I speak to agree that Israel must retain control of Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem. Nevertheless, it is important to understand the security burden, and moral issues, of controlling another population.  Having lived under the domination of others throughout history, Israelis are by nature uncomfortable with a security situation that requires us to regulate the lives of several million Palestinians. This is a dilemma that we live with from day to day. In the meantime, there is no alternative to the present situation. What the future will bring is a subject of much debate.

 

 

 

The first Jewish Kingdom reigned between 1000-586 B.C.E.

The second Jewish Kingdom reigned between 538 B.C.E. - 70 C.E.

Jews lived in Israel in small numbers, continuously, throughout the centuries, despite that fact that the vast majority were exiled into diaspora (*) all over the world

(*Diaspora-the scattering of Jews to countries outside of Israel after the Babylonian captivity)

 

The modern State of Israel was established in 1948

There has never been an autonomous Arab State west of the Jordan River

There has never been an autonomous Muslim State west of the Jordan River

                                             

                                  

 

Ask Arabs and Muslims why there can’t be a tiny little Jewish State called Israel no larger than the size of the State of New Jersey? Why can’t it be allowed to exist? That in a nutshell is the Israeli/Palestinian/Arab/Muslim problem.

 

 

 

     Have the Jews been replaced by the Church?

 

The early followers of Jesus were almost entirely Jews. During the ensuing centuries, the focus of Christianity moved to Europe. European Christianity shed the legalism of traditional Judaism. Gentiles spread the Gospel to other Gentiles and assumed the place of the Jewish people. The Gospel of Jesus Christ spread rapidly in Europe. Jews turned inward in order to protect themselves and their traditions from outside influences. The history books that I have read on the subject shed light on the fact that the Jesus of Christianity was conveniently removed from Jesus, the Jewish teacher of 2,000 years ago.

 

Matthew 5:17

"Don't misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the Law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose”

 

Romans 2:13

“For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.”

 

 

 

Has God abandoned the Jewish people? Two of numerous scriptures on the subject:

Jeremiah 31:34-35

“So said the Lord, Who gives the sun to illuminate the day, the laws of the moon and the stars to illuminate at night. Who stirs up the sea and its waves roar, the Lord of Hosts is His name. If these laws depart from before Me, says the Lord, so will the seed of Israel cease being a nation before Me for all time.”

“Jeremiah 36

So said the Lord; if the heavens above will be measured and the foundations of the earth below will be fathomed, I too will reject all the seed of Israel.”

God will reject the Jewish people when the sun ceases to shine in the sky, the moon is never seen at night, when the crash of waves is no longer heard when landing on the beaches of the world, and when we have discovered everything about planet earth, and the expansiveness of what exists in and beyond time and space.

In other words……NEVER!

For centuries the Catholic Church kept its people in the dark by maintaining illiteracy, poverty and total subservience to the Church. By the time the reformation came along, Church replacement of Israel and the depths of hatred toward the Jews of Europe had long been embedded in the psyche of European Christianity.

Our challenge today is to reverse a 2000 year trend and set the Bible on its proper course of Jew and Gentile walking together for the sake of Zion.

 

 

 

       Wow, if every Christian had this relationship to Israel!

 

The pain of the past 2,000 years leaves a collective scar which may take Jews generations to overcome. Close personal relationships between identifying Jews and Gentiles are not common. However, part of the Christian community is extending its hand in a way never before experienced in the history of Christian/Jewish relations. We Jews have to learn how to accept the hand of friendship without feeling that it is threatening our identity.

There are several extraordinary examples of Christian friendship and support for Israel. Take for example “Christians United for Israel,” founded and led by Pastor John Hagee of San Antonio, Texas. In the short span of several years, Christians United For Israel (CUFI) is growing so quickly, that I have heard it is impossible to give an accurate count of membership due to its exponential growth. They have substantial representation in every State of the Union, as well as Canada. It has large bless Israel events in major cities across America, a huge annual national conference in Washington D.C., and is a powerful pro-Israel lobby, working diligently to influence policy decisions in the White House and on Capitol Hill.

 

 

 

Dr. Mike Evans is the most prominent Christian Zionist. He is regarded as the father of Christian Zionism. Dr. Evans is a prominent author with more than 35 books and twenty five million copies supporting Israel in circulation around the world. Together with thousands of speeches defending Israel since the 1970’s, he has galvanized millions of Christians in support of the State of Israel.

Dr. Evans has a fascinating personal story.  He was born in 1947. His mother was a non-practicing Jew and his Christian father an emotionally and physically abusive anti-Semitic alcoholic.

Dr. Evans was the eldest of seven children. He was deeply hurt by the regular abuse that his mother took from his father, but felt helpless to defend her. As a result of his father’s regular physical abuse of his mother, Dr. Evans learned to hate Christians. His mother taught him to distrust Christians. Dr. Evans recounts…

“She didn’t like Christians. The first time I heard about Jesus, I was watching cartoons and Billy Graham came on and my mother ran over and said, ‘Don’t ever watch this! Christians hate Jews. Christians kill Jews. Jesus died. Don’t dig him up.’”

He found out later that his grandfather was a Rabbi in Minsk, Russia, and had nearly been killed when a group of Christians tried to burn down his Synagogue, while they chanted accusations of Jews being “Christ killers.”

During one of his father’s abusive tirades against his mother, he tried to defend his mother. His father beat him within an inch of his life. As a result of the circumstances of his upbringing, Dr. Evans didn’t believe in God and held a grudge against Christianity. The night of this awful beating at the hands of his father, he had a vision in which Jesus spoke words of love and compassion. He subsequently became a devout Christian. He started reading the Scriptures and realized that the centrality of his faith rested on Israel. Israel became a metaphor for his mother, whom he could not protect as a boy. This started the beginning of Dr. Mike Evan’s uncompromising support for Israel and the Jewish People.

What makes this story even more fascinating is the fact that Dr. Evans is a Jew by virtue of being born to a Jewish mother. When asked about his faith he said, “I’m very, very honored and privileged to have a Jewish mother. And everybody that’s a friend of mine in Israel – and I have hundreds of friends in Israel – considers me to be a Jew. So I say that I’m a Christian, because that’s my faith.”

Dr. Evans became good friends with former Prime Minister Menachem Begin in the 1970’s. In 1979, Begin told him that he would like to write an endorsement of his book, entitled, Israel: America’s Key to Survival. Dr. Evans refused. When Begin asked why, he said he was afraid that Begins positive review of the book would generate criticism from the Jewish community because he was endorsing the book of a Jew that believed in Jesus. An always considerate Evans didn’t want to cause Begin public embarrassment.

In a humorous response typical of Menachem Begin he replied, “Look, I also believe in the Messiah. The only difference is that you know his name and I don’t. Why is it such a big difference between us?”

There are over 50 million American Evangelicals. This works out to approximately one out of every six Americans. Anyone that thinks this huge base of Israel support has not influenced political decisions made at the highest levels in Washington D.C., is wrong. My opinion is, that this powerful voter base is the main reason the United States has stood by Israel throughout consecutive US presidential administrations, dating back several decades. The Jewish population of the United States has certainly influenced US/Israel relations. However, the pro-Israel Evangelical community is now ten times the size of American Jewry and growing fast.

Dr. Evans modestly comments, “It is my greatest hope that the bridge I began building with Menachem Begin in the 1970’s only grows stronger.”

 

 

 

 

 

The remarkable story of Dr. Evans stirs my memory regarding some of the amazing people I have met in Ministry since 1998.

Their sincerity and efforts on my behalf are way beyond the confines of average human behavior. Such was the case with an incredible man I met during a trip to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA many years ago. He was so moved by my presentation, to the extent that he invested enormous amounts of time and energy the following year on behalf of Shuva Israel. He published numerous articles about our organization in Christian newspapers in the Midwest. He also compiled a small packet of relevant material and sent it, together with a cover letter, to over one hundred churches to try and open the door for me to speak from their pulpits.

Despite not receiving even a single response, he did not become discouraged or disillusioned.  He refused to give up. He personally called each and every one of those churches in a follow up effort to open their doors to Israel.

On the surface, his efforts might appear to have been meaningless.  I now know, however, that he was another person I came into contact with, who was serving a Greater Purpose; one that I do not fully comprehend. Indeed, I believe that he was sent to facilitate a Heavenly aim.

People like this man deserve much merit. It is ironic though, that people such as he, are the ones who never expect, or ask, for reward or personal recognition. They toil not for personal gain, but rather they invest their time and energies knowing that they serve a noble cause.

I have learned to appreciate the efforts of hundreds of people that have helped throughout the years, regardless of whether their time and energy bore results.

These exceptional people exemplify the following quotes from the New Testament regarding “faith and deeds.”

James 2:14-24

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder.

You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,’ and he was called God’s friend.

You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.”

 

 

 

I often think of our lives as analogous to a balance beam. We are like gymnasts on a balance beam where every little motion, in any direction, can have huge consequences on the future path and meaning of our precarious existence. In this case, a simple telegram warning my grandmother not to leave the United States for Europe was the difference.

Three years after World War II ended, the Modern State of Israel was given International legitimacy via passage of a resolution in the United Nations General Assembly. The resolution recognized a Jewish and Arab State in the area, referred to as - Palestine.

To be more accurate, the Modern State of Israel was given international legitimacy by the Balfour Declaration in 1917 and at the San Remo Conference of 1920.

Regarding the San Remo Conference, Howard Grief, the author of the book The Legal Foundation and Borders of Israel under International Law wrote,

“Any serious analysis of these two resolutions (United Nations Israel Partition Resolution in 1947 vs. the San Remo in 1920) will demonstrate that the Partition Resolution actually contradicted both the letter and the spirit of the San Remo Resolution, in that the former (UN Resolution) illegally allotted a substantial portion of Western Palestine for the establishment of an Arab state, territory which the San Remo Resolution had earmarked, on the basis of the historical/biblical formula for determining Palestine’s boundaries for the Jewish National Home and the future independent Jewish State. Furthermore, under the San Remo Resolution the Arabs were generously awarded all the land they needed for their own state or states in the rest of the Middle East or Levant.”

 

 

 

  My German Grandfather from Berlin

 

When Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, declared the establishment on May 14, 1948 of the independent State of Israel, my German grandfather cried and mourned. He was devastated by the destruction of two thirds of European Jewry in the death camps, designed and built by his previously perceived culturally elite and tolerant Germany. His identity as a proud German was shattered and buried together with the ashen remains of 6 million European Jews. He realized that the cruelty of German anti-Semitism showed no distinction between Orthodox, non-Orthodox, assimilated, University graduates, Physicians, Philosophers, Physicists, Musicians, young, old, women, men….all Jews regardless of whether they wore the traditional customary black hats, jackets and trousers of Hasidic (ultra-Orthodox) Jews, or assimilated and secularly educated Jews that were accepted as part and parcel of the German intellectual elite…..all were sent to the death camps. If this could happen in his dear and beloved Germany, it could happen anywhere, and at any future point in history. Anti-Semitism was a scourge that remained just below the surface - like a disease just waiting to reappear after years of dormancy.

This completely destroyed my grandfather’s notion that the Jewish experience in Germany was the beginning of the successful process of complete Jewish assimilation among the nations. According to his logic, complete assimilation of Jews was the only way to rid the world of anti-Semitism. He believed that the 10 Jewish tribes lost to history thousands of years ago, would be the precedent by which the remaining Jews in the world today would be absorbed and assimilated into the nations around them. At approximately 12 million, we are but a fraction of one percent of the world’s population.

With his belief that complete assimilation was the solution to eradicating anti-Semitism, one can perhaps understand why my grandfather cried tears of pain and mourned when on May 14, 1948, the Jewish People's Council declared the establishment of the State of Israel at Independence Hall in Tel Aviv.  With his grasp of European history, and his deep anguish over centuries of suffering, he foresaw that the creation of the State of Israel would usher in yet another future opportunity, and staging ground, for the continuation of anti-Semitic persecution of the Jew.  It was as if he foresaw the day when the world would turn against Israel, and Jews would once again face the wrath of the nations. In this respect, my grandfather was certainly correct.

 

 

 

Amazing vision of Ezekiel 37

 

I am attempting to explain a variety of Jewish mind sets. There are those, like myself, that believe God will continue to preserve a remnant of the Jewish people to fulfill his ancient promise of returning all the house of Israel back to our land. My Jewish identity cannot exist without my physical presence in Israel. It is a privilege that our generation has been blessed with the opportunity to return to our Biblical inheritance. Two thousand years of prayers are being fulfilled by every Jewish family that makes Israel their home. The future of the Jewish people is in Israel. If a play called “Jewish identity” were being performed, then Israel would stand directly at center stage. I believe that it is only in Israel that we can thrive and carry out our God given mission.

There are Jews who have chosen consciously, or sub consciously, to assimilate in the surrounding cultures. There are many Jews that continue to have a thinly veiled Jewish identity, while juggling various levels of Jewish observance. This ultimately leads to a gradual descent into assimilation, within at most a generation or two. Painful as it is, neither of these two categories of assimilated and assimilating Jews play a significant role in current Israel.

It is disconcerting to see many Jews squander their birthright and become indistinguishable from the nations they live among. However, I would like to look at it from a different and more positive perspective. Imagine the magnificence of the miracle that God will perform when, as outlined in the Bible, God uncovers the identities of all the children of Israel, and brings ALL of them back home to Israel.

The Biblical promise is not limited to the descendants of Judah, who are present day Jews. They lived in homogeneous communities throughout history, until the choice of assimilation first presented itself in a liberalized European environment beginning approximately 150 years ago.

Are you excited about the present day miracle of Judah returning to Israel? Imagine the miracle magnified a hundred fold! Contemplate God revealing the identity and location of the tribes lost to Israel 2,500 years ago! Visualize the lost tribes streaming back home to Israel with the members of Judah that have assimilated or were forced through anti-Semitic edicts to abandon their Judaism! Can you imagine what it will be like when God exposes the identity of all these “lost ones” and stirs their hearts to come home? WOW!

The ungodly world will gasp in wonderment. The magnificence and significance of this will profoundly change every human being walking the earth, as they will come to know through this utterly miraculous happening, that there is only One God in Heaven – The Covenant keeping God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Biblical history will come full circle with the return of the descendants of Jacob/Israel to the Land where He chooses to reveal Himself in the most spectacular fashion.

 

 

Ezekiel 37

“And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: And you, son of man, take for yourself one stick and write upon it, ‘For Judah and for the children of Israel his companions’ ;and take one stick and write upon it, ‘For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel, his companion.’ And bring them close, one to the other into one stick, and they shall be one in your hand. And when the children of your people say to you, ‘Will you not tell us what there are to you?’ Say to them, So says the Lord God: Behold I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim and the tribes of Israel his companions, and I will place them with him the stick of Judah, and I will make them into one stick, and they shall become one in My hand.

And the sticks upon which you shall write shall be in your hand before their eyes. And say to them, So says the Lord God, Behold I will take the children of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side, and I will bring them to their land.

And I will make them into on nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be to them all as a king; and they shall no longer be two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms anymore.

And they shall dwell on the land that I have given to My servant, to Jacob, wherein your forefathers lived; and they shall dwell upon it, they and their children and their children’s children, forever.

And I will form a covenant of peace for them, an everlasting covenant shall be with them; and I will establish them and I will multiply them, and I will place My Sanctuary in their midst forever.

And My dwelling place shall be over them, and I will be to them for a God, and they shall be to Me as a people.

And the nations shall know that I am the Lord, Who sanctifies Israel, when my Sanctuary is in their midst forever.”

 

And as if this is not the most amazing developing story in human history then consider this: During my travels, people have asked my opinion of the theory that descendants of the lost tribes are members of terrorist groups like the Taliban, Al Qaeda and others fighting Israel and Western Civilization. I was horrified when I first heard this. On further consideration, can you imagine the million fold magnification of God’s miracles if the greatest enemies of Israel and democracy repent, and turn their hearts from hate to love? Can you fathom the Parliaments of Europe most critical of Israel making a complete about face, and extending the hand of complete support to the State of Israel? So seemingly far-fetched is this scenario to mankind, yet so easily in the Hand of the God of miracles and wonders.

(If you think this is a silly notion, then do a goggle search for “Son of Hamas” and imagine this happening to all of Israel’s enemies.)

 

 

 

 

Have you ever stood in complete darkness and peered at the stars in the sky? Have you contemplated the boundlessness of space and time? Can we count the number of sand grains on the beaches of the world? God’s exposing the identity and whereabouts of the descendants of Israel, will be analogous to the ease with which we snap our fingers. It will change the world as we have known it throughout history. It will refine human nature, and bring us in line with Godly attributes including peaceful coexistence with all of humanity.

 

 

 

Born in the USA

 

I was not born in the walled Jewish ghettos of Europe. I was born and educated in the United States of America. The founding principles of the United States set it apart from all other countries. The end of the War of independence from Britain in 1776, The Declaration of Independence, constitution, bill of rights and system of government opened doors of opportunity for the Jew, the extent of which had never existed.  The United States is an historical baby compared to European countries. However, America distinguished itself by birthing a nation that constitutionally guaranteed civil rights and freedom regardless of religion.

The treatment of blacks, Native Americans (Indian tribes), and occasional outbursts of anti-Semitism, were in direct contradiction to the founding principles of America. The United States of America has matured greatly regarding discriminatory behavior toward minority groups. American society is so ethnically, racially and religiously diverse that it had no choice, other than an unthinkable second civil war.

As a young boy I remember country clubs, and other private institutions that were not open to Jews, Blacks and other minority groups. A neighborhood of approximately 300 families, close to where I grew up, was exclusive to Caucasian Christians. It was against the law to discriminate; however the neighborhood had a mutually agreed upon, unwritten understanding, that anyone not like them was strongly discouraged from moving into the area. In the last 40 years this has completely changed as the barriers have come down, bringing integration to virtually every residential area and work place.  Businesses and private institutions would face massive legal suits if they dared to violate Federal and State laws of discrimination.

Jews, including myself, were given the freedom to create our own destiny and free will, to define our Jewish identity as we pleased, or to choose not to identify as Jews at all.

My Jewish identity developed as I read the Bible and books on Jewish History. I became aware of the travails that my people experienced since the birth of Abraham. With freedom of choice, I chose the path of strong Jewish identity because of my deep faith in the promises of God to the Jewish People. I also realized that even if we run away from our identity, the resurgence of anti-Semitism can force our identity on us in any place and at any time.  This being the case, I decided as a young teenager to embrace my Jewish identity, acknowledging Israel as the center of the Jewish Universe. Everything Jewish revolves around Israel’s powerful gravitational pull.

I find it of great interest that two totally opposite, and seemingly contradictory phenomenon in Jewish life are occurring today at the very same time. On one hand, Jews outside of Israel are assimilating in greater numbers than at any point in history. On the other hand, the dreams and prayers of 2,000 years are being realized through the reestablishment and immigration of millions of Jews to the State of Israel. More Jews are enrolled in Bible schools in Israel than at any point in history.

We are witnessing two totally different, disconnected, and seemingly contradictory Jewish paths occurring at precisely the same time in history. Is it strange? Not really, as we are described in the Bible for better or for worse, as a “stiff necked people.”

 

 

 

    Not being judgemental

 

“They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace” Jeremiah 6:14

Today as I travel and speak in churches, prayer houses and home groups in numerous countries, I am often asked why many Israeli’s, as well as diaspora Jews, support further Israeli territorial concessions? I am often asked how we can consider compromise in light of God’s Biblical promises to return the Jewish people as the legitimate heirs to the Land Of Israel. I am asked why Israeli political leaders show a lack of faith through their readiness to compromise.

As difficult and near impossible as it may be, try to imagine that you are in our shoes.

I wrote briefly about my childhood, and my grandfather, to give a few examples of the range of thought processes that run through the Jewish mind. One of the most difficult questions that just about every Israeli asks is: just how much more can we sacrifice for the sake of retaining every inch of the Land of Israel that we currently hold? We are a people that desire peace. We have suffered immeasurably throughout history and are tired of war.  Peace is an extremely important Biblical concept. Isaiah 2:4 "And He will judge between the nations, And will render decisions for many peoples; And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war."

Joel 3:10 "Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears; Let the weak say, "I am a mighty man."

Micah 4:3 "And He will judge between many peoples And render decisions for mighty, distant nations. Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they train for war."

Is there a point at which we can and should compromise for the sake of peace with our neighbors even if it means giving up part of our inheritance?

Many Israelis ask themselves this question, and struggle to find an answer. I try not to be judgmental of those espousing territorial compromise. One does not know if personal experience and/or tragedy shaped their opinion. It is always easier to pass judgment then to try and understand how people have formulated views different than our own.

We have several neighbors that have lost sons in battle, or members of their family in terrorist incidents. In light of their personal sacrifice, if they were to express that Israel should try again to hand over territory in yet another effort to obtain peace, I would refrain from passing judgment, and understand that their opinion was most likely shaped out of personal tragedy.

I am trying as best I can to give a surface explanation of the Jewish historical experience, with the hope of increasing sensitivity as to why Jews react the way we do…and in particular why the Jewish people collectively have negative opinions of Christianity. After speaking in thousands of Christian Churches, prayer houses, prayer and Bible groups, since 1998, on behalf of Shuva Israel, my opinions and understanding of Christianity has evolved considerably.

I personally do not wrestle with the notion of “territory for peace.” Our enemies have made it easy for me to express a complete lack of confidence in the so called “peace process.” Israel’s opponents are not interested in peace. They are interested in the continuation of the effort to destroy Israel. The peace process of the last decades has been a farce, as Israeli concessions have only led to an increase in terrorism and extremism. The peace process, in their eyes, is just another stage toward the elimination of the State of Israel.

 

 

 

   A terrorist incident close to home

 

On a Saturday night in March, 2002, a suicide bomber found his way to the food court area of our shopping mall. Our outdoor shopping mall has about 20 stores of varying size, and is a source of pride to everyone living in the Shomron (Hebrew for Samaria). The terrorist was strapped with explosives loaded with nails and ball bearings. He murdered three teenagers from our neighborhood and injured many more. We have had numerous other terror attacks. Security greatly improved after the suicide bombing on that tragic night. The roads are now the preferred choice for terrorist activity. The Israeli army provides incredible protection, however there is no such thing as one hundred percent prevention. I would like to share with you the words of one of the mothers who lost her teenage daughter.

I hope that reading her letter will help you understand the difficulty of yearning for peace while living in a constant state of war and terrorism.

(I have deliberately not made any content or language-related corrections to the letter. It remains in its original form.)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

“The past month has probably been the worst in my life.  The non-imaginable happened.  Well, the almost non-imaginable.  I lost my 16-year old daughter and almost my 14-year old son in yet another senseless bombing.

And why do I say "almost non-imaginable"?  Well, I grew up in the suburbs of London where life seemed very quiet…

I made Aliyah originally in 1981.  I guess I kind of fell in love with the country.  It was my home, the home of the Jews.  That's how I felt back then, and still do today. I later went to live in the U.S., Brooklyn, New York.

I returned to Israel in 1997 with my children.  I had always wanted them to grow up in Israel, believing that a child's life would be lived to its fullest here.  I always believed there was something very special for children here, there was always the feeling that the child of one is like the child of everyone else, loved and cared for, and looked on as a jewel.  My children had always talked about living in Eretz Yisroel, as they would say when they were young, and I made it happen in 1997.

Struggles were had, and that first year was probably very hard for Rachel, Leor and Zvi, living in a new country, learning to speak a new language, and going to school with new friends.  But the kids of Ginot Shomron and Neve Aliza opened up their arms to my three kids, and with time, they became part of the chevrei (friends).

I discovered Ginot Shomron on a pilot trip.  It was my dream to live either in the hills or near the sea.  And for now, I found the hills.  The only hesitation of living here was that to go to work meant a long trip every day to wherever I was able to find work, and I did find work as an English secretary, but it was always at least an hour's journey in each direction, morning and evening.  But my consolation was the fact that I always believed my children to be safe, growing up and living away from the usual hubub of town life.

Back in September 2000, when the recent Intifada started up, my outlook on life began to change.  All of a sudden, I would be driving home and after the initial shock of hearing shooting to my side as I would pass by Kalkilya (an Arab town), it became a part of my life.  I accepted it the same as I would having to stop at a red light, or sitting in a line of traffic.  Then the shooting attacks and bombings became more and more frequent, and the news would reveal the latest family or families torn apart by their individual tragedies of losing a family member.  It was still distant, but again it became a part of our daily lives.  Tanks then started appearing in the vicinity and some of the neighboring villages, many soldiers around, things that don't really fit into the life of a suburban Londoner, yet here it was, and again it was something that I accepted as in any other routine.

The shootings and bombings continued and no longer were they things that happened to other people, it was getting closer and closer to home.  It was already close enough in that the victims were family members of friends or neighbors, and even neighbors, themselves, and I began to realize that it would just be a matter of time.  And yes, that is when I would start to imagine about how it would feel if it happened to me.  All sorts of images would go through my head, but my biggest worry was that it would be me shot dead by some passing Arab, and then my children would be left without a mother, and how would they survive.  But my imagination took the wrong line.  It wasn't me; it was two of my children.  Rachel didn't make it, Leor did, but he suffered pain and experiences that I can't even fathom. I will never forget the night of the bombing.  It was a bad dream come true.  Nothing more, nothing less.  I knew Rachel was there, I knew she was hurt, but I couldn't find her.  It seemed like hours and hours, and all I could think of was that she needed me by her, yet I didn't even know where she was.  And what seemed like a short while before I learned which hospital she was in, I discovered that Leor was also there, lying somewhere in an ambulance or hospital, also needing me and I could not be there. So yes, now, it became a reality.  It happened this time not to some family member of a friend, or neighbor, it happened to me, it happened to my children.  Our lives have now been changed forever.

The days that followed had no beginnings and no endings.  I floated through time and was held up by the endless arms of my friends and neighbors who were there for me, with me, with Rachel and with Leor, as well as those at home who were there for Zvi.  I never knew what true support was until this time, this nightmare. And then Rachel died.  Rachel, my only daughter, Rachel, my love, I loved her dearly, still do, with a lot of pain, and always will. Rachel started out in life as a miracle.  She was born after 28 weeks of pregnancy (1.2 kg), she was born on the 28th day of the month, and she was buried on the 28th day of the month.  Three times 28.  Does that have some kind of meaning?  The two other children who died initially, Karen and Nechemia, Rachel now made that number three.  Again that number three.  Karen's name in Hebrew, Kuf, Raish, Nun.  Kuf-Karen, Raish-Rachel, Nun-Nechemia.  People whispered that at the Shiva (the traditional seven day mourning period for the dead) the first night, not wanting me to hear, but I heard and I insisted they told me what they were whispering.  Again, three letters to Karen's name, the initials of the three children.  Yes, again the number three. So now, this evening, I sit here writing this story, well, not really story but reality, reality in my life and in my children's lives. If whoever has made it to the end of the words above, I want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart and my soul for all the support and help you have all given to me during this terrible ordeal.  People have helped me financially as well, they have donated money to various schools in Rachel's name for which I am extremely honored.  I really have no words to describe what all this has meant to me.  Thank you all.

And as I end up my little saga, I would like to find a way to make people realize the importance of the State of Israel. We cannot let our Arab neighbors/terrrorists win, we cannot let them get the better of us, we cannot stop living because of them.  We have to go on, to continue and to live to the best of our ability, because if we don't, then we have given in and given up, and they will have won.  And if they have won, then Rachel, Nechemia and Karen died for nothing.

This war, and it is just that, a war against us as a people, us as Jews, and us as a nation, may go on forever, but we must never give up and must never run away.  Rachel believed so strongly in all this, and for her, and Karen and Nechemia, we must keep on.  And we must make the rest of the world realize that this is not just our fight, it is the fight of every Jew throughout the Universe, both religious and nonreligious, from every background.   It is also a fight against terrorism.   And today, terrorism is becoming more understood by other nations throughout the world.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

After this awful tragedy, Rachel’s mother faced the incredibly difficult decision of donating her daughters organs, knowing they could end up going to either a Jewish or Arab citizen of the State of Israel.  The State of Israel makes no distinction between its citizens, as far as transplants are concerned. Transplants are determined by medical need only.

One year later, we attended the memorial ceremony for the three teenagers. Our daughter located the young Russian immigrant whose life was saved through the transplant of one of Rachel’s kidneys. There was not a single dry eye in the audience when the young man was introduced to Rachel’s mother.

Miracle and tragedy/life and death wrapped up in the same moment - Another example of the fate of the Jewish people, and to a great extent that of humanity.

 

 

 

Our paradox

 

Wherever you stand with Israel politically, try to gain an insight into the tragic historical events that have shaped and molded the Jewish people to be what we are today.  If you can even partially accomplish this, then you will become an Israeli ambassador of good will by empowering yourself to answer many of the questions that are repeatedly asked of me during my travels.

We Israelis are divided over how to proceed politically while living in a sea of animosity. However in light of our collective historical experience, we are unified in our constant desire and quest for peace.

How can we retain our land without continuing the painful sacrifices that we experience every day? This is one of the many paradoxes that we live with every minute of every day in Israel. Our very survival, despite our internal differences and the external security pressures that our enemies exert on us, is one of the most remarkable achievements of any nation on the face of the earth.

In my opinion, the notion of a sincere peace process now, or in the near or distant future, is absurd. Every time Israel makes, or tries to make, concessions, it is hit with what I call the “hardening of Pharaoh’s heart.” Just as Pharaoh never intended to let the Jewish people go thousands of years ago, so too Israel’s enemies today have no intention of letting the State of Israel live in peace among its Arab and Muslim neighbors.

It is as if God is sending us a clear message that it is not our Land to give away. It is God’s land. As the seed of Abraham, God has given us custodial powers - the key to the Land. He has made the desert bloom and brought home millions of exiled Jews. He has given us the ability to become an agricultural, scientific and high tech powerhouse, able to benefit the rest of the world. One of my favorite expressions regarding Israel’s miraculous development as a major player in the high tech industry….”Developed in Israel – manufactured elsewhere in the world.”

We have been blessed with the intellectual know how by which humanity can raise itself to new levels. Prime Minister Golda Meir’s vision of the 1950’s was for Israel to turn the desert in to an agricultural oasis. Then, we could extend our expertise in agriculture to benefit the African Continent so that it could feed millions of hungry people. The first part of the vision has been fulfilled. Israel has become the breadbasket of fruits and vegetables that appear on the shelves of supermarkets all over Europe, North America and the Far East. The second part of Golda’s vision has yet to be fulfilled.  The Arab and Muslim countries prevented its fulfillment by exerting political pressure to hamper relations between Israel and Africa. This too is on the verge of changing!

 

 

 

Imagine the incredible miracle of Israel, considering the fact that two-thirds of the borders defined as the State of Israel by the United Nations in 1947 were desert. God often reveals himself in mysterious ways. What lay underneath the seeming wasteland of Israel? – The most fertile soil on the planet, that produces the most amazing variety of fruits and vegetables that end up on the plates of countries that look far more suitable to grow such beautiful and tasty produce.

If God can figure out how the desert sands can produce incredible fruits and vegetables, then God can certainly find a way beyond the current political impasse.

The lesson of the “spies” sent to scout ancient Israel was “Do not judge a book by its cover.” It is not a mistake that we needed to dig through the initial layer of sand and rock to find the “Land of milk and honey.” I believe God planned Israel this way so that we needed to toil and sweat to expose the riches of the land. By so doing, we express our trust in God’s blessings for the land, and through that blessing develop innovations that bless the entire world. As we fulfill this destiny, we truly become a “light unto the nations.”

 

 

 

Why The Land of Milk and Honey?

 

Why is Israel referred to as the “The Land of Milk and Honey”?

Rabbi Mencahem Posner answers the question as follows…

“When God spoke to Moses at the burning bush, He informed him that He would redeem the Israelites and bring them to a ‘good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey..."

1 - Honey here (and elsewhere in the Scriptures) is generally understood to be a reference to fruit nectar, specifically date honey—not bees' honey.

2 - The Jewish scholar Nachmanides, writes that the key word in the verse is ‘flowing.’ Fruit trees grow in many different terrains, but their produce overflow with nectar only when the land is especially fertile, when the trees are particularly well-nourished.

Similarly, livestock survives in many habitats, but only overflow with milk when they are in particularly fertile pastures.

Thus, a ‘land flowing with milk and honey’ is indicative and symptomatic of a greater good—the fertility of the Promised Land.

3- Jewish lore explains that milk symbolizes superior quality, richness of taste, and nourishment. Honey represents sweetness. The goodness of Israel is both nourishing and pleasant.

4 - Some point out that honey and milk share a paradoxical quality. Honey is kosher, though it is produced by a non-kosher insect. Milk is kosher, though it comes from a cow whose meat may not be eaten together with milk. The goodness of Israel will often times come from places where it is least expected.”

 

 

 

Genesis 12 is a two way street. The blessing goes both ways. God mandated the nations of the world to bless Israel.  God gave the key of the Land of Israel to the Jewish People, so that we shall thrive in our Land, and become a blessing to all of mankind.

Think of Israel as an incredibly huge science, medical and high tech laboratory where some of the best minds in the world are creating solutions to today and tomorrows challenges.

When we agree to concede land that is not ours to give away, I believe God sends us a strong message that every inch we have fought and sacrificed for, must remain eternally in our hands. It is where His Holy Presence rests, and therefore we are playing with fire when we compromise His land by attempting to hand it over to those who are not the proper heirs of the Land.

When we concede part of the Land, we diminish ourselves spiritually, reducing our capacity to bless the rest of humanity.

Nevertheless, we live with the current undeniable reality of another antagonistic population sharing the same land with us. Other than praying that God turns their hearts from hate to love, I admit that I do not have a solution to this most difficult political and moral issue.

 

 

 

            What you don’t hear in the news about Islamic Preachers

 

Muslim theologians and clerics often speak of Jews as descendants of pigs and apes.  Abdul Rahman Al-Sudais is the leading imam of the Grand mosque in the holy Islamic city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia. He referred to Jews as "the scum of the human race" and "offspring of apes and pigs." He calls Jews during mass public worship "the worst enemies of Islam… Monkeys and pigs and worshippers of false Gods who are the Jews and the Zionists. Evil offspring, infidels, distorters of the words of others, calf-worshippers, prophet-murderers, prophecy-deniers, the scum of the human race whom Allah cursed and turned into apes and pigs. "

Such expression of Muslim anti-Semitism is very common.  I have yet to hear, anywhere in the Muslim world, a condemnation of such vile words. If this is the venom they feed the minds of their people, does anyone really think that coexistence with Israel is realistic?

In June of 2011, the weekly periodical, The Economist, said that the best way to promote democracy in Turkey would be to vote against Turkish Prime-Minister Tayyip Erdoğan. Soon after the article appeared, Erdoğan responded by saying that the international media is controlled by Jews and Israel.

In all fairness to Erdoğan, he has emphasized that Turkish Jews are a protected minority, and that they are guaranteed freedom to observe their religion. At the same time, Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf has become one of the best-selling books in Turkey.

 

 

 

European Muslim Anti-Semitism

 

The recent increase in European anti-Semitism is very worrisome. Sweden maintained neutrality during World War II and Nazi Germany chose not to divert the resources necessary to invade Sweden. In 1943, when Denmark was ordered to ship its Jewish population of 8,000 to concentration camps, Sweden gave refuge to the entire group, as well as a number of Norwegian Jews escaping the Nazi invasion of Norway.

Sweden has maintained neutrality in international affairs since the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815.  The recent wave of anti-Semitism in Southern Sweden, and Malmo in particular, is very worrisome. Members of the Swedish Parliament have attended anti-Israel rallies where the flag of Israel was torched, while the flags of Hezbollah and Hamas waved with great pride.

The Jews of Malmo live in fear of their Muslim neighbors. There have been vicious Muslim attacks on Jewish children on their way to school in Malmo. About a year ago I met a Jewish family of five that immigrated to Israel from Malmo. The stories that they told sounded like a chapter out of pre-World War II Germany, after the imposition of the Nuremberg discriminatory laws against the Jews of Germany.

An interesting aspect of anti-Jewish Muslim behavior in Europe is the fact that it is directed at Jews living outside of Israel. It is aimed at Jews that have decided not to make Israel their home. One would think that Muslims would be very accepting of Jews that choose to remain in the diaspora. How can Islam claim that the State of Israel is the cause of their problems, if they also target Jews living outside of Israel? How can they protest against the supposed oppression, and persecution, of their Palestinian brothers, while at the same time, violating the civil rights of European Jewish citizens? Arab propaganda falsely claims their right to Palestine is based on living in the land long before it was taken from them by the Jews. How then can European Arabs/Muslims carry out hate crimes against European Jewish communities that preceded Arab/Muslim immigration to Europe by hundreds of years?

Perhaps it is time for European countries to exam the threat that liberal immigration policies are creating for democratic society.

Sweden has been a beacon of European liberalism with respect for freedom and individual civil rights. Sweden falling victim to such behavior is a very negative portend for the rest of Europe.

This is a relatively new phenomenon, and is affecting numerous European countries. It carries with it the very real potential of turning the European continent upside down. The irony is that as the situation worsens in Europe, greater numbers of European Jews are flocking to Israel. Increasing anti-Semitism is strengthening Israel through increased Jewish immigration.

In 2010, a BBC investigation of anti-Semitism uncovered that some 5,000 British school children attending Islamic study programs were using a Saudi textbook that referred to Jews as monkeys and pigs. Watch out Europe before it is too late. What is directed against Jews is spilling over in to non-Islamic society as a whole.

                                             

 

A humbling lesson learned

 

I hope this is a good point for me to offer an apology. In the process of forging relationships, I have made my share of mistakes since my first Church speaking engagement.  To those of you reading these words, if I have insulted, or upset you in any way, I take this occasion to ask your forgiveness. The intention of this book is to build understanding. If my writing has done anything that would indicate the opposite, then I ask you to extend grace.

I committed one of my biggest speaking blunders early on in our journey together. I remember speaking to a fairly large group in the USA and saying, “It makes no difference to me whether you are Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu etc…whatever you believe is unimportant, as long as you stand with Israel.”

We all make mistakes but this was a big one. I had a feeling, before the words shot out my mouth that what I was about to say was inappropriate. Now I know, that if, and when, I have that same feeling – don’t let the lips move. If the inner voice says no – then don’t do it. I think we all have moments where we fight to control what we tell others and how we say it.

After speaking, someone came up to me and said, “Eliezer, you shouldn’t tell us that our Christian belief is irrelevant, and all you care about is that we stand with Israel. Eliezer, our Christian belief IS the reason we love Israel.”

I realized that I disrespected people by what I said because their faith and love for Israel are completely intertwined. I apologized. I also learned another valuable lesson from many of the people that spoke with me after the meeting. While I am sure that they heard what I said, no one else brought it up. Why didn’t they mention it? They extended grace by knowing that I had little experience speaking to Christian groups at that point in time. It was a mistake born out of naivety. It was not intentional, nor did it come from a place of malicious intent.

This may appear to be a small and insignificant example, but to me it opened my heart to appreciating the “little” things people do to honor and show me respect. Not only do people express themselves by what they say, but they often identify themselves, and a true sense of humility, by what they do not say. I try to internalize this, and many other experiences, so that I become a better listener, give people the benefit of the doubt, and improve myself as a human being - whether speaking with an acquaintance, a friend or complete stranger.

The timing of this experience was divine as it prepared me for dealing with what happened less than a week later.

I received an email message from a man in Finland. He came across Shuva Israel’s website and was very excited. He wanted to arrange seven to ten days of speaking engagements for me in Finland. I was very excited. He asked that I contact him in a couple days.

A couple days later, I began chatting with him via instant message. He told me that he had already booked eight days and that the response was so positive, that he would easily schedule the rest. Then he asked me to explain how my Christian/Jewish faith motivated my move to Israel, as well as carrying the message of Zion and Messiah to other believers and non-believers.

I suddenly panicked at the realization that in my excitement, I neglected to give any detail of my Jewish identity. I knew that by using the term Christian/Jew he was referring to Messianic Judaism.

I told him that I should have said something earlier, but that he and I just got caught up in the enthusiasm of the moment. I said that I had developed wonderful relationships with Christians who believe that Genesis 12, and numerous other passages in the Old and New Testament, refer to blessing all of Israel – that a Jew is a Jew. I also mentioned my friendships with Messianic Jews.

He responded by saying that he would not organize any meetings for me.

I was quiet upset. I felt like an emotional ping pong. Suddenly, I remembered the restraint with which people reacted to my verbal blunder the previous week. Instead of ranting and raving at this man, I took a deep breath, let it out and wrote…”I truly regret that you are disengaging yourself. I believe that if you read the Scriptures, God clearly describes that He will judge people according to their treatment of Israel. I hope and pray that you reconsider and that I hear from you again.”

I never heard from him. Perhaps he was sent as a test to see if I had internalized the previous experience, and was able to apply it to this situation.

Instead God opened another door through which I entered Finland.

 

                                                                         

 

 

 

 

  Witnessing the fulfillment of Biblical Scriptures

I can’t count the number of people who have told me that their lives, and the state of their churches, have turned around as soon as they began blessing Israel.  What follows are some brief testimonies.  What they all have in common is their manifestation of the verses from Genesis 12.

I haven’t mentioned Denmark yet. I’d like to tell an amazing story about a Christian radio station in Copenhagen.

Denmark is a secular country. A very small percentage of Danes identify with religion of any type. I am not aware of other Christian radio stations in Denmark, but this particular Christian radio station is under frequent attack from the public. The Danish government itself has tried all kinds of creative ways to shut down the station.

The station has a small church on the top floor of their building that seats about fifty people. I was invited to speak to the Congregation on a weekday; the audience was very receptive and generous.

Several months later, the station owners spent a day with me in Israel. They were the ones who had organized my meeting in the church on the top floor of the radio station in Copenhagen. They related the following story:

“Eliezer, the government has tried closing our broadcasts for years. Several weeks prior to your coming, we received a licensing bill from the Danish government for 185,000 Danish Kroner (approximately $30,000). In other words, they spontaneously created a new tax on private radio stations for the sole purpose of squeezing us out of the government-controlled media.

Where were we going to come up with that kind of money?  Nobody knew!

The day after you spoke in our church and were blessed financially by the handful of people that showed up, I opened the door to the station in the morning and found an envelope with a check for 185,000 Kroner made out to the TV station.

Together with the check, was enclosed a note that said, ‘God told me to give 185,000 Kroner to your station. I do not know why. He just told me I had to do it. I am simply being obedient to God. Here is the money. I trust that HE knows why I have to do this.’ ”

GENESIS 12: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

 

 

 

       Back to Colorado

 

Let’s go back to the big church of 3,500 in Loveland, Colorado.  During my second visit to the church in July, 2002, the pastor told the following story:

He had arrived at the church office one morning and found the note below on his desk:

‘One year ago, I was considering downsizing my construction business. Construction has been hard hit by the economic downturn. I was about to lay off many employees. This man (Eliezer) spoke at our church last year and I gave a large donation and have been supporting his organization monthly. Not only have I not had to let go of any employees, but my business has even grown and I have had to take on more workers. I am convinced that this man is responsible for the good fortune of my business. I encourage anyone here today to support his efforts and bless Israel.’

GENESIS 12: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

 

 

 

 

I vowed I would never go to Germany!

 

As a result of all I learned about the Holocaust, I vowed early on in life never to step foot on German soil.  Sometimes we make promises that are meant to be broken. Rarely, but it does happen!

I was invited by a friend of a friend to speak to several groups in the area of Stuttgart, Germany. With total disregard to the vow I made not to go to Germany, I told him that I would come. I realized that my enthusiastic response was God’s way of telling me that the vow not to go to Germany was superseded by my promise to make an effort to reach out to Israel’s friends regardless of where they are.

A couple months later I found myself in Germany. Out of respect to my mother’s family, I started my week in Germany with a visit to the Dachau concentration camp. My maternal great grandparents, great aunts, uncles and cousins were murdered by the Nazis. Most of them were shot to death in Dachau.

I brought with two small Israeli flags to Dachau. I felt that God would let me know what to do with the flags. Upon entrance to the camp, there is a museum in several of what used to be prisoner barracks. After going through the museum, I started to walk the length of the camp.  Dachau is built in a rectangular shape. As I walked the substantial length of the camp, there were rows after rows of cement foundations. Each foundation had a number on it. This was where the prisoners were housed.

The cement foundation slabs were empty as far as my eyes could see. I closed my eyes and the number 26 flashed in my head. I took that as a sign that I should look for cement foundation number 26. When I found 26, it was the only foundation that had anything on it. It was filled with memorial candles, scores of pictures of those who perished in Dachau, and letters written by family members to their loved ones murdered at this site sixty-five + years earlier. There were many letters – as if time had done little to erase the painful memories. Dripped wax from burnt memorial candles was visible at one of the corners.  Letters were written in many languages, indicating that people came from numerous countries to connect with the memories of lost loved ones.

Suddenly, I realized the significance of the number 26. One of the Hebrew words for Gods Name is spelled using the letters Yud – Hey – Vav – Hey. Every letter in the Hebrew alphabet has a corresponding numerical value. The four letters that mean “God” in Hebrew, have the combined numerical value of 26.

Without being aware of it consciously, I had chosen foundation number 26 to place the first Israeli flag. Obviously, many other people had the same idea, which is why this particular location was covered with letters, burnt memorial candles, pictures of the deceased, and a sea full of tears and human emotion.

As I walked around the edges of the foundation, I saw a small wooden cross. My initial reaction was one of confusion. A cross seemed to be inappropriate anywhere in a concentration camp where tens of thousands of Jews were murdered. I wanted to remove the cross. As I reached out to grab it, I felt the heaviness of my arm. Something was telling me I should leave it. My mind, heart, or both, were telling me not to disturb the memories. It was as if the voices of those that perished, lived on through everything that was placed on that foundation slab by relatives, and other visitors, that came to this specific location in the camp. It wasn’t until later that day that I understood the significance of that small cross.

I walked to where the empty cement foundations ended, and I entered the corner of the camp. It was at this location that thousands of people were lined up in front of large burial pits. They were shot and fell lifeless into their eternal resting place. This took up so much room that once the pits were full, the SS began cremating people and burying their ashes.

From there I walked into the building that housed the cremation ovens. I took out my Israeli passport, opened it up, and placed it by the door of one of the ovens. I recited the Jewish prayer for the dead, called the “Kadish,” and then in one of my proudest moments as an Israeli Jew and human being, I sang the Israeli national anthem called “Hatikvah” – meaning “The hope.”

                  

                                                       

From there I was led to another corner at the end of the camp. As I walked into the building, I noticed that it was a Church. Like the wooden cross, I thought it was very inappropriate to have a Church in an area that was essentially a huge Jewish cemetery. Something pulled me into the Church. I walked up to the front and sat down near the area where communion is given and closed my eyes. As if in a hallucinatory state, my mind visualized that the top of the church had no roof and I saw the sunny blue skies above. Hundreds or thousands of heads were popping out from behind soft, fluffy clouds.

The faces were smiling as if they were thanking me for honoring their memory by entering the Church.

I opened my eyes and came back to reality. I didn’t understand what had just happened. Nevertheless, I left the second Israeli flag by the communion altar.

As I exited the Church, I saw a metal plaque that I missed when I entered the Church. The plaque was inscribed with words memorializing thousands of non-Jews that refused to recant their opposition to Nazi Germany and were put to death in Dachau.

That was when I understood why I left the small cross untouched, why I placed the second flag in the Church, and the smiling faces peering out from behind the clouds in the sky.

I didn’t know that thousands of Priests, Pastors, Christians, and other opponents of The Third Reich, were murdered at Dachau. It was my way of honoring their memories. They were smiling from heaven because I came into their place of worship and showed respect for the stand they took against Nazi inhumanity. They were smiling because I was saying thank you for the sacrifice they made in the name of humanity.

 

 

 

 

 

During my visits to both Dachau and Auschwitz/Birkenau concentration camps in Germany and Poland, I learned the stories of numerous European Christians that risked their lives to save Jews.

It is so very important to point out that throughout history there has always been a remnant of European Christians that risked their lives to save Jews. During World War II, many of them were captured and murdered by the Nazis. Many of their stories remain untold. Many are honored through the planting of trees, with their names engraved on a plague, on the “avenue of justice” at the National Holocaust Museum, “Yad Vashem” in Jerusalem.

 

 

 

Irena the righteous Gentile

 

Bear in mind the Penalty for Helping a Jew in Occupied Poland:

The following proclamation was issued by Dr. Ludwig Fischer, the German district governor of Warsaw, on November 10, 1941…

"Concerning the Death Penalty for Illegally Leaving Jewish Residential Districts...Any Jew who illegally leaves the designated residential district will be punished by death. Anyone who deliberately offers refuge to such Jews or who aids them in any other manner (i.e., offering a night's lodging, food, or by taking them into vehicles of any kind, etc.) will be subject to the same punishment. Judgment will be rendered by a Special Court in Warsaw. I forcefully draw the attention of the entire population of the Warsaw District to this new decree, as henceforth it will be applied with the utmost severity."

One of the better known stories is about a lady by the name of Irena. Irena was a nurse. During World War II, she worked in the Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw, Poland. While traveling back and forth to and from the Ghetto, Irena snuck out 2,000 Jewish babies in the bottom of her nursing case. Their cries were covered by the barking of her German Shepard, which was trained to bark whenever a German guard approached her.

Irena made lists with the names of the children along with their parents’ names. She buried them in a jar near her home.

Irena’s efforts were discovered prior to the end of the war. She was beaten viciously, but despite the beatings and broken bones, survived the war. After the end of the war, she used the information in the jar to unite as many children with surviving parents as possible. The vast majority were orphaned. Irena arranged for adoptions.

Several years ago, Irena was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. She was not selected. Asked how she felt about the Nobel committee choosing someone else, Irena said that she did not save the lives of Jewish children to receive a prize. She did it because it was the proper, humane, and Godly choice.

Irena died soon after while being taken care of by one of the children that she saved.

 

 

 

The amazing story of another Righteous Gentile

 

I am not sure where I found the following story but I have had it on my computer for several years. I felt that the proper time would come to repeat it and feel that now is the moment.

Late one evening in April of 1943 a knock was heard at the door of the Suchodolski family in the village of Krzynowloga Wielski (Warsaw region). Adam Suchodolski opened the door and slowly made out the shadow of a man in front of him, his body swollen from hunger. The man fell down on his knees and begged for mercy. "Please help me stay alive." Adam and his teenage daughter Jadwiga painstakingly studied his face and finally perceived that it was none other than Michael Shaft, who, with his family, had lived in the village many years before. Michael had left the village to study law in Warsaw. The vicissitudes of the war had taken him from one place to another, and earlier that same month he had participated in the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Escaping, he had wandered back to his native village. The Suchodolskis--Adam, his wife Stanislawa, and their children Jadwiga and Stanislaw, hurriedly consulted among themselves, weighing the risks and dangers, and decided to take Michael in.

As danger lurked on all sides, from neighbors and untrustworthy relatives, they decided to keep Michael's presence a secret. A pit was prepared in the granary, the opening of which was covered with animal fodder. There, Michael remained hidden, cut off from the world, for almost two years, 'til the village's liberation on January 15, 1945. He was regularly fed by a member of the Suchodolski family, who approached the granary through the chicken coop, ostensibly to feed the poultry. "The food was handed to me through a narrow crack. In the winter, rain penetrated the pit. But in spite of the discomforts, I resolved to make it through."

After the liberation, word soon spread that a Jew was being nursed back to life in the village. One day a group of partisans broke into the Suchodolski house and demanded that Michael be turned over to them. Young Stanislaw held them off long enough to allow Michael to jump out of bed and escape through the back door. Realizing they had been duped, they gave chase but did not catch up with him. In revenge, they ransacked the Suchodolski house. That night Michael came back. Soon thereafter, Michael and Jadwiga were married and left the village, eventually emigrating to Israel in 1957.

"I come from a very devout Catholic family," Jadwiga states in a letter to Mrs. Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel, in 1972. "My family and I did what we did because we wished to observe the commandment of 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' I am proud, indeed, to be counted as a Righteous person. At the same time, I am glad that my family and I performed such an important commandment, and I believe that due to this, we have merited a place in the world-to-come."

 

 

 

Together as One in Auschwitz/Birnkenau

 

I would like to share one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I shared this together with one of my closest Norwegian Christian friends.

I met my dear Norwegian friend in Krakow, Poland. Together, we spent the next two days visiting the former Jewish quarter in Krakow, and the Auschwitz/Birkenau death camp.

This was my second trip to Auschwitz/Birkenau. I first visited with our son several years ago. That was very meaningful, as it represented the next generation of our family perpetuating the continuum of 5,000 years of commitment to Jewish identity and history. As mentioned earlier, we are the privileged generation to have been born at the time in history, allowing us to live in the re-established State of Israel. If born only 10 years earlier in Europe, my fate could have been the same as those of my mother’s family, and six million others that perished in the Holocaust.

Visiting with our son, the site where some million and half Jews perished, and waving the Israeli flag, was a declaration of pride as well as defiance. As my son and I sang the Israeli National Anthem, and waved the Star of David...we let those who perished know they will never be forgotten, and that we who live in Israel, carry their memory with us every minute of every day. To the evil doers and anti-Semites of the world today….you will NEVER succeed in destroying the Jewish People...NEVER!

My visit to Auschwitz/Birkenau with my Norwegian friend was completely different. She is Christian. I was not sure how it would feel to spend time in Auschwitz with a non-Jew. From a Jewish perspective, the teachings of replacement theology, and Christian European anti-Semitism spanning centuries, created the environment that allowed the Holocaust to take place.

On Friday evening, my friend and I attended Shabbat dinner at the Jewish Community Center in Krakow. We sat opposite a Holocaust survivor approximately 90 years old. There were three Holocaust survivors at the Shabbat dinner. I turned to my friend and said, “Who would want to hurt this precious lady”? I saw the tears form in her eyes.  I saw a sensitive, caring human being that was sharing the sense of horror for what these survivors had to endure in the concentration camps. I knew instantly that asking her to join me in Poland was the right decision.

My experience with her in Poland has reinforced what I already have come to know since 1998.There are many good people in the world that know how to differentiate between right and wrong/good and evil. I often feel that we live in a world which has lost its moral compass. I often feel discouraged by the feeling that the world would act no differently today then during World War II.

I brought a large Israeli flag with me to Poland. Instead of waving the Israeli flag in Auschwitz/Birkenau, I was overwhelmed emotionally and almost forgot about the flag. My friend insisted on taking the Israel flag and proceeded to wave it proudly. In so doing, she declared that she stands unconditionally with Israel and the Jewish People.

It is because of this powerful experience that we had together, as Jew and Christian, that I now ask my Christian friends all over the world to accompany me on a yearly Israel solidarity trip to Auschwitz/Birkenau.

Thank you, Britt, for spending your valuable time with me in Auschwitz/Birkenau/Krakow, Poland. You inspire me through your love of Israel and the Jewish people. The amazing connection between our two families is a shining example of Jewish/Gentile relationships.

                

 

 

 

 

 

 

We can all look back and point to one or more events that set the direction of our future. I have had several epiphanies that have made me who I am. I love to tell the story of what took place on the morning of June 6, 1967.

I had a routine upbringing in suburban Chicago. I grew up in a non-observant, liberal Jewish family, in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood on Chicago’s north side. I was not a good student. School bored me. As a child, my whole world consisted of American baseball, baseball and more baseball. I lived for baseball, and dreamt about playing in the major leagues.

That all changed in June, 1967. Riding my bicycle to school on the morning of June 6, I held the handle bar of my bicycle with one hand and a transistor radio with the other hand. A newsflash came on: war had broken out between Israel and her Arab neighbors.  My heart sank. I remember stopping my bicycle and repeating these words several times: “My country (Israel) is under attack.”

There was no logical reason for feeling an overwhelming sense of threat. I was an American. I lived in suburban America. My parents provided for my material needs. Israel was 6,000 miles away. The war was being fought so far away, that it should have been way beyond my imagination. Yet, I felt a sense of threat that ran to the very core of my soul. That day changed my life forever. My future was now tied to the State of Israel. On June 6, 1967, at age 13, my destiny became interwoven with the destiny of the people, and the State of Israel. I knew that one day I would make Israel my permanent home.

I had never been to Israel. At that point in my life, the farthest I had traveled out of the State of Illinois, was to the adjacent State of Wisconsin. I had little knowledge of Israel, much less a desire to even visit that far off land. If you gave me a globe of the world, I wouldn’t have had the slightest idea of where to find Israel. Yet, when I heard that war had broken out in the Middle East on that June morning in 1967, a spark was set off deep inside me that changed my life forever.

There is a spark in every Jew. At the right time, God ignites that spark and leads His people back to the Land of Israel. June 6, 1967 was my spark.

I also believe there is a spark in every Gentile to love the Land, God, and People of Israel. I hope that I am alive to see those sparks fly! I am blessed every day of my life to experience a small dose of that love for Israel.

And who knows? Just maybe, you will be revealed as part of the long lost ancestors of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Maybe it is your destiny to settle the very same hill tops where my family and I reside!