The Church and Antisemitism

It is very sad when a church goes down an antisemitic root, especially when we know from Scripture that God loves the Jewish people and sees them as the apple of His eye. That is why it is such a bad Christian witness when Christians hate the Jewish people. I think we all know that Martin Luther had some terrible things to say about the Jewish people, even some of his writings were used by Adolf Hitler. I wonder what Luther would think if he could see the effects of what he wrote. Just recently I have been engaging with others on an unofficial church denominational group on social media and it has been very sad to see how they treat Israel and Zionists.

I am a proud Zionist, not because Israel is perfect or gets everything right, but because I believe God is a Zionist. God said to Abraham “I will give you this land as an eternal covenant” (Genesis 17:8). It is God's land and he has given it to the Jewish people so it is very sad and concerning when such hatred for Jewish people is poured out by Christian groups.

One person in the group wrote, “I'd rather believe Christians over Zionist Liars”. This is a shocking thing to say and a terrible accusation against all of us who adhere to Scripture and the promise God made in Genesis as noted above.

It has also been very distressing to hear how people deny the Holocaust. It is sad that there has to be a law making it illegal to deny the Holocaust, but these are the times we live in.

Further, I was shocked to hear someone make appalling comments about what happened on October 7th, 2023 when Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and committed unspeakable crimes. Are we now going to have to make it illegal to deny the Hamas atrocities of October 7th?

Someone in the group said, “Be careful what you believe about the 7th October. The only children killed were 2 killed by Israeli helicopter gunships”. This is factually false and deeply insensitive to those who lost loved ones that day. Sadly, 36 children lost their lives on that dreadful day so these comments disgust me. These children deserve to be remembered. They were Jewish children who had their childhood taken away from them in the most barbaric and brutal ways. Such a comment would be so hurtful if a family member saw it.

Today Christian Zionists are not going away. We love Israel and the Jewish people and our love is rooted in the Bible. We will boldly declare that God gave the Land to the Jewish people as an everlasting inheritance.

He told them to behave or they would get kicked out, but He never said He would take the land away from them and He always promised redemption and to bring them back to their Land. His covenant with the Jewish people and the Land of Israel is eternal and it is not dependent on anyone or anything else.

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However, it appears that Christian Zionists are not welcome in the Christian social media group I have been a part of. Should we all wear yellow stars to let them know we are Christian Zionists?

One comment read, “You would think there are other places Christian Zionists would wish to discuss their aims, however at least here we can confront and dismiss them .....”.

I am clearly not welcome and I can’t help but wonder if Jesus Himself would even be welcome in this group.

Let us remember to love the Jewish people. We may not like or even approve of everything that is going on at this present time of war but we must remain true to what the Bible says and what God Himself says about the Jews – His ancient covenant people. Also, we must pray for those in leadership so let us pray for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – he needs the wisdom of God at this time.

Christian Zionism is alive and well and we will declare the promise of God to the Jewish people. Let us stand against antisemitism and Jew hatred for as the saying goes…. If not now, when?

Paul Calvert

REBUILDING PARADISE

Paradise. That's how so many people have described what it was like living on Kibbutz Be'eri. That paradise was shattered in unimaginable ways on the 7th October last year when Hamas monsters invaded the serenity of a special Simchat Torah Shabbat morning and unleashed hell.  

Paradise and communal joy made way for a terrifying nightmare resulting in communal grief and despair. There is no doubt that the road ahead is a long and painful one but it is a road that this kibbutz will travel and will conquer. Hamas sought to destroy this community on Oct 7th and committed countless unspeakable atrocities but having spent time with them there is one thing that I know for sure - this community chooses life, their spirits are strong and they will rebuild and grow.

Last week a special ceremony took place at Kibbutz Be’eri when the foundation stone of a new neighbourhood was laid. It really was a great honour to be invited to attend this ceremony with my family and to represent the charity in Jerusalem that we lead, Christian Friends of Israel.

During the ceremony the speeches were positive and uplifting and hearing Idan Raichel sing in such a setting was very moving…but looking into the eyes of some of the residents of Be'eri, including my friend who miraculously survived, and sensing their desire to live and love life in the same place that was filled with a murderous evil that I still cannot comprehend made a huge impact on me. I was reminded again why I love this nation and her people. They will heal, they will survive, they will rebuild, their kibbutz will blossom again and be a place of love and hope once more. Why? Because this nation and this people love life and choose life, every single time.

During my first visit to Be’eri earlier this year I was intensely affected by the visual residue of what actually occurred on Oct 7th. The destruction and devastation was too much to take in. I could sense the violence and murder. I could almost feel the venom and evil. The pain and trauma was, in some ways, tangible and a lingering despair dominated every inch of the place. It was palpable.

During my second visit to attend the ceremony something felt different. Yes, the pain and grief of those whose loved ones were murdered or whose loved ones are still held captive as hostages in Gaza remains etched in every face I looked into but that was not all I saw. I witnessed, in equal measure, a deep resolve and determination to overcome and to once again create a sanctuary for generations to come. What an inspiration they are.

I am immensely grateful that our charity has been able to play a small part in this process.

We have participated in meetings with the residents of Be’eri who are leading the design and build of the damaged areas of the Kibbutz. They are preparing the plans for new houses and communal areas, including educational facilities, a medical centre and a dental practice. Large areas were completely decimated and destroyed by Hamas on Oct 7th and need to be rebuilt and restored. We feel privileged to have been involved in these discussions and will do all we can to assist and support.

Further, we were able to give a significant donation that allowed for the purchase of large electrical appliances – washing machines, ovens and fridge freezers – to support 50 families. These appliances will go into the temporary accommodations being set up on the Kibbutz. Families who are still displaced in hotels will now be able to return home to Be’eri and live in these accommodations until their new homes are finished being built.

On a very personal note I was struck by something quite beautiful while we were at the ceremony last week. My husband and I were blessed with a baby boy three months ago. His name is Hosea and he is named after the Biblical prophet Hosea who spoke so tenderly to the people of Israel about G-d's love, healing and redemption. The ancient prophet's father's name was Be'eri and it was an incredible moment seeing our Hosea present at the ceremony and being a part of the redemption story of Kibbutz Be'eri - a story of hope and a future.

The residents of Kibbutz Be’eri remind me of Israel’s early pioneers who let nothing stop them from developing and nurturing the Land with resilience, conviction and hope. They let nothing stop them in their quest to dwell in their ancient homeland, to beautify it and to see it blossom. The people of Be’eri are the same. They love this Land and they love each other. Under their watch, and with G-d’s help, it will be a paradise once more.

Am Israel Chai!

Galya Hall

Director of Media and Public Relations, Christian Friends of Israel

The Mothers' Cries

Tammy (T-shirt with a picture of Rom) and Galya. (Picture: CFI)

“Nobody in all the world needs to feel like we feel.”

As prayers are answered for the rescue of two hostages, against the odds, after 129 long days, we also remember the agony of those still waiting. We see in the Bible that the God of Israel is most concerned for the mothers who cry to Him on behalf of their children.

Do you remember that Hagar cried out, and the Lord heard? The beautiful Exodus chapter 2, part of the ‘Shemot’ Torah Portion of the beginning of January, this year, includes the cry of the mother of Moshe (Moses) as she entrusted her baby to God as she hid him in the bulrushes. When the dear Son of God Himself was dying, God provided for His Jewish mother by bringing an adopted son alongside her.

Here are four more mothers of Israel, who are crying out to God, and asking us to pray along with them for the release of their precious Jewish boys, still captive in Gaza after 130 days. Jewish tradition is to pray for ‘[name], son/daughter of [mother’s name],’ and at least one of these ladies asked that we also pray that way. The names of the mothers are important. Meet Tammy, Rachel, Shelly, and Sigalit:

Tammy - CFI’s Media Director, Galya Hall (pictured above), met with the mother of Rom Braslavski. Described as ‘a sweet guy with a winning smile,’ the music-loving young man was kidnapped on 7 October after helping to save the lives of others at the Supernova party. In her desperation, Tammy decided to find the office of CFI Jerusalem and ask for help.

“The reason Tammy came to us,” Galya told Paul Calvert at Bethlehem Voice, “is that ever since that terrible day, and ever since her son has been held captive by those monsters, Hamas… can you imagine? How does Tammy live? She cannot function. She cannot think. She doesn’t sleep. She can’t eat. She can’t work."

“This story repeats itself for all the families of the hostages; their lives have literally stopped. And what does that mean, in practical terms? It means they can’t pay their bills; they’re not earning. There’s a lot of financial strain on a lot of these families.”

Galya explains that Tammy heard about CFI from a friend who had been helped by the ministry several years ago and said to Tammy, “You should go and speak to them; maybe they can help you.”

“So we are helping her in that way, but we also promised, and we committed to keeping awareness of Rom alive. Rom was working in security at the party, and when everything happened there, Rom had the chance to leave. He could have left, but he didn’t. He stayed to help other people.

“And afterward, Tammy’s actually been getting a lot of messages from people who Rom actually saved and rescued. If it wasn’t for Rom, they could have been kidnapped themselves, or murdered. Because he stayed, to try and help and rescue as many wounded people as he could, he put himself in harm’s way, and he ended up being kidnapped himself.”

The last time Rom was seen was around 13:30 that fateful afternoon, and then he was taken. Tammy knows nothing more, whether or not he is injured; there has been no information as to his condition in over four months.

Galya stresses the importance of keeping hope alive from the verse in Proverbs 13:12. She has been able to assure Tammy that Christian contacts all over the world are now praying for Rom:

“Obviously, we just pray every day, and we keep our hearts full of hope that he is alive and that Tammy will get her son back home.”

Hersh (Picture: Jpost.com)

Rachel - All over Jerusalem, one can spot graffiti and posters with the words “Bring Hersh home.” A 23-year-old, again with a beautiful smile, full of zest for life, the dual Israeli-US citizen is clearly a popular guy. But we need him home. His beautiful mom needs him home.

Rachel Goldberg spoke to the recent ICEJ Solidarity Tour Group of pastors and ministry leaders at the Knesset in Jerusalem. With strength, grace, and full of faith, the God-fearing woman bravely addressed the crowd, as she had done from Day 1 of this crisis.

ICEJ Webinar - YouTube

Hersh turned 23 just two days before attending the music festival near the Gaza border. The night before, Hersh told his parents he would go camping with one of his best friends after dinner. As is traditional on Shabbat evening, his parents had blessed him with the priestly blessing (from Numbers 6). Rachel says it was the last thing they did before he left.

“And then when Hersh left that night, he kissed me,” she said. “He kissed my husband, John, and he turned and said, ‘I love you; I’ll see you tomorrow’. And that was 117 [now 130] days ago.”

In Jerusalem, the rocket sirens (unusual for the capital) began around 8 a.m. Being Sabbath-observant, the family would normally keep their phones off, but Rachel said she “knew this was a question of life or death,” and her son was out camping, with rockets falling. So she told her daughters that she would switch on her phone for the first time on a Shabbat, “to make sure the boys are okay.” It was 8.23 a.m. When she turned on her phone, she found two messages from Hersh, the first at 8.11, simply saying

“I love you” and “I’m sorry.”

Twenty-nine young people were crushed into a 5ft by 8ft bomb shelter, trying to take refuge. Aner Shapira, Hersh’s best friend from childhood, managed to keep throwing back grenades that the terrorists were throwing into the shelter. “You only have 4.5 seconds from when a pin is unpinned from a hand grenade until it detonates,” Rachel explained. “He managed to throw out seven. On the eighth, it exploded in his hand, killing him. And when his body was returned to his parents, the remnants of the grenade were still in his hand. Most of those kids were dead. Hamas came to the door and sprayed machine gun fire.” Rachel and the other mothers later heard from the four survivors, who played dead, being hidden under bodies. They recounted that three boys were wounded but alive. Hamas ordered them to stand up, and the eyewitnesses could see that Hersh’s arm, from the left elbow down, had been blown off. “He, like me, is a left-handed young man,” said his mom.

Rachel talked about how Judeo-Christians value life, something for which we sometimes pay a high price. She explained that her favorite groups to talk to are the Christian ones since they are the people who don’t just talk the talk but “show up, get on the plane, and come here.” Rachel asked that the delegates keep talking about the hostages. She quoted Psalm 126: When the LORD brought back the captives to Zion,” and she shared how a Christian friend had sent her the verse, “The Lord is near to the broken-hearted and He will save those who are crushed in spirit.” The friend had added, “I am thinking of Him, and His saving grace, for your beautiful son today."  

“I pray, and I hope all of you pray, that you will get - the next time you see me - to meet my son, Hersh, who will be standing next to me.”

Shelly - Another wonderful and handsome young man, Omer Shem Tov, as a captive himself, kept busy caring for seriously wounded siblings, Maya and Itay, prior to their release in late November. He turned 21 years old in captivity on 31 October.

Parents of Omer, Shelly and Malki Shem-Tov (Picture: allisrael.com)

Omer was also at the Nova Festival and connected with his parents throughout the morning of the 7th, from 6.30 a.m. when the Hamas rockets began falling. At 6:30, he confirmed to his family that he was okay. The last time Shelly spoke to her son was at 8.45 a.m. when he was in a panic and trying to escape from gunshots all around. His sister told him to send his live location. After the call, his parents could see the location of Omer’s phone going towards Gaza, but they didn’t want to believe it and thought perhaps his phone had been stolen.

 “I tried to call him, the phone was ringing, but Omer didn’t answer,” Shelly told delegates at the ICEJ conference. At 8.00 p.m., one of Omer’s friends called Shelly to say, “I’m sorry, but I need to send you a video.” The footage showed Omer and his friends being captured and driven away, handcuffed.

I was shouting to God, says Shelly through her tears: “Oh my God, my son! He’s in the hands of terrorists! What will I do now?”

“We are a big family,” Shelly says of the sadly large group of hostages’ family members, desperately waiting, all “in the same crazy situation.

“Our life stopped on Oct 7. It’s a long, long, long nightmare, 118 [now 130] days of nightmare that, you must understand…you know where your son or your daughter slept last night. If you are worried, you can call and ask if they are okay. I know where my son is, and he’s in the hands of terrorists. I don’t know what is his condition. I think nobody in all the world needs to feel like we feel.”

Her youngest son, Shelly said: “We call him our sunshine because, as the sunshine, everybody wants to be near him. So, he’s a good boy; he has a lot of friends, and he loves to love. He loves music. He went to a festival - to dance…and we miss him very much. We are very, very worried about his condition because Omer has asthma and celiac [disease] - and I don’t know if you know how it feels when you can’t breathe - and he doesn’t have his inhaler because nobody, not the Red Cross, nobody, went to see what is their condition.

The two young friends who were held with him and released said that Omer was not in good condition without his medication. One thing that [Itai] told us,” says Shelly, grabbing hold of one positive, “so that I know that Omer has faith with God, and he is strong, is that…Every Friday, from when he was little, he likes to do the kiddush (beginning of Sabbath blessing). And one day, they got their grape juice and they got a bagel with salt, so he took the salt from the bagel. And every Friday, he put a tissue on his head, like a kippa,” to faithfully recite the Sabbath blessings, “in the dark place that he’s in there.”

Shelley says she “knows Omer has faith.” She described a typically messy room of a student boy and said she decided not to tidy it, telling herself, “No, he will come back and arrange it himself. The light is on. Every day [since 7 October], in the morning, I’m going to his room and telling him what the day is today and what is the date today. I’m telling him to be strong and [to have] a lot of faith. I’m praying in his room. And then I [embark on] the mission of my life now - to bring Omer back home… I hope you will tell your community our story. And I hope this nightmare will end soon.” 

Sigalit - It was astonishing to see the peace and composure on the face of this dear woman of faith. Especially when she told members of the media at an event on 30 January that she wasn’t able to eat or sleep, I found myself concluding that she must really be relying on God.

Eliya (Pictured: jpost.com)

Her dear son, Eliya Cohen, is 26 years old. His name means ‘My God is the Lord’. Eliya “is a marketing person, he loves life, he loves to dance,” Sigalit told journalists. “He has traveled all over the world and has a lot of friends.” Her husband is disabled, and she said that Eliya has always cared for him: “Although he doesn’t live with us at home, he helps with what is needed, has his father’s back.”

Sigalit told the Hebrew newspaper ‘Makor Rishon’: “Two years ago, I went through some kind of crisis, and the only one who managed to wake me up from this crisis was [Eliya]… one day he called and shouted at me, ‘You are a religious woman, a believing woman, so stop being afraid! Whatever God wants is what will happen.’ He was there for me.”

Speaking to Paul at Bethlehem Voice, Sigalit explained that Eliya’s girlfriend, Ziv, only survived by being under a pile of dead bodies - inside the crowded bomb shelter in Kibbutz Re’im, as described by Rachel (above). Alongside Hersh, Eliya was shot and badly wounded, then ripped away from his home, his friends, and his family.

At 10 a.m., Sigalit and her family saw a photo with a logo in Arabic, confirming Eliya had been violently kidnapped. Sigalit asked that we pray “that he will come back soon, and come healthy and alive.”

“It’s very important,” Galya reminds us: “When we’re praying for the hostages, to also pray for their families because they are living through the most unimaginable horror.”