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Former Jewish Believer Leads Thousands To Christ

by Rhoda Gayle
written by Rhoda Gayle

This former Jew now a Christian minister leads thousands of Jews to Jesus Christ.

Former Jew

In an interview with Sid Roth for It’s Supernatural, Jonathan Bernis of Jewish Voice Ministries International talked about his journey from being a Jew to being an evangelist for Jesus Christ. He grew up in a Jewish community, being taught not to believe in Jesus.

As a young kid, he started to have questions about the purpose of his life and about life after death. Questions can also be answered by Jesus. When he was in high school, he heard the Gospel but he didn’t respond to the invitation for salvation.

Sid Roth’s It’s Supernatural! [@sidroth]. Jewish Man Encountered Jesus. YouTube, photographed by Name, June 4, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJECQ0UmiiI

Jonathan Bernis

In finding his purpose, he got into the occult and drugs. However, Jesus still continued to call Jonathan. During college, his girlfriend encountered Jesus and became a Christian. She then started to share her testimony with him and pray for him.

Jonathan attended a Bible study where he received a Bible and read it for the very first time. He also prayed the salvation prayer just to appease the person leading the Bible study. He then went home trying to forget everything that happened. However, he woke up the following morning as a new person.

Leads thousands of Jews to Jesus Christ

The Lord then revealed to him Galatians 5:7 where it was written: “You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?”

Jesus revealed himself to Jonathan and then made him decide to follow Him even though his family was strongly against it. Today, he is leading thousands of Jewish people to Jesus Christ! When he was first called by God to share the Gospel with Jewish people in Russia, he led 40,000 Jews to an encounter with Jesus!

Jesus Appearing to Jewish Non-Believers in LA!

Read also: OVER 4,100 WERE BAPTIZED IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ON SUNDAY

Reference: YouTube | Sid Roth’s It’s Supernatural!
Header Image: Sid Roth’s It’s Supernatural! [@sidroth]. Jewish Man Encountered Jesus. YouTube, photographed by Name, June 4, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJECQ0UmiiI

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Part 2: Seven Proofs The Book Of John Is NOT Antisemitic – Though It Feels That Way!

by Ron Cantor
written by Ron Cantor

Introduction

There are many claims that the Jewish apostle, John, was actually an antisemite by the time he wrote his gospel. This week, we will cover the first 3 proofs I think show that John was NOT antisemitic…to the contrary, he longed for his people to know the Messiah of Israel, his Rabbi, and his friend, Yeshua.

1. Judean vs. Galilean

The land of Israel was separated into three regions: Judea, Galilee, and Samaria. Yeshua and His disciples were Galilean, not Judean. The Samaritan woman refers to Jesus as a Jew—the same word for Judaean. Possibly, because she did not realize he was Galilean. Keep in mind he spent some years in Bethlehem before moving to Nazareth after coming out of Egypt. It’s possible he had a Judean accent.

While technically, both the Judeans and the Galileans were Jews, there was tension between the two groups. Galilean Jews were more passionate about the land of Israel; hence there was a high number of Zealots in the region. The Pharisees were more concerned with the legal aspects of the Torah, both written and oral. The latter, who were regular critics of Yeshua, were mostly Judean.

The word for Judean and Jew is the same: Yehudi.

Ironically, it’s not dissimilar from the tension between modern Orthodox sects and Messianic Jews. Messianic Jews tend to be much more passionate about the land of Israel, while most Orthodox Jewish movements resisted Zionism and the re-formation of the nation of Israel. Judaism, the religion, was enough.

When Mark records: “The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders,” he probably means Judeans. It means Judeans as opposed to Jews; it would include Yeshua and his disciples—which in context, it didn’t. However, Dr. David Stern’s Complete Jewish Bible translates this: “For the Pharisees and indeed all the Judeans…” Both the Dictionary of Biblical Languages (DBL) and Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (BDAG), highly respected biblical Greek dictionaries, confirm that Ioudaios can mean either Jew or Judean, obviously depending on context.

Given the fact that the Galileans were not as obsessed with the ritual or liturgical aspects of Judaism, this makes sense. And we can see why John may have used this term when he was in Jerusalem, as he is a Galilean.

Stern translates Ioudaios 55 times 1 in John as Judean(s), not Jew(s). For instance, in John 1:19, was it the Jews from Jerusalem who sent Levites and priests to check out Yeshua, or was it the Judeans? Judeans make much more sense, as they were sending them from Judea to the Galilee.

2. Don’t be so Negative

Not all references to the Jews are negative in John: · “Salvation is from the Jews” (4:22). · “Many people (all Jews) believed in Yeshua” (2:23). · “Many Jews believed Yeshua was a prophet or even the Messiah” (7:40-41). · “And in that place, many (Jews) believed in Jesus, after the Hannukah confrontation (10:42). · John reports that after Yeshua raised Lazarus from the dead, “many of the Jews … believed in him” (11:45). · “…a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was [in Bethany] and came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead” (12:9-11). The chief priests (not all Israel) “made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him, many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him.” Without understanding the nuance, it could appear that the Jews wanted to kill Lazarus because the Jews were following Jesus. But of course, that is not what it says. · The Pharisees lament, “Look how the whole world has gone after him!” (12:19). Clearly, the whole world is hyperbole, referring to Judeans in Jerusalem at the time—a very large number of the Jews loved Jesus!

John’s Jesus is clearly Jewish: John’s Gospel portrays the Jewish Jesus, who travels to Jerusalem for the pilgrimage festivals, blesses the bread (in a Jewish way) before sharing with others, and in other ways leads a recognizably Jewish way of life.2 I think there’s no arguing that in the beginning, both Jesus and his followers, and this extended on into the [newMessianic community] as it was developing after Jesus’s death, were Jewish, and they functioned within a Jewish framework.3

3. Israelite

Giving more credence to the idea that John associated Ioudaios with Judea as a region is his use of Israel. John’s referral to all the people as Israel could be the way that we use the phrase Jewish people today:

[John’s] occasional use of “Israel” and “Israelite” always indicates a favorable bias. The words appear a total of five times: Twice, incipient believers hail Jesus as “King of Israel” (1:49; 12:13), and John the Baptist declares that his mission is for Jesus to be “revealed to Israel” (1:31).

Also, Jesus declares that Nathanael is “truly an Israelite in whom is no guile” (1:47) and refers to Nicodemus as “the teacher of Israel” (3:10).4

How could one who is antisemitic have such a favorable view of Israel or the Israelites? And keep in mind that the usage in John of Israelite would not be the same as Israeli today, a citizen of the state of Israel. At the time, the Romans controlled the region. In context, Israelite clearly refers to someone serving the God of Israel. This further strengthens the hypothesis that when John speaks negatively of the Jews, he was referring exclusively to the group of Judean Jewish leaders aggressively opposing Jesus.

Remember, it was this small group of leaders who brought Jesus to Pilate and demanded he be crucified. So yes, the animosity between them was very real. But you must see John as appealing to the am Ha’aretz (the people of the Land), whom we will see below, loved Yeshua, to not follow in the hypocrisy of this small group, the Pharisees, roughly 6,000 5 out of more than one 1,000,000 Jews in all of Israel, but to follow the true JewishMessiah. It should be noted that just in Jerusalem and the surrounding areas, the number of Messianic Jews numbered in the tens of thousands (Acts 21:20), far outnumbering the powerful Pharisees.

Next week…Part 3: Your father is…the devil?! And other things John records in his gospel…

Part 1

1https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?qs_version=CJB&quicksearch=judean&begin=50&end=50

2 Adele Reinhartz, lectures on “Jesus: Bad Jew or Good Jew?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ehwMlHsuuc

3 Adele Reinhartz, The Gospel of John and the “Parting of the Ways,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-PLMQlnFRgs

4https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/research_sites/cjl/sites/partners/cbaa_seminar/townsend.htm

5 “Josephus (37 – c. 100 CE), believed by many historians to be a Pharisee, estimated the total Pharisee population before the fall of the Second Temple to be around 6,000.”Wikipedia, with citation, Antiquities of the Jews, 17.42

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Israel

Google Posts then Deletes Offensive Definition of “Jew”

by Ron Cantor
written by Ron Cantor

If you googled the word “Jew” on Tuesday morning, you would have been shocked to find that the first definition offered was a reference to bargaining in a “miserly or petty way.”

The definition came with a warning label that the verb was “offensive” and that the term’s genesis was a 19th-century antisemitic trope “associating Jewish people with trading and moneylending.” Tenses were even offered for the verb—“jewed” and “jewing.” The reference was attributed to the Oxford Languages source.

In the 1800s, Jewish people often made a living by lending money or trading goods, primarily because the countries where they lived (in Europe, Russia, etc.) had laws preventing them from other professions. We can see in America, where Jewish people are allowed to work in any profession, God’s blessing is in His people. We can see in Israel that same blessing, as the amount of technology coming out of our tiny nation is so disproportionally high compared to other western countries.

Google eventually took down the antisemitic reference and apologized. The internet giant blamed the bad definition on the third-party license experts they rely on for their dictionary.

By Tuesday night, a new definition appeared, this time as a noun: “a member of the people and cultural community whose traditional religion is Judaism and who trace their origins through the ancient Hebrew people of Israel to Abraham.”

The World Jewish Congress issued a statement saying that it was “deeply troubling that Google artificial intelligence fails to recognize obvious anti-Semitic hate speech in featured results for the term ‘Jew.’”

“Our apologies. Google licenses definitions from third-party dictionary experts. We only display offensive definitions by default if they are the main meaning of a term. As this is not the case here, we have blocked this & passed along feedback to the partner for further review,” a Google representative tweeted.

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Russian FM Lavrov
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Russia-Israel Ties Strained As Russian FM Says “Some of Worst Antisemites are Jews” and Hitler Was a Jew

by Ron Cantor
written by Ron Cantor

Russian President Vladimir Putin has sold his attack and attempted land grab in Ukraine to the Russian people on the premise that Nazis have taken over the former Soviet country and he must rescue those sympathetic to Russia who are trapped there.

On Sunday, in an interview with Italian media, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish “just like Hitler.”

“The fact that he (Zelensky) is a Jew does not negate the Nazi elements in his country. I believe that Adolf Hitler also had Jewish blood,” Lavrov said. “Zelensky can promote peace between the states if he stops giving orders to his Nazi forces that border on crime.”

“For a long time now, we’ve been hearing the wise Jewish people say that the biggest anti-Semites are the Jews themselves,” Lavrov added.

On Tuesday, Lavrov’s office doubled down on his claims by accusing Israel of supporting the “neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv.” A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said, “Israeli mercenaries are practically shoulder to shoulder with (the far-right) Azov militants in Ukraine.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid called out Lavrov for his accusations. Lapid said the statements were “unforgivable and outrageous” and a “terrible historical error.” He also summoned the Russian ambassador to Israel for a “tough talk.”

“Jews did not murder themselves in the Holocaust. The lowest level of racism against Jews is to accuse Jews themselves of anti-Semitism,” Lapid said in a statement.

[Check out Ron’s article from yesterday, proving that Putin is actually the one who is copying Hitler’s playbook.]

“The origin of the stories about Hitler’s Jewish roots go back to his paternal grandmother, Maria Anna Schikelgruber (1796–1847), who was unmarried when she gave birth to Hitler’s father in 1837.”[1] There was talk that one of the possible fathers of Hitler’s father was a Jewish man named Frankenberger. Hitler was relieved that “later investigations by the Gestapo into this matter found no new evidence to the claim that Hitler had a Jewish grandfather.”[2] Blood poisoning (from Jews) was a great concern to Adolf. But the idea that Hitler lived as a Jew and then turned against his fellow Jews is absolutely absurd and has never even been suggested as far as I know.

Zelensky said in an interview this week that Lavrov is just picking up where Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda maestro, left off. Moscow is “following the same concept of Goebbels, and they are using the same methodology” to justify the war against Ukraine. Goebbels was masterful at popularizing the Nazi’s antisemitic message with the German masses, which in turn opened the door for the Final Solution (the murder of 6 million Jews and millions of others that Hitler and the Nazis found “objectionable.”) And Zelensky said that, so far, the world’s response to Lavrov’s comment has been “weak.”

On Thursday, Israel Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Russian President Putin spoke by phone as Bennett continues to try to broker peace between the two nations. Bennett’s office said that Putin apologized for Lavrov’s remarks.

“The prime minister accepted the apology of President Putin for comments by Lavrov and thanked him for clarifying the president’s view of the Jewish people and the memory of the Holocaust.”

The Kremlin’s version of the call was a little different—there was no mention of an apology, and it only referenced that the two men spoke of “historic moments.” They probably agreed to release both versions. Bennett needed to show that the Russian president realizes how absurd the comments were. But Putin needs to also show his own people that he apologizes to no one. Politics…

Putin also offered congratulations on Israel’s Independence Day and promised to allow for the safe evacuation of civilians trapped in Ukraine’s hot zones.

While Foreign Minister Yair Lapid has been vocal at times over Russia’s actions, Bennett continues to steer clear of condemning Russia in the Ukrainian conflict. Putin controls the skies over Syria, and Israel needs the access for national security.

[1] Crowe, David M.. The Holocaust (p. 80). Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.

[2] Ibid.

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Tennessee Middle Schoolers Taught “How To Torture A Jew” In Public School Bible Class

by Ron Cantor
written by Ron Cantor

This week, a mother in the Chattanooga, Tennessee area blew the whistle on Facebook about her child’s 8th grade Bible teacher at East Hamilton Middle. Juniper Russo, who is Jewish, alleged that her daughter’s Bible-as-literature teacher instructed the class on “how to torture a Jew” and accused the teacher of “blatant Christian proselytizing.”

Russo wrote on her Facebook page: “I drew a hard line and withdrew my daughter from Bible class when it actually turned hostile on February 2. [The teacher] wrote an English transliteration of the Hebrew name of G-d on the whiteboard. This name is traditionally not spoken out loud and is traditionally only written in the Torah. She then told her students, ‘If you want to know how to torture a Jew, make them say this out loud.’ My daughter felt extremely uncomfortable hearing a teacher instruct her peers on ‘how to torture a Jew’ and told me when she came home from school that she didn’t feel safe in the class.”

The Religious do not utter the name of God but use HaShem (“the name”) instead. Because there were no vowels in ancient Hebrew writings, there can be no assurance on how to pronounce it, and they do not want to mispronounce it. Instead of Elohim, they say Elokim. It is a sign of reverence and respect. While I do not follow this practice, I find this teacher’s behavior exactly the opposite of what Yeshua would want for Gentiles. Paul encouraged the Gentiles to live in such a way to make Jewish people desire what they have (Romans 11:11). This woman is responsible for pushing them away.

Russo said in her post that she had enrolled her daughter in the elective because it was accessible to her even with her disability. Some of the assignments also made her daughter uncomfortable—such as answering questions like, “Do you read the Bible at home?”—because she didn’t want to be singled out as Jewish.

The class is part of a program in 29 Hamilton County schools where the Bible is taught as literature. A non-profit organization, Bible in the Schools, reimburses the district each year for running the program. According to the group’s website, it is supposed to be “non-sectarian.”

The school system said it is investigating the matter. The Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga said it is “aware of the issues,” and they “look forward to a healthy dialog with the Bible in the Schools organization.”

This incident at East Hamilton Middle comes on the heels of the removal of the Maus controversy—another Tennessee school board banned the comic-book style novel about the Holocaust—and the Whoopi Goldberg race comment last week about the Holocaust. It seems like there’s some kind of antisemitic incident in the news every week these days.

This Tennessee Bible class teacher—who I am guessing claims to be a Christian—has sadly just added more injury and reinforced the stereotype that so many Jewish people believe about Yeshua and His followers. Rather than taking up the Apostle Paul’s challenge “to provoke the Jews to jealousy” by demonstrating our love and devotion for Yeshua by blessing His people, she has instead provoked them…to anger and fear, doubt and mistrust.

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Struck by the Vast Difference

by Renee Evans
written by Renee Evans

Editor’s note: Ariel and his Israeli-born wife Vered are leaders of the downtown Jerusalem branch of Revive Israel | Tikkun Global as well as elders in Ahavat Yeshua Congregation. They have a unique heart for the radical unity of Jew and Gentile in Yeshua. This is Ariel’s story. Enjoy.

 

I was raised in a Reform Jewish home in Connecticut, USA. I excelled in high school and was accepted to Duke University, where I began my studies in engineering. However, one late night in late 1985 as I pored over a programming piece on my Apple IIc I thought: “I’m not sure I want to spend all my time crunching numbers and code; there must be more to life!”

 

My search for higher meaning in life began right then. It took me far and wide. Eventually, I stumbled on the course “Intro to the Religions of Asia.” The professor was a devout expert in Tibetan Buddhism, which he taught with flair and passion. I was hooked! The Four Noble Truths spoke deeply to my intellect and my increasingly hopeless struggle to find meaning. My fascination with Buddhism soon connected me to Japan. I decided to spend my junior year there, learning Japanese quickly and with ease, almost as if I was remembering the language rather than learning it for the first time. I meditated morning and evening. Many Japanese friends were convinced I was the reincarnation of a Japanese Buddhist monk!

After graduating from Duke, I returned to Japan to teach English in remote Yamaguchi, but soon my infatuation with Buddhism began to wane, as I struggled with paralyzing loneliness.

 

One night in the fall of 1991, I stood on a hill close to my Japanese home and gazed heavenward toward the stars. I was desperate, and for the first time in my life, I prayed with real intention: “God, I don’t know who you are or if you are, but someone must be behind this incredibly beautiful universe; I’m lost, confused and far from home; I don’t know who I am. If you’re real, please help me!”

 

A few months later I found a job at a small Tokyo company with several Christians on staff. When they discovered I was a Jew, they began to speak about people, places, and events in the Bible—assuming that I would know what they were talking about. I was embarrassed I knew so little about my own heritage. Christians were starting to provoke this Jew to jealousy (Romans 11:14).

 

I bought an English Bible and began to read from Genesis. I was immediately struck by the vast difference between the lofty logic of the biblical narrative, as compared to the convoluted, animistic myths that I had studied—from India, Tibet, China, and Japan. Faith began to take root. I sensed I was reading the true testimony of the Creator, and of the God of my fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

 

My colleagues invited me to church. Young people from all over the world gathered in a basement hall where I heard the good news of Yeshua the Messiah for the first time. I quickly made friends with a young Korean man. I knew how the Koreans had suffered from Japanese aggression and cruelty in the first half of the 20th century. When I asked my friend how he was able to live in genuine harmony with the Japanese, he said, “It’s simple: Yeshua forgave my sins and now I have to forgive everyone, even the Japanese.”

 

“But,” I replied, “why do you have to forgive them? You weren’t even born when all that stuff took place 70 years ago.”

 

“I know,” he said, “but it’s been passed down to us, it’s become part of our Korean identity—to hate the Japanese. But in Messiah, we have to forgive, we have to move on, we have to make a new future together.”

 

Well, this Jew was “convicted,” as they say. That night I couldn’t sleep a wink. I was well educated in the tragedies of the Holocaust, growing up with a brooding sense of calamity whenever I heard anything that sounded like German. Forgive? Can we forgive the Nazis? Impossible!

 

All night I wrestled with God and myself, discovering deep in my heart unforgiveness on many fronts. I knew the challenge: “… But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions” (Matthew 6:14-15). All I could do to finally get some rest was pray, “God, if Yeshua is really the Messiah and Savior, and the only one who can forgive our sins, then I want to know, I must know.”

 

A few weeks later, in June 1992, I attended a special outreach service with a passion play that depicted Yeshua teaching, healing the sick, answering his critics; and at the end betrayed, judged and sentenced to death on the cross. As I watched, I began to weep and sob like a little child. When the Roman guards whipped him, a strong internal voice not on the usual “channel” of my conscious thinking, said: “By his stripes, you are healed…” I was startled and knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that God was speaking to me.

 

I said, “Okay God… I’m ready to follow you.” Immediately, I was struck, physically and powerfully from within. My cold, Jewish/Buddhist heart of stone was removed and I was born again, given a new, living heart by the Holy Spirit. I received grace to repent of my sins, receive the Lord Jesus and the forgiveness of sins through Him. I began to share the gospel with Japanese and foreigners and was baptized in the Pacific Ocean.

 

Wherever the Lord has placed me since then, I’ve been “standing in the gap” with my “dual” Jewish/Gentile identity.

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Taliban Willing to Work with All Nations—Except Israel

by Ron Cantor
written by Ron Cantor

On Tuesday, the Taliban set up its temporary government in Afghanistan, one which includes several internationally wanted terrorists. Looking to create an appearance of legitimacy on the world stage, the Taliban government has said it is open to establishing formal relations with many nations—including the U.S.—however, not Israel.

Wait, what?? We can’t have relations with the Taliban?

What an honor to be singled out as the only nation in the world that a wanton group of kidnapping rapists and murderers won’t hang out with. Nobody in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv is going to lose a wink of sleep over that, and we might even stay up late and celebrate.

“Of course, we won’t have any relation with Israel. We want to have relations with other countries; Israel is not among those countries,” Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said in an interview with Russian media. “Yes, of course, in a new chapter if America wants to have a relation with us, which could be in the interest of both countries and both peoples, and if they want to participate in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, they are welcome.”

Shaheen has been acting as the Taliban’s English-speaking spokesman since they took control of Afghanistan in August. Last month, Shaheen caused a stir when he gave an interview in Qatar to Israeli public broadcaster Kan. He claims he was duped into the interview—while the reporter from Kan identified his network, he did not say he was Israeli.

After the interview aired, Shaheen tweeted he does many interviews each day, and “some journalists may be masquerading, but I haven’t done (an) interview with anyone introducing himself (that) he is from an Israeli media.”

He added, “I may shoot children in the head, sell my sister as a slave, and then marry a ten-year-old, but dog-gone-it, I’ll never give an interview knowingly to a Jew!” OK, he didn’t really say that, but if the shoe fits.

The new government in Afghanistan reads like an international most-wanted rap sheet—the acting prime minister, his deputy, and the interior minister are all wanted for terror crimes by the United Nations, the United States, or other nations. And the sad thing is, I wouldn’t be surprised if President Biden establishes relations with them.

For now, the U.S. State Department is stunned that the Taliban doesn’t have any women, gays, or transgenders in the new cabinet! They are concerned over the terrorists who are running the provisional government in Afghanistan but indicated they are reserving judgment, for now. Personally, I don’t think they need to reserve judgment. I’m pretty sure these are bad people.

“We understand that the Taliban has presented this as a caretaker cabinet. However, we will judge the Taliban by its actions, not words,” a State Department spokesman said. The new cabinet is filled with only the Taliban or their cronies.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been in Qatar holding talks on Afghanistan. The U.S. State Department continues to call on the Taliban to grant safe passage to U.S. citizens and any Afghanis who want to leave.

By the way, Zebulon Simantov, supposedly the “last Jew in Afghanistan,” finally decided to flee the country. After a dangerous border crossing, he is reportedly headed to America. For more on his story, you can find it here.

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Synagogue President Encounters Jesus
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Synagogue President Hears Jesus After Asking God To Reveal The Truth

by Christel Berns
written by Christel Berns

A Jewish synagogue president asked God to reveal the truth of who Yeshua is, and God responded in a powerful way that turned his life around.

A Devoted Jew

Steven grew up in the synagogue, hence becoming a devoted Jew. The first time he heard about the name of Jesus was in the fourth to fifth grade when someone told him that he killed Jesus. But he didn’t know who Jesus was at that time.

By the time Steven got married, he had become so immersed in the synagogue. He also had a metal scrap business that led him to meet a Jewish couple who had known Yeshua. The Jewish lady started talking to him about the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua, who changed her life. But he refused to hear her and stopped her from sharing further.

Around that time, Steven struggled with drug and alcohol problems. One day he decided to end his life by intentionally being hit by a truck. But not even one truck passed by that road, and Steven went home mad. He had tantrums and locked himself up in his room. Then he cried out to God for help and asked Him to take away his pain.

Becoming A Synagogue President

Steven went to rehab and began his recovery by being active in the synagogue for spiritual healing until he became the president. He was sober for ten years. But his relationship with his wife wasn’t getting better, so he wanted to divorce her. However, his wife began going to church on Sundays, bringing a Bible with her.

The synagogue president then called his friend, Sam, who had believed in Yeshua. Sam then urged him to read Isaiah 53, Psalm 2, and Psalm 22 in the Jewish Bible. And Steven realized that it seemed like they’re talking about Jesus. He couldn’t believe what he discovered. Sam then encouraged him to ask God Himself about the truth at night.

Steven asked God, and powerfully, He heard His answer for the first time.

I was the president of the synagogue! How could I believe in Jesus?

YouTube | ONE FOR ISRAEL Ministry

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Idit Harel Segal
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Doing a “Mitzvah” – A Jew Saves An Arab’s Life

by Ron Cantor
written by Ron Cantor

Idit Harel Segal’s grandfather survived the Holocaust. The main lesson out of that tragedy that he imparted to his granddaughter was the importance of leading a meaningful life.

“I wanted to do something big—and what is bigger than saving a life,” Siegel recently told Zman Yisrael, the Hebrew language sister site of the Times of Israel.

Segal, who is 50, made up her mind that she would do a “good deed” by donating a kidney to a stranger in need. However, her husband, father, and other family members were extremely reluctant about her decision. Dash and then it got even more complicated when the next match on the recipient list was a Palestinian boy from Gaza. Segal and her family are all staunch right-wingers. Remember, in Israel, left-wing and right-wing primarily have to do with national security issues and not moral issues like in the US. Right-wingers in Israel are Pro-Israel, pro-defense, anti-land-for-peace deals, etc.

Segal was not deterred by her family’s opposition, though. “I told myself, I’m a strong woman, and I’m going to do it. Something inside me felt like it was the right thing to do.”

Segal and her husband, Yuval, live in the northern part of Israel in Eshbar. They have three children—a son, 23, a middle son, 15, and a daughter, 10. Yuval begged his wife not to have the surgery, according to Segal. But, on the other hand, her children supported her and told her she was a “real superhero.”

Perhaps, the most formidable opposition, though, was from her father. “I encountered wall-to-wall opposition,” Segal said. “The person who took it the hardest was my father, who was really afraid as if I was going to die. He had a relative who died of kidney failure, that could be what spooked him.”

Things got tense between Segal and her dad. He advised Yuval to divorce her over the issue. Father and daughter stopped talking, and the family did not celebrate the Passover seder together.

Segal’s “good deed” became even more complicated when she learned that the next recipient on the list that she was compatible with was a 3-year-old boy, Bilal (not his real name), from the Gaza Strip. The little boy had been on dialysis for most of his short life due to a congenital defect in his kidneys. Unfortunately, none of his family members were able to donate. Finally, his father, a taxi driver, consented to accept an Israeli donor so that his youngest son could move to the top of the list for a lifesaving kidney transplant.

For Segal, this development did not change her resolve to make a difference in the world and honor what her grandfather had taught her. This is quite remarkable, not only considering her political views but also her family history. Segal’s father’s parents were murdered by Palestinian terrorists in 1948 when he was one. Then in 2002, during the Second Intifada, his adopted uncle was murdered in a terror attack in Jerusalem.

“From my perspective, my donation was personal and not political,” Segal said. “And the news of who was receiving the kidney did not make me regret it or reconsider it even for a minute. I felt that this is what was meant to happen, and not a day goes by that I’m not happy about saving the life of that sweet child.”

One day before the operation, a breakthrough happened. Segal’s father called her. “You are my daughter, and I wish you luck,” he said.

“I started crying in relief. I cried so hard I didn’t hear the rest of the things he said,” Segal recalled.

Earlier this month, Segal arrived at the hospital in Petah Tikvah for the surgery. Her first priority was to meet Bilal and his family. The two families bonded in the hospital.

“There was a touching moment when the mother, Bilal, and I were together in their room, and I was caressing him and singing him lullaby eyes in Hebrew… and stroking his head, and on the third song he fell asleep, and so did she. A moment of sweet gentleness. And then I thought to myself, wow, what’s going on here, I’m with a Palestinian woman and child from Gaza.”

“Why can’t the world be like this?” Segal thought as she interacted with the young family from Gaza.

Last month, after Hamas attacked Israel with roughly 4,000 thousand rockets, 1,000 of which were aimed at Elana’s home city, Ashkelon, hitting both my mother-in-law’s building and my brother-in-law’s, we, Messiah’s Mandate/Shelanu donated $10,000 to doctors in Gaza helping the injured. Yes, I know that Gaza is run by terrorists that hate Israel, but I am reminded of the good Samaritan, who helped a Jewish man in his time of need, despite the fact that there had been murderous wars between the two groups. #WWJD?

But the world outside the hospital is still complex and fractured. According to the family, Bilal’s home was destroyed during Operation Guardian of the Walls in the recent war with Hamas. Segal said the families are staying in touch by video calls. The hospital said Bilal is healing and doing well with the transplant.

Segal remains firm in her right-wing beliefs and says her experiences with the family from Gaza have even “strengthened (her) position.”

“Where in the world media will you find a single word about the help they (Palestinians) received from us, the efforts medical teams in Israel are making for a Palestinian patient?”

Segal’s body is mending, and so are her relationships with her family. “They still regret what I did but are happy I am healthy. What matters to me is that I’m 100 percent content and happy with what I’ve done.”

(Photo: Facebook)

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Poland: FM Lapid’s Attack on Holocaust Reparations Law is ‘Indicative of Ignorance of the Facts’

by The Israel Insider
written by The Israel Insider

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid’s attack on Poland’s amended Code of Administrative Procedure that relates to reparations for Jewish victims of the Holocaust is “indicative of ignorance of the facts and the Polish law,” Poland’s Foreign Ministry charged.

The Polish legislation, which was passed by the Sejm on Thursday with 309 votes in favor, no opposition, and 120 abstentions, sets a 30-year deadline for Jews to recover property seized by Nazi Germany in Poland, essentially preventing any Holocaust-era compensation claims or appeals of past decisions.

Lapid stated in response to the vote at the Sejm that “no law will change history,” and the law is “a disgrace and will seriously harm relations between the countries.”

Israel “will stand as a wall of protection in defense of the memory of the Holocaust, as well as to defend the honor of Holocaust survivors and their property. Poland, on whose soil millions of Jews were murdered, knows what is the right thing to do,” he said.

“Preserving the memory of the Holocaust and being concerned for the rights of Holocaust survivors, including the matter of restitution of Jewish property from the Holocaust era, are central components of the State of Israel’s experience and its defined identity,” he underscored.

He pointed to the Terezin Declaration, issued in 2009, which calls for all relevant states to act for the restitution of Jewish property that was stolen during the Holocaust era.

“Israel expects that these states will act according to this principle. The fact that Poland is forsaking the Declaration is extremely worrisome and grave,” he demanded.

The draft law “will in effect prevent the restitution of Jewish property, or the provision of compensation, to Holocaust survivors and their heirs. It is a horrific injustice and disgrace that harms the rights of Holocaust survivors, their heirs, and members of the Jewish communities that existed in Poland for hundreds of years. This is an incomprehensible action,” he explained.

” We view with gravity the attempt to prevent the restitution of the property that was stolen by the Nazis (and their helpers) in European states during the Holocaust to their legal owners,” he concluded.

Poland on Friday noted “with concern the statements of the Israeli side on the amended Code of Administrative Procedure.”

“Those comments are indicative of ignorance of the facts and the Polish law. Poland is by no means responsible for the Holocaust, an atrocity committed by the German occupant also on Polish citizens of Jewish origin. Millions of citizens of the Second Polish Republic became victims of German crimes,” Poland Foreign Ministry said Friday.

The amendment results from the obligation to implement the Constitutional Tribunal’s verdict of May 2015 into the Polish legal system, the statement said.

The Tribunal ruled that the situation where no time limit applies to the possibility of declaring invalid the administrative decisions issued with a gross violation of law is contrary to the principle of a democratic state of law. The adoption of the Act by the Polish Sejm as the performance of the Tribunal’s verdict is a legal consequence of the judgment and a duty of the authorities, Poland said

The amendment is “based on the need to ensure citizens’ trust in the state and to implement the principle of legal certainty. The possibility of challenging a decision issued by public authorities cannot be unlimited in time. Such a situation gives rise to uncertainty as to the existing legal relationship and creates the impression that a decision is provisional,” the statement said.

Israel and Poland have repeatedly clashed in recent years over issues pertaining to the Holocaust, its history and memory, but these incidents have not had a significant impact on the relations between the two countries.

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