Showing posts with label Auschwitz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Auschwitz. Show all posts

Sunday, January 28, 2018

COMMENTARY: The Battle of Britain - Charles Gardner ISRAEL TODAY

COMMENTARY: The Battle of Britain

Sunday, January 28, 2018 |  Charles Gardner  ISRAEL TODAY
As we mark another Holocaust Memorial Day, held each year on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the ongoing nightmare experienced by the Jewish people – with anti-Semitism once again spreading like cancer – should drive us to our knees.
And I’m glad to say that our African brethren, at least, who have brought much-needed new life and vigour to the British church, are doing just that by calling a special day of prayer focused on our fractured relationship with Israel.
Wale Babatunde of the World Harvest Christian Centre in south London is particularly concerned by Britain’s failure to follow President Trump’s lead in recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
This follows a series of betrayals over the years which have undone much of the goodwill fostered by the government’s pledge, through the Balfour Declaration 100 years ago, to do all in its power to re-settle the Jewish people in their ancient land.
Fortunately, African Christians know how to pray, so we are fully expecting God to shake up our complacency over Israel – both in Parliament and in the Church.
My own MP, Dame Rosie Winterton (Labour, Doncaster Central), has already chaired a debate on Holocaust Memorial Day in the House. In a report to her constituents, she said this year’s theme, The Power of Words, was a reminder that the Holocaust did not start with the gas chambers, but with hate-filled words, adding that words can also be a force for good through which we can demonstrate that we will not stay silent when such vilification and de-humanisation occur.
In South Africa, meanwhile, farmer/evangelist Angus Buchan has called another It’s Time day of prayer for his country – this time in Cape Town where he recently addressed Parliament as part of a prayer rally.
Last year, 1.7 million Christians travelled to a farmer’s field near the central city of Bloemfontein to pray for a nation steeped in corruption and lawlessness, and Angus is hoping for a similar response on March 24 this year
We should be doing it here too. Many of us have forgotten, or perhaps never knew, that it was prevailing prayer – not Spitfires and Hurricanes – that won the Battle of Britain. Rees Howells and his Bible College students in Wales were on their knees daily throughout the war. In fact, according to Norman Grubb, in _Rees Howells – Intercessor _(Lutterworth Press), “the whole college was in prayer every evening from 7pm to midnight, with only a brief interval for supper. They never missed a day. This was in addition to an hour’s prayer meeting every morning, and very often at midday. There were many special periods when every day was given up wholly to prayer and fasting.” Howells told his students: “Don’t allow those young men at the Front to do more than you do here.” Over the Dunkirk period, Howells spent four days alone with God “to battle through and, as others have testified, the crushing burden of those days broke his body. He literally laid down his life.”
It’s time we did it again. Both Britain and Israel face an enemy just as terrifying as the Nazis, only subtler. This is the belief that we are no longer answerable to a heavenly authority, and that man is his own god – a secular/humanist view that has brought the beginnings of totalitarianism (that brooks no dissent) to a society once proud of its freedom. It was for this that my father’s generation risked their lives in World War II.
But as journalist Melanie Phillips has said on a tour of America, Israel is absolutely central to the recovery of Western values, which are based on the Hebrew Bible. “We’re in this together,” she told the Minnesota-based Olive Tree Ministries radio programme.
Here is the stark reality of what is facing the Jewish people today: Iran is fast developing nuclear weapons with which to “wipe out” Israel (in the words of the Ayatollahs and Iranian presidents) and, ominously in the eyes of many, the Russian Bear has now established a foothold in the region. The current spat between Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia further adds to the tension and Gaza-based Hamas is repeatedly firing rockets into the Jewish state while Lebanon-based Hezbollah continues to pose a serious threat on its northern border. Brutal Islamic State are also stalking the area while the Palestinian Authority incites its people to murder and mayhem, and some Westerners are engaged in a boycott of Israeli goods on the pretext that they are oppressive occupiers of land not their own. But the truth is that, in most cases, Jews are being attacked simply because they are Jews, not for political or economic reasons.
Tragically, however, the South African government is fanning the flames of anti-Semitism with their ruling party, the African National Congress, having last month announced its intention to loosen diplomatic ties with Israel, citing alleged apartheid policies against the Palestinians along with America’s acknowledgement of Jerusalem as the nation’s capital.
Thankfully, the Zulu King is urging them to reconsider. Goodwill Zwelithini, monarch of South Africa’s largest ethnic group, praised the Jewish state for their help in curbing the devastation of drought through their cutting-edge water technology along with the spread of HIV/AIDS through Jewish-sponsored medical circumcision.
But in both Britain and South Africa, we have a God in heaven waiting to hear our cry for mercy. Jesus said we could move mountains with our faith. (Matthew 17.20 & 21.21, Mark 11.23)
Let’s pray for the mountain of paralyzing unbelief and complacency to be removed from our nations, in Jesus’ name!
PHOTO: Courtesy of Charles Gardner

Charles Gardner is author of Israel the Chosen, available from Amazon, and Peace in Jerusalem, available from olivepresspublisher.com
Want more news from Israel?
Click Here to sign up for our FREE daily email updates

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Jerusalem & Friends - Yad Vashem, The Holocaust History Museum. Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Jerusalem & Friends
-          Yad Vashem, The Holocaust History Museum

Now Think On This
Steve Martin


“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will no longer be any death; and there will no longer be any mourning, crying or pain; because the old order has passed away.” (Revelation 21:4, Complete Jewish Bible)


Near the end of the Jerusalem light rail train line, on the west side of the city, is the Holocaust History Museum, known in Hebrew as Yad Vashem. Now that I think about it, for many Jews during World War II, Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Bergen-Belsen and similar concentration, extermination death camps were also at the end of the line. For those back then, it was evil at its worse, with death for the millions. For the living who visit this memorial now, it is the opportunity to see and observe a part of what had happened, but also to commit to not let it happen again to the Jewish people.

This official museum, remembering those gassed by the Nazi regime, established in 1953 on the western slope of Mount Herzl, is the second most visited tourist site in Israel. I personally have been there five times. I would encourage any who make it to Israel, as a tourist or otherwise, to take it all in.

After making the way down the entrance street, either by bus or on foot from the train, is the building greeting the visitors. From there you enter into the main grounds, having the Children’s Memorial, the Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations, and the main Hall of Remembrance, Another building included is the silent, dark, ever-candle burning hall with the names of each extermination camp spelled out on the floor behind the circular railed walkway. One really gets the sense of honor to those who perished in the gas chambers.

As you walk to each building, the paths are lined with small trees, each one planted in remembrance of Gentiles, the Righteous Ones, who helped save Jews from certain death. Names such as Oskar Schindler (his story told in the movie Schindler’s List) and Corrie ten Boom are two of the ones more familiar. A listing of over 26,000 names can be found on the museum’s website Yad Vashem.

Tears are often shed during the hour long (or more) walk through the main Hall of Remembrance. One can only pause, sit, listen, and simply try to image the horror that families went through. The ugly hate, the lies viciously spread, the cruel beatings, starvation, and then the gas chambers built as the final solution for six million Jews. With every possible display of actual photos and movie footage; historical facts of each European country where Jews were rounded up as cattle and loaded into actual cattle trains; and recorded documentaries of the old, then young, survivors - never again shall this atrocity happen to the Jewish people. With those who have already made Israel home, and the ones who will yet make Israel their home, all are committed to this end. Never again.



As a ministry committed to bless the Jewish people, those who for many centuries were driven from their homes, businesses, and then beaten or killed by satanic people “in the name of Christ”, Love For His People, Inc. will continually stand with Israel. Helping those in the Land; assisting those going back to the Land (aliyah); and sharing the eternal truth, through social media and other writings in support of their Land; it is our heart and purpose to bless our friends of Israel.

We cherish Jerusalem and our friends within. I pray you too will have the opportunity to visit this special land, chosen by the Eternal God to put His Name there, and the place where our Savior and Lord Jesus, Yeshua HaMashiach, will make His triumphant return soon. His coming back will be in time to save His people, and to set up His throne of righteous rule and reign.

Shalom and ahava (peace and love in Hebrew).

Now think on this,
  
Steve Martin
Founder/President
Love For His People, Inc.


Please be sure to sign up for our newsletter. Use the "Sign Up" button on our website, or go here: Sign Me Up!

If these messages have ministered to you, please consider sending a charitable gift of $10-$50 today, and maybe each month, to help us bless families in Israel whom we consistently help monthly through our humanitarian work. Your tax-deductible contributions receive a receipt for each donation. Fed. ID #27-1633858.


Secure, conveniently contributions can be done online now. Click here: DONATE  (or use the DONATE buttons on the blog.)

Contribution checks can be sent to: 
Love For His People, Inc. 
P.O. Box 414   
Pineville, NC 28134

Todah rabah! (Hebrew – Thank you very much.) 

Please share Now Think On This with your friends on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr and LinkedIn.  We appreciate your help.

Now Think On This #334 - in the year of our Lord 11.26.17 – “Jerusalem & Friends – Yad Vashem”, Sunday, Nov. 26, 2017 3:40 pm


Yad Vashem
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Yad Vashem (Hebrewיָד וַשֵׁם‎) is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the dead; honouring Jews who fought against their Nazi oppressors and Gentiles who selflessly aided Jews in need; and researching the phenomenon of the Holocaust in particular and genocide in general, with the aim of avoiding such events in the future.
Established in 1953, Yad Vashem is on the western slope of Mount Herzl, also known as the Mount of Remembrance, a height in western Jerusalem, 804 meters (2,638 ft) above sea level and adjacent to the Jerusalem Forest. The memorial consists of a 180-dunam (18.0 ha; 44.5-acre) complex containing the Holocaust History Museum, memorial sites such as the Children's Memorial and the Hall of Remembrance, the Museum of Holocaust Art, sculptures, outdoor commemorative sites such as the Valley of the Communities, a synagogue, a research institute with archives, a library, a publishing house, and an educational center, the International School/Institute for Holocaust Studies.
A core goal of Yad Vashem's founders was to recognize Gentiles who, at personal risk and without a financial or evangelistic motive, chose to save their Jewish brethren from the ongoing genocide during the Holocaust. Those recognized by Israel as Righteous Among the Nations are honored in a section of Yad Vashem known as the Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations.

After the Western Wall, Yad Vashem is the second-most-visited Israeli tourist site. Its curators do not charge any fee for admission, and welcome approximately one million visitors a year.

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

The Nazis’ chilling response to a Jew’s violin recital in Auschwitz - Israel Video Network

daily israel update banner 2
Auschwitz-violin-recital-

One night, the Nazis called this talented violinist in and ordered him to play music for them. He had the choice of what song to play and knew that Jewish prisoners would hear the music throughout Auschwitz. And he chose the perfect tune.
Click here to forward this email to your friends.
***
holocaust-ritual-baths-email

Amazing discovery in Vilnius, Lithuania.
shakingyourlulav

Click here to watch:
Shakin’ the Lulav (Sukkot song)
Happy Sukkot!
***
mt-carmel-email

Today's Israel is Beautiful feature - Dji phantom 4 drone captures the beauty.
***
E-teacher - He Kid 580x200
***

We invite you to send us any videos you think will help us connect people to Israel and the Jewish People. We love your feedback and read it everyday. Looking forward to hearing from you!
If you received this email from a friend and wish to subscribe - Just click here.
If you would rather receive a Weekly Connection to Israel instead, sign up here to be switched over to the weekly list.
Shalom from Jerusalem!
Avi Abelow
avi@Israelvideonetwork.com
sign up for breaking israel videos banner
©2017 12Tribe Films | Jerusalem, Israel

Monday, January 30, 2017

Heroes of the Holocaust - Charles Gardner ISRAEL TODAY

Heroes of the Holocaust

Monday, January 30, 2017 |  Charles Gardner  ISRAEL TODAY
Seventy-two years after the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army on January 27 1945, Britain and other nations are acknowledged Holocaust Memorial Day at a time when anti-Semitism is once more on the rise.
Israel itself, which has since risen from the ashes of that dreadful scourge that wiped out six million European Jews, is under dire threat from enemies on all sides while attacks on synagogues and other Jewish centres are still being carried out in the ‘civilised’ West. Only this last weekend in north-west London, a swastika-daubed brick was hurled through a Jewish family’s window while others were pelted with eggs.[1]
The fragile borders to which the United Nations expect Israel to agree (just nine miles wide in places) have for good reason been described by politicians as ‘Auschwitz lines’ because they leave the Jewish state highly vulnerable to attack from neighbouring states who have repeatedly threatened to wipe them off the map.
It was also in January 1945 that one of the most heroic accounts of the war took place. But the incredible story has only just surfaced because the hero concerned never spoke about it.
The truth was finally unearthed by his granddaughter when asked to focus on a family member as part of a college assignment. Her widowed grandmother gave her the diary kept by her husband during his time in a prisoner-of-war camp which revealed the astonishing fact that, by standing up to the German commandant, Master Sgt Roddie Edmonds, of Knoxville, Tennessee, had saved the lives of 200 American Jews.
As the highest-ranking officer there, Edmonds was made responsible for the camp’s 1,292 American GIs, 200 of whom were Jewish. Then one day the Germans ordered all Jewish POWs to report outside their barracks the following morning. Knowing what awaited them – being moved to a slave labour camp at the very least – he decided to resist the directive, ordering all his men to fall out the following morning.
The commandant, Major Siegmann, duly ordered Edmonds to identify the Jewish soldiers, to which the sergeant responded: “We are all Jews here.”
Holding his pistol to Edmonds’ head, the commandant repeated the order. But the sergeant – a devout Christian – refused.
“According to the Geneva Convention, we only have to give our name, rank and serial number. If you shoot me, you will have to shoot all of us, and after the war you will be tried for war crimes,” Edmonds had said, according to one of the men saved that day.
Edmonds’ pastor son Chris regards all of them as heroes as they could easily have identified the Jews among them to save their skin. But they all stood together. Late last year Roddie Edmonds was posthumously awarded the Yehi Or (Let there be light) Award by the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous. He has also been honoured by Jerusalem’s Holocaust Museum Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.[2]
But as Jews were herded into cattle trucks for transporting to death camps, there weren’t many Roddies about who dared to speak up and stand up on their behalf.
These days, where controversial issues are concerned, leaders still prefer to keep their heads below the proverbial parapet while remaining ‘impartial’. But there is a time when we must take sides. We must choose between life and death, between God and evil. If we claim to be Christian, we have no option.
“Neutrality is only an illusion,” writes Robert Stearns. “Those who are not for God are against Him. (Matthew 12.30a) “The German public’s unfortunate legacy during World War II lies not in what they did in response to their despotic leader and his horrendous practices, but in what they did not do.”[3]
This did not apply, however, to Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie, young Christians who led the White Rose leaflet campaign of resistance for which they paid with their lives. Prophetically, they asked the question: “Who among us has any conception of the dimensions of shame that will befall us and our children when one day the veil has fallen from our eyes and the most horrible of crimes… reach the light of day?”[4]
Stearns also points out that, when the Nazis invaded European nations, many monarchs vacated their thrones and fled. But King Christian X stayed in Denmark as he defied the bullies. And thanks to his example, most Danish Jews survived the war.[5]
Princess Alice, the Queen’s mother-in-law, has also been recognized by Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum as ‘righteous among the nations’ for saving a Jewish family during the war, and is buried on the Mount of Olives.
As Princess of Greece, she hid Jewish widow Rachel Cohen and two of her five children in her home. Rachel’s husband had in 1913 helped King George I of Greece, in return for which the king offered him any service he could perform, should he ever need it. When the Nazi threat emerged, his son recalled this promise and appealed to the Princess, who duly honoured her father’s pledge. Prince Charles last year fulfilled a longstanding wish to visit his grandmother’s grave.[6]
It’s interesting in this respect that Prince Charles has compared the dangers facing minority faith groups across the world today with the “dark days of the 1930s”.[7]
The Queen herself is a wonderful example of someone who is prepared to make an uncompromising stand for faith and truth, declaring in her latest Christmas message to the nation: “Jesus Christ lived in obscurity for much of his life and was maligned and rejected by many, though he had done no wrong. Millions now follow his teaching and find in him the guiding light of their lives. I am one of them…”
Are we, like the Queen, courageous enough to tell the entire world that we are followers of Jesus and, as such, will do all we can to stand up to the evil that lurks in every dark corner of our land?
Roddie Edmonds was prepared to die for 200 Jewish men. Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac. But the greatest sacrifice of all was when Yeshua (Hebrew for Jesus), “though he had done no wrong”, laid down his life for both Jews and Gentiles on a stake outside the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City after being “led like a lamb to the slaughter” during the Passover feast (Isaiah 53.7). He bought our pardon; he paid the price.

  1. Jerusalem News Network, January 24 2017, quoting Algemeiner  ↩
  2. Gateway News (South Africa), December 1 2016, originally published by The Times of Israel  ↩
  3. The Cry of Mordecai by Robert Stearns (Destiny Image)  ↩
  4. Ibid  ↩
  5. Ibid  ↩
  6. Torch magazine, Christians United for Israel – UK, Dec 2016-Feb 2017  ↩
  7. Saltshakers December 24 2016, quoting Premier Online  ↩

Charles Gardner is author of Israel the Chosen, available from Amazon, and Peace in Jerusalem, available from olivepresspublisher.com
Want more news from Israel?
Click Here to sign up for our FREE daily email updates