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On this auspicious occasion, of Jerusalem's 50th anniversary of her reunification, we would appreciate it if you would send us congratulations or a greeting, which you probably have always wanted to convey.
A selection of these congratulations will be published in the Israel Today June issue.
Netanyahu: 'Israel Has No Better Friends' Than Evangelicals
Black lights and sensational music. Dancing. Prayer. Charity. A march of thousands of colors from more than 80 nations—a march in solidarity with Israel. In essence, it's Jerusalem's Christian Zionist Super Bowl.
Such was the scene of the 36th annual Feast of Tabernacles conference and celebration, hosted by the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) from Sept. 27-Oct. 1. The event brought more than 5,000 people to the Israeli capital, including more than 50 pro-Israel Christian parliamentarians and government officials from more than two-dozen countries. Several African nations sent a large delegation of cabinet ministers and members of parliament (MPs) to officially represent their countries.
According to Dr. Jurgen Buhler, executive director of ICEJ, the median age of attendees was between 30 and 40. The weeklong festivities mark Israel's largest annual event for tourists and the largest solidarity mission to the Jewish state this year, injecting an estimated $16 million into the Israeli economy.
In a video speech Sept. 29, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the Christian Zionist attendees for their "unfaltering, enthusiastic support [of Israel] over the years."
"Israel has no better friends around the world," he said.
Similarly, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said, "Not everyone in the world seeks the best for Jerusalem. There are people that challenge our history. Sometimes, we feel alone. ... Your friendship is warming our hearts. I want to thank you for your prayers and your unprecedented support and passion."
In a speech that pulled heavily from the Torah, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin spoke to thunderous applause. He said his Jewish ancestors of 2,400 years prior could not have envisioned the ingathering to Jerusalem of Jews from around the world—from Russia, Ethiopia, North America, Morocco, to build farms and villages and make the desert bloom.
"Yes, my dear friends, the return to Zion is not just the redemption of the Jewish people alone. It should give hope to all mankind. Indeed, it would change the world. ... Thank you for standing with us. Pray for the people of Jerusalem—may it prosper. God bless," said Rivlin.
The focus of this year's Feast was "The Evangelical Revolution and its Potential for Israel," and conference sessions honed in on the impact rising evangelical support could have on the Jewish state—politically and economically.
According to an ICEJ backgrounder, among the estimated 2 billion Christians in the world today, as many as 700 million are considered evangelicals, and it is the fastest-growing stream of Christianity. If current trends continue, there will be an estimated 1 billion Evangelicals within the next 20 years.
"This all holds great potential for the nation of Israel in political, diplomatic, and economic terms, as a substantial majority of evangelical Christians tend to hold favorable views of Israel," ICEJ said in a statement.
Evangelical Christianity emerged out of the Protestant Reformation in Europe in the 16th century. When Martin Luther translated the Bible into common German (and others later into other common languages), it allowed Christians to discern for themselves whether official church teachings were truly aligned with God. Many of these nascent church movements also rediscovered the individualist experience of being "born again," the hallmark of evangelism today.
Rev. Dennis Balcombe, the longest-serving Western evangelical missionary to China, explained that a movement of underground evangelism in China that grew from a few thousand faithful some 45 years ago now boasts an estimated 130 million followers.
"There are more Christians in China than in North America," Balcombe said. "China's doors are opening. The Lord said, 'Behold, I have set before you an open door.' ... The people of China are tired of Communism or persecution, of being beaten by the police, of prison. Now, many leaders are turning to Jesus Christ."
It is estimated that 30 percent of China will be evangelical within 30 years.
In India and Africa, too, the evangelical movement has taken root. According to Dr. Vishai Mangalwadi, India is now home to more than 100 million Christians. Within 20 years, India is likely to be 20-percent Christian.
The most dramatic growth in the evangelical movement is occurring within what some call the "Global South"—Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. The continent of Africa alone has seen a dramatic increase in Christian identification, from 10 million Christians in 1900 to 493 million in 2010. The projected growth in Africa is expect to exceed 1 billion evangelical Christians by 2050.
How has this happened? According to Nanasso Amina, a Feast of Tabernacles delegate from Cameroon, the vehicle is "friendship evangelism."
"We win their confidence and then present Christ to them," she told JNS.org.
This "friendship evangelism" was the impetus for a controversial statement by Israel's chief rabbis shortly before the ICEJ-hosted Feast. In a letter dated Sept. 3, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau and Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yizak Yosef accused the annual celebration by evangelical Christians in Jerusalem of being an effort to convert Jews to Christianity. They called the event "spiritually dangerous."
Like the rabbis, Ruth Guggenheim—executive director of Jews for Judaism, an organization that seeks to counteract proselytizing—was wary of the Feast's intentions, saying, "There is a tremendous power in being immersed in their prayer services. 'Davidic dance' programs and various workshop festivities can be very seductive and overwhelming." She added, "All one needs to do is Google 'Messianic Judaism Israel' and you will see the level of sophistication and number of [websites] directly targeting Jews for conversion."
But David Parsons, ICEJ's media director, countered Guggenheim's assertion by explaining that evangelicals make up less than 1 percent of Israel's population and that their missionary activity mainly target the Muslim-Arab population.
Dr. Naim Khoury, a pastor in Bethlehem, said he has seen more "Arabs and Palestinians open to the gospel" in recent years. He noted that conversions to Christianity need to take place covertly and that most individuals who chose faith in Jesus leave the disputed territories for abroad, where they can live freely. He noted that when a Muslim chooses Christianity, it is often based on a spiritual reflection.
"They reflect on what is happening in the Middle East, the terrorism, and they question their faith," he said.
Leading up the Feast, ICEJ responded to the chief rabbis' letter by stating that the organization "has always respected and upheld the laws of the State of Israel, including those covering missionary activities, and it is regrettable that the Chief Rabbinate acted solely on the misrepresentations of those bearing false witness against us."
Former Knesset member Rabbi Dov Lipman, who spoke at the Jerusalem conference, said he has learned over the years that Israel is not only isolated, but doesn't have many friends around the world—and that it has found a stalwart friend in the evangelical community.
"I believe that the way Israel can win in the public diplomacy war in South America, Africa, Europe" is to engage the Christian community, "and we have to embrace that relationship," said Lipman.
In Lipman's estimation, Jews have the right to be both "suspicious" and "skeptical" of evangelical support. But "if we pull away from that and focus on what we share, this could be the most important relationship for Israel," he said.
Several Pacific Island nations showed their religiously motivated support for Israel in recent years through their pro-Israel voting patterns in the United Nations General Assembly. Two years ago, Nigeria, for the first time in its history, abandoned its traditional pro-Palestinian position at the U.N. when the Palestinian Authority sought to secure statehood in the Security Council. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan made a decision to abstain from the deliberation, playing a role in keeping the Palestinian from attaining enough votes to force a U.S. veto of the statehood measure.
"The vast majority of Zionists around the world are not Jewish, but Christian believers in the Bible that want to stand with Israel," said Calev Myers, founder of the Jerusalem Institute of Justice. "We need to equip them. It is much better for a blue-eyed, blond girl from Sweden to deliver the message of Israel and defend us abroad than for Israelis to try to defend themselves."
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BEN GURION AIRPORT -- The final flights of an operation bringing Jewish people -- whose ancestors date to biblical times -- landed in Israel recently. It's one of the world's oldest Jewish communities, reaching back to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
"Today we are witnessing history taking place -- the return of the last remaining remnants of Jewish Ethiopians to their Jewish homeland," Greg Masel, director general of Keren Hayesod, told CBN News.
The new immigrants arrived in Israel courtesy of Operation Dove's Wings. It's the final in a series of organized mass immigrations from Ethiopia that's spanned three decades.
"It's really closing a kind of a circle -- 30 years of operation after operation, of wonderful aliyah [immigration to Israel under the Law of Return] that [brought] Ethiopians to Israel. It's awesome," MK Pnina Tamano-Shata told CBN News.
Tamano-Shata is the first Ethiopian-born woman to become a member of the Israeli parliament. She arrived in Israel on Operation Shlomo (Solomon) in 1991.
"If I remember Operation Shlomo -- in 36 hours, 14,000 people," she recalled.
"The State of Israel does many wonderful things, and things very, very big because I immigrated at age three, and this time I returned as a Knesset member, a parliament member, this is a big pride," she said smiling.
Since 1948, the Jewish Agency, responsible for immigration, has helped more than 90,000 Ethiopians immigrate to Israel. Keren Hayesold has raised much of the funds.
"One of the basic missions of the State of Israel is to gather the exiles, the Jewish exiles here in Israel," said Yohanna Arbib Perugia, chairman of the World Board of Trustees of Keren Hayesod.
Known as Falash Mura or Beta Israel, many Ethiopian Jews adopted Christian practices over the years or assimilated into Ethiopian society. Israel, therefore, had to determine whether those applying for citizenship were really eligible to come to the land under the Law of Return.
"They're happiest and most grateful because they recognize that Israel is the only country in the history of the world to bring in blacks, not to be slaves, but to be brothers…and that's what they are. They're brothers, they're family," Rabbi Ari Abramowitz, director of Friends of Israel at Keren Hayesod, told CBN News.
For the past three years, the Jewish Agency ran a community center in Gondar, Ethiopia, which provided social and welfare services, plus Hebrew language courses and Jewish studies to prepare the returnees for their homecoming.
"They have a wonderful history, a rich culture, but they grew up in villages," Masel explained. "They grew up removed from 20th century, Western civilization, as we know it."
"We have Jews that have been separated for 2,000 years," Abramowitz said. "Imagine a family reunion after a 2,000-year summer camp! We come back with all the different culture and values and perspectives, and we're in this little land surrounded by enemies who want to wipe us out."
Though these last two flights mark the end of mass immigration from Ethiopia, the Jewish Agency will still help those eligible to immigrate.
And Abramowitz says there's more work to be done.
"There's plenty of Jews around the world who we have to still bring back," he said. "There's a lot more work to do."
