All posts filed under: Israel

Study: Reports of antisemitic attacks have reached record highs

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According to a recent study by the Tel Aviv University’s Center for The Study of Contemporary European Jewry reports of antisemitic attacks around the world have reached a record high.

How a Jewish pop ‘Idol’ star in Israel found Jesus after being bitten by a snake

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If you have ever been a fan of American Idol, you may enjoy this story about a Jewish woman, Birgitta Veksler, who finished eighth in Israel’s version of the program, ‘Kochav Nolad’ (Pop Idol). Birgitta was born to a Jewish family in Sweden and lived much of her early life in Estonia before her family decided to move to Israel when she was 12. But before she left, Birgitta had believed in Jesus for her salvation. However, when her family joined Israel’s Jewish community, Birgitta quickly learned that Jesus was an unacceptable, even taboo, topic, and quickly quit talking about her relationship with Christ. She became famous in Israel at the age of 17, when she finished in the top ten in the country’s equivalent of the American Idol. As her popularity grew, she was drawn into the partying scene of alcohol and boys, which left her feeling empty. But things would soon change for Birgitta. Israel has compulsory military service and at the age of 18, young men and women are drafted into Israel’s …

50% of Jewish students on US campuses hide their identity

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A recent survey of Jewish students in the US discovered that nearly 70% stated they experienced antisemitism or were personally aware of antisemitic attacks in the previous 120 days leading up to the survey. Israel 365 News adds that the survey also discovered that 65% of students feel unsafe on campus resulting in 50% of Jewish students purposefully hiding their Jewish identity while attending classes The survey discovered that increasingly Jewish students in the US were being collectively blamed for Israel’s actions in the Middle East. The survey was conducted before the Gaza conflict in May leading many to wonder what the results would have been if it had been conducted after the Gaza war that was instigated by Islamic extremists. The survey of over 2,000 students in two predominantly Jewish fraternity groups, Alpha Epsilon Phi (AEPhi) and Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi), was conducted by the Cohen Research Group and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law this past April. READ: Survey finds nearly two-thirds of Jewish students feel unsafe, half hide …

How a Jewish Navy Sailor found Christ after reading the forbidden chapter in the Bible

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In an interview with One for Israel Ministry, a Jewish man, named Israel, shared how he became a Christian while serving in the US Navy. And specifically, it was one chapter in the book of Isaiah that challenged him to believe Jesus was the Jewish Messiah. Israel had grown up in a Jewish home and at his Bar Mitzvah, the Rabbi warned Israel against believing in Jesus and as well told him never to read the New Testament, because it was just for gentiles. When he joined the US Navy in 1960, he tried fitting in with the other sailors by drinking and cavorting with the girls, but this only violated his conscience and made him feel guilty. At the time, the US Navy was giving Bibles to the sailors according to their faith. There were Bibles for Catholics and protestants and Jews also received their own Bible, the Tanakh, that only contained the Old Testament. But when one of his fellow sailors encouraged Israel to read Isaiah 53, that talks about the suffering of …

Archaeologists find evidence of Biblical earthquake in Jerusalem

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In Amos 1:1, the prophet did an interesting thing. He used an earthquake that hit Judah and Israel about 2,800 years ago, during the reign of Judah’s King Uzziah, as a sign post dating his prophetic calling: 1 The words of Amos, who was among the sheepherders from Tekoa, which he saw in visions concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. Uzziah reigned as King of Judah between 790 and 739 BC. It is believed the earthquake took place around 750 BC. This was nearly 200 years before the destruction of the Temple in 586 BC, when Babylon invaded Jerusalem and hauled off the nation into captivity. But Amos was not the only prophet to mention the earthquake, centuries later the prophet Zechariah (520 to 470 BC) was still talking about the earthquake that occurred in King Uzziah’s day (Zechariah 14:5). This suggests that there was such devastation, it was still in public memory as it …

BLM co-founder called for ‘end of Israel’

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Patrisse Cullors, the self-proclaimed trained Marxist, co-founder of Black Lives Matter and multi-million dollar home-owner, can now add another to her list of left wing accomplishments. According to the Daily Mail, while speaking on a panel sponsored by Harvard University’s Human Rights Program in 2015, Cullors called for an end to Israel’s existence as a nation.

Islamic extremists get pro-Israel Facebook page banned?

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Facebook recently took down a page, Jerusalem Prayer Team, dedicated to praying for Jerusalem and told its founder, Mike Evans, there was no appeal. The page had 75 million followers. Evans alleges this took place after Islamic extremists began posting antisemitic comments on the site, including photos and statements by Adolf Hitler, and then reported the comments to Facebook.

Regular CNN contributor posts pro-Hitler tweet

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Adeel Raja, a regular contributor to CNN who has written dozens of articles over the years, was recently caught with a pro Hitler, pro Nazi tweet that read “The world needs a Hitler.” Raja quickly deleted it, but not before several captured it. The Blaze provides the details: A longtime contributor to CNN found himself in hot water after tweeting, “The world today needs a Hitler.” The inflammatory tweet, which could be interpreted as a call for the extermination of the Jewish people, was posted to Twitter on Sunday amidst the rising tensions and violence between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East. The CNN contributor quickly deleted the post, but it sparked social media users to comb through his Twitter profile. Adeel Raja, who has written dozens of articles for CNN, also appears to have a history of posting ant-Semitic messages on Twitter. Donald Trump Jr. posted screenshots of the “Hitler” tweet as well as a CNN article that indicates Raja as a co-author, and his LinkedIn profile, where he describes himself as a …

Jewish supporters attacked in Canada

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There were two protests in Toronto’s Nathan Philips Square on Saturday, May 22, 2021. One involved a larger crowd of about 5,000 people who were there to protest Israel’s retaliatory strikes against the terrorist organization, Hamas, that controls the Gaza Strip. There was also a smaller group supporting Israel’s right to defend itself in the current conflict.

Israel and Gaza: Is this Armageddon?

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Do you remember life two years ago? It’s blurry in my memory. If someone said COVID or words like Astra Zeneca, we might have guessed they were speaking another language. Then, a pandemic came on us, and life has not been the same. We are told that change will come on us: “The day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. When they say, “Peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.” (1 Thessalonians 5: 2 and 3) That just happened. Everything seemed normal; I remember making decisions and plans for the next few years. I went to a work site one day, and I remember sheets of plastic hung from the ceilings to keep customers, people off the street, away from the workers at the counters. I had a bad feeling about that, and then someone noticed me. The workers looked at me like I was a strange alien creature, and they explained that I …

Watch an Easter service from the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem

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If churches in your area are still locked down, you may want to watch CBN’s Easter Service live from the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem. It’s available in English, Spanish and Mandarin. Click here to watch the service. CBN writes: As the sun rises over the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem on Easter Sunday, thousands of people will be turning to the Garden Tomb to celebrate in a place many believe to be the place where the resurrection occurred almost 2000 years ago. The sermon will be available in English, Spanish and Mandarin. Some believe that the Garden Tomb is the place where Jesus was buried after His crucifixion and then rose from the dead. But those who manage the site do not make this claim but rather point to it as an example of what a tomb in that day looked like, including a ramp where a stone was rolled to block the entrance. Archaeologists have dated this particular tomb to the 8th or 7th century BC. While it was very common for tombs to …

Sorting Out the Israeli Elections

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By Dr. Michael L. Brown Do you have your scorecards ready? We’re going to do our best to sort out the results of this week’s elections in Israel, the fourth in a period of just two years (can you imagine that?). But first, a disclaimer: by the time you read this article, the outcome may have changed. That’s how inconclusive the final voting turned out to be. A shift in affiliation by one of the many parties receiving votes could change things overnight. Plus, on Friday, 450,000 double-sealed votes will be counted (including military votes, votes from abroad, and votes sent in because of COVID). That could shift things as well. Let’s start with an overview of how a government is formed in Israel. The Knesset (Parliament) has 120 seats, and so, to form a government, you need 61 seats. The problem is that there are many parties in Israel, quite the opposite of our two party system in America, in which smaller parties are virtually meaningless. And in Israel, although the parties are led …

Are we entering the ‘Time of Jacob’s Trouble’?

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An old saying suggests that if we don’t learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. So what happens if we don’t remember it? A survey conducted of adults between the ages of 18 to 39 (millennials and Gen Z) by Claims Conference (Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany) discovered that nearly 66% of young Americans were not aware that the Nazis slaughtered six million Jews in concentration camps during the World War II Holocaust. And the survey also revealed other disturbing news: 23% though the Holocaust was either a myth or was exaggerated or had no opinion. 36% believed less than two million Jews were killed. 12% said they had definitely never heard of the Holocaust. 48% could not provide the name of a Nazi concentration camp. But what is equally concerning is that in New York nearly 20% of millennials blamed the Jews for the Holocaust. It was Jew’s fault that the Nazi’s slaughtered millions of them in the gas chambers. This type of thinking does not bode well for the …

Does religion put us at risk?

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Jesus spoke to a conservative religious woman, a Samaritan, and told her “A time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth” (John 4: 23). He warned that change was coming on them. As the world struggles with the COVID pandemic, many religious groups resist health restrictions and regulations. Conservative groups that live with rituals and traditions find it hard to adapt; people who have lived their own way for centuries are not interested in changing now. This is not only true for Christian groups, the major center of infections in Israel is one Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. READ: Israel’s ultra-Orthodox communities ‘ignoring’ COVID-19 rules In Canada, Hutterite colonies have high rates of infection. These people practice their conservative religion in communes, and they love their lifestyle. I often meet Hutterites, Russian Old Believers, and Mennonites through my work, and I find them friendly and likeable, but they don’t like to change their ways. READ: Canadian Hutterite colonies struggle with coronavirus outbreaks