Pillar of Salt: A Daughter’s Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust
Anna Salton Eisen will be the featured speaker at the third annual Beauty for Ashes Luncheon, March 22, 2024, at the Kingwood Country Club. Click here for more information. As…
Everyone’s mad at de Blasio’s ‘Jewish community’ comment for the wrong reason
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio came under an onslaught of criticism on Tuesday night when he tweeted his reaction to the overcrowded funeral procession for a rabbi from the Satmar Hasidic sect of ultra-Orthodox Jews. The first tweet called the crowd that had in South Williamsburg, in violation of statewide bans on gatherings of 10 or more people, “unacceptable.” But de Blasio’s subsequent message sent Twitter into a spasm of rage because it began, “My message to the Jewish community, and all communities, is this simple: the time for warnings has passed. I have instructed the NYPD to proceed immediately to summons or even arrest those who gather in large groups.”
A painting of Jesus entering Jerusalem, celebrated by Christians as Palm Sunday, in the Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos in Skopje, North Macedonia. Photo by Petar Milošević/Creative Commons
Palm Sunday: The most anti-Semitic time of the Christian calendar
What might surprise Jewish readers of the New Testament are the Israel-affirming bits that show that the Gospels are thoroughly Jewish. Jesus and his rivals argue about food laws because, well, Jews argue about food laws. They argue about how to relate to Rome because that was a contentious issue in first-century Judea. They argue together with tools all Jews recognize and honor — the Torah and the life of worship and festival known as Judaism.
So what do we do with these texts that are still in our Christian Scripture? We don’t dismiss them. We situate them historically as I have done here — as a reflection of one claimant to the legacy of Israel clawing for space against another.
Christian Friends of Israel Rally to Help Jewish State Fight Coronavirus
The number of individuals in Israel diagnosed with the COVID-19 coronavirus rises daily, and pro-Israel Christian organizations have joined the struggle to help contend with the pandemic in the Jewish state. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) has decided to lend a hand in Israel’s fight against the pandemic and approved over the weekend $2 million in special grants to 15 hospitals for respiratory equipment and other lifesaving machinery. Additionally, The IFCJ purchased 20 special testing devices for Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel’s emergency medical response organization. The devices will help the staff test patients and reduce the burden on hospitals, preventing unnecessary contact between Coronavirus patients and their surroundings.
The Passion of Yeshua
Resurrecting the Jewish Jesus "At the first night of Passover, the youngest person at the table asks the question "Why is this night different from all other nights?" Appropriately, the place to begin speaking of The Passion of Yeshua is to ask the question "Why is this Passion Oratorio different from all other Passion Oratorios?" A devoted educator and mentor, he grew up with both Christian and Jewish faiths in his household. His parents were born in Iran, and he was free to examine his faith from multiple perspectives. Ultimately, he accepted that Jesus was the foretold Messiah, but this did not disavow his Jewishness. After all, Jesus was Jewish.
‘These are the last days’
Messianic worship leader Paul Wilbur has sold over 3 million albums globally and recently felt a charge from God to release his latest, “Roar From Zion,” as a prophetic shout to usher in the return of the Lord. Wilbur’s roar from Jerusalem happened last September during the Feast of Tabernacles and the 70th anniversary of the rebirth of the State of Israel when he recorded his live album, Roar From Zion in the heart of Israel. The new album, which is now available, releases what he calls a "prophetic praise" in hopes of impacting people around the world with a message that reaches beyond cultural, social and political borders.
Chagall’s Mirror
The Jewishness of Jesus has seldom been rendered more clearly in art than in the crucifixion scenes of Marc Chagall. Of the 31 paintings and 22 works on paper in “Chagall: Love, War and Exile”
The Restaurant
“While it is true that at the present time a majority of believers in Yeshua are Gentiles - a fact we celebrate! - Yeshua is truly the Jewish Messiah. Faith in Yeshua cannot make Jews into Gentiles. Allow me to illustrate this idea with a story about a Jewish restaurant (the Bible), the food it served (Yeshua, 'the Bread of Life', John 6:35), and the mostly Gentile neighborhood where it was located (the world).
Passover and Non-Jews
If there are aspects of the Passover Seder from which all people can learn, how much more so is this true for believers in Messiah? After all, our Master Yeshua chose the wine and the matzah of a Passover Seder to represent his body and blood. More than just learning about and celebrating the concept of freedom from oppression and exile, for disciples of Messiah, the seder celebrates Yeshua’s atoning death and resurrection while remaining firmly grounded and centered on God’s deliverance of the Jewish people from Egypt. Gentiles being drawn to the God of Israel is a significant and beautiful part of this grand plan of redemption as we long for the even greater exodus that will come in the Messianic Era (Jeremiah 16:14-15). Rabbi David Fohrman writes: The Exodus, as it actually happened in history, did not accomplish everything it might have. There is work yet to do to complete its unrealized vision. The procession that departed Egypt was a shadow of what it might have been. It will be the destiny of Jew and Gentile to one day realize the promise of that journey as it should have taken place: to march side by side and join hands, proclaiming in unison the oneness of a Father they both share.
POLL: MOST AMERICANS SUPPORT ISRAEL, SAY BDS MOVEMENT IS ANTI-SEMITIC
According to a new poll of 1,000 likely USA voters released last week by the Hudson Institute, 51% held a favorable opinion of Israel, while only 21% held an unfavorable…