Metro Voice News Celebrating Faith, Family & Community
The number of New Testament orders from Jews in Israel has increased since the Hamas terror attack of last October 7, according to Jews for Jesus. The ministry, affiliated with the Messianic Jewish movement, describes itself as helping Jewish people continue living out their faith while believing that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Son of God.
The organization, which has become controversial for some of its outreach tactics, offers the New Testament for free to Israelis through its website and the sites of its ministry partners, One for Israel and Tree of Life Ministries. The organization claims 1,230 New Testament orders from Israelis have been since the war between Israel and the Hamas began. Executive Director Aaron Abramson said one possible reason for the increase in requests is that Israelis appear to have a lot of questions, including spiritual ones, since the attack.
“But there’s also a kind of hopelessness,” he said. “Israel has prided itself in its ability to defend itself, so October 7 was a real blow to that for people. You had people questioning whether they should remain in Israel and if it was safe for them. You have people who once lived in other countries and experienced antisemitism who were like, ‘Well, where do we go from here?'”
READ: The suprising number of American Muslims that support the Hamas attack on Israel
In addition to helping kibbutzim residents relocate after Hamas devastated their communities, Jews for Jesus helped provide food after residents resettled at hotels. The nonprofit also helped set up makeshift classrooms so the children of the kibbutzim communities could continue going to school.
Jews for Jesus transformed its Moishe Roshen Center in Tel Aviv into a location that provided resources to those affected by the attack, such as toiletries and medication. Abramson said that the group even set up an art gallery to help people express themselves and hosted barbecues for military units.
“So for us, it was really how can we create space for people to come in to wrestle through deeper questions and how can we speak to those spiritual needs, as well as meeting some of those emotional and physical needs,” Abramson said.
In the past, the organization has attempted to conduct outreach in Jerusalem, and a whole yeshiva of around 20 or 30 guys has come out to stop them. A yeshiva is a traditional Jewish education institution that usually includes the study of writings like the Talmud.
“I’m not trying to make the claim that Judaism is about following Jesus,” Abramson said. “I realize that the majority of the different branches of Judaism would disagree that Jesus is the Messiah. But that doesn’t change the fact that there are a significant amount of Jews in Israel and abroad, in the United States and other places that have found meaning, life and hope in Jesus as their Jewish Messiah.”
The movement’s most high-profile member is author Jonathan Cahn. He drew the condemnation of pro-Israeli Christians and Jews in the weeks following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people. The author of “The Harbinger” and other best-selling end-times novels claimed the Hamas massacre was punishment for Israel refusing to accept Jesus as Messiah.
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice
