Upcoming Outreach Mberengwa, Zimbabwe
Summary
Come along with us and be a part of history-making revival in Zimbabwe!
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When Louis Kaplan, founder of Jewish Voice Broadcasts (JVB), passed away in 1999, Jonathan Bernis –founder of Hear O’ Israel Ministries – was already serving as JVB’s board-elected Executive Director. The two ministries operated side-by-side through the year 2000, but it was evident that with the same ministry focus, the time had come to merge them.
Birthed from the visions of two men, the labors of many faithful individuals, and most importantly, the assured calling of God, a brand new ministry was emerging. In the first jointly published magazine, in January of 2001, Jonathan Bernis explained:
It is our desire to be the best stewards possible of the time and finances that the Lord has entrusted to us, and we are certain that this merger is the best way to accomplish our mutual calling. We believe that this is a “merger made in Heaven.”
The newly named “Jewish Voice Ministries International” (JVMI), consisted of two departments: Jewish Voice Radio and Television and Hear O’ Israel Festivals.
Along with the merger, came the opportunity for fresh vision and creativity for the future. The“LeChayim” television show was renamed “The Jewish Voice Broadcast.” They remodeled the television set, and the media department began producing docudramas that re-enacted the personal testimonies of Jewish Believers. Later that year, the Jewish Voice Prophetic Magazine went full-color.
By this time, the number of stations carrying the Jewish Voice radio program had dwindled to just 15. Jonathan and Dennis Phillips, now Director of Media Ministries, chose to cancel the radio program while they carefully evaluated whether or not to restart with a new format. In May 2001, the Jewish Voice radio broadcast went silent, and except for a few special productions, never returned to radio.
Ministry continued all around the globe with festivals, congregational planting, and discipleship. The Media crew produced half-hour specials featuring segments about the growing television ministry as well as footage from the festivals and accompanying humanitarian aid.
In the fall of 2001, as the United States reeled over the attacks of 9/11, Jonathan Bernis helped JVMI partners find their equilibrium with these steadying, encouraging words in the magazine arriving at their doors just six weeks later:
The tragic events of September 11, 2001 have changed our lives forever. Never again will we feel the same sense of security and safety that we have known most or all of our lives living in the United States.… How do we cope with all that is happening? How can we find peace and stability at a time like this? The answer is clear – only through our faith in the Lord….
Faith is a fight. It is the only fight the Believer is called to…. Faith is trusting God in the midst of adversity, tribulation, or danger. Faith will drive out fear.… Our security must not be rooted in anything this world may provide, but in God alone. Regardless of what may happen, our faith and hope is in our eternal destiny – and that truth will sustain us through any adversity or tragedy we must face.
In the spring of 2002, the ministry redesigned and changed the name of its magazine to reflect a new day. In Jonathan’s opening letter of the April/May issue, he announced the “slight yet important name change to Jewish Voice Today.” He explained, “We’ve added Today to our name for a reason…. We do not want to focus only on what the Lord did yesterday with the Jewish people. God is doing miracles today.” He continued, “God is speaking to us today. Biblical history is being written today. [Yeshua] longs for His brethren after the flesh to know Him now, today. Today is the day of Israel’s salvation.”
Also in 2002, the quality productions of the JVMI media team won their first awards. “Holocaust: Journey to Forgiveness – The Rose Price Story” received two Angel Awards and two bronze Telly Awards. The Al Kasha story, “A Perfect Life,” received one silver and two bronze Telly Awards.
It brings me great joy to announce that after 42 years of being single, the Lord has brought me a wonderful helpmeet and partner. Her name is Elisangela, and she is a lovely Brazilian Believer that deeply loves the Lord and loves Israel. We will be getting married in Brazil this coming February.
Over the next two years (2003-2004), Jewish Voice hired its first COO, upgraded its website, and grew its intercessory prayer network to 4,000 prayer supporters. The Media department continued to enhance the quality and efficiency of production and introduced closed captioning.
In January of 2004, Chira Kaplan – the woman who worked so tirelessly for love of the Jewish people and her Yeshua – passed away. Jonathan wrote a beautiful tribute honoring her in his opening letter of the March/April issue of Jewish Voice Today magazine.
The year 2004 concluded with Jonathan celebrating 20 years in ministry at a surprise party organized by Elisangela and the JVMI staff. Friends from around the world attended or sent videos, cards, and emails.
In 2005, the Jewish Voice Today television program first made its way into Israel via the internet on Israelnet.tv, which showed the programs of Messianic ministries. In 2005, Jonathan announced an additional long-sought-after expansion: the program would, at last, begin airing on television stations in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East – including Israel.
Jonathan had yet another announcement in 2005. He began his letter in the magazine by proudly saying, “Well, my life has changed forever. At the ripe old age of 45, I am finally a father!” Jonathan and Elisangela’s first child, a daughter they named Liel, was born in March of that year.
Part of the mission of Jewish Voice Ministries is to inspire the Gentile Church to an appreciation for its deep connection to Judaism and a love for the Jewish people. The JVMI Speakers Bureau is an important avenue of this mission. In the summer of 2005, over 115 churches and groups across the country had scheduled meetings or presentations, and the JVMI speaking calendar was booked through the following April. For Passover 2006, Jonathan conducted the first ever valley-wide Passover Seder in the Phoenix area.
Also in 2006, JVMI grew to include Jewish Voice Ministries Canada, a branch of Jewish Voice Ministries International represented with a separate board of directors to help support and facilitate ministry functions there.
From the beginning, Hear O’ Israel Ministries had included humanitarian relief alongside its festivals. As the most intense revival years of post-Soviet Russia were tapering off, the Lord was pointing Jewish Voice toward the poverty-stricken “Lost Tribes” Jews of India and Ethiopia. Jonathan was in Ethiopia to speak at a conference when the Lord impressed upon his heart that Jewish Voice needed to respond in an ongoing way to the immense need Ethiopia. Jewish Voice was being called to Ethiopia.
Find out how God led Jonathan Bernis and JVMI into a new ministry direction focusing on humanitarian aid and medical outreaches we are known for today – next month in July’s JVMI 50th Anniversary blog post.
Don’t’ miss Flashback Fridays on our Facebook page where you’ll see glimpses of our 50-year journey.
Discover the whole inspiring JVMI story with our beautiful, full-color coffee table book, Jewish Voice: A Look at 50 Years. Along with a fascinating narrative chronicling 50 years of ministry, this special edition includes biographies, stories, and reflections from television guests, partners, and staff as well as over 200 photographs.
Join us on the Jewish Voice Blog each month in 2017 as we unfold the Jewish Voice story and piece together for you how two ministries with the same heart merged to become the Jewish Voice Ministries International you know today.
Previous JVMI 50th Anniversary blog posts:
Innocent Believers in Yeshua (Jesus) have been targeted by ISIS in yet another shocking massacre in the Middle East.
This time, the radical Islamic terror group attacked buses carrying Coptic Christians in the Minya region of Egypt, south of Cairo. Twenty-nine people were murdered, including children. And more than 20 others were injured, some critically.
Last Friday’s attack is the latest deadly assault on Coptic Christians in the Middle East’s most populous country.
In an attempt to honor their Islamic faith, the ruthless attackers struck on the eve of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
This is the third attack on followers of Yeshua in Egypt in six months. In April, ISIS bombed two Coptic churches on Palm Sunday. In December, a suicide bombing targeted a Cairo church. Together, the attacks killed more than 75 people and wounded scores more.
The Islamic State has vowed more attacks. Egypt has been under a three-month state of emergency ever since.
The slaughter drew immediate condemnation from President Donald Trump, who said, “[The attack] steels our resolve to bring nations together for the righteous purpose of crushing the evil organizations of terror, and exposing their depraved, twisted, and thuggish ideology.”
The killings also brought a quick response from Israel, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say, “There is no difference between terrorism harming Egypt and terrorism harming other countries. Terror will be beaten more quickly if all countries work against it together.”
The Jerusalem Post reported over the weekend that many Egyptian Believers think their country either does not take their plight seriously or cannot protect them against these determined fanatics. At a service to mourn the dead on Sunday, a relative of one of the victims said, “This is the result of only one thing: negligence – negligence from the government for not punishing these people.”
Egypt is fighting insurgents affiliated with ISIS who have killed hundreds of police and soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is also carrying out rocket attacks against the terrorist group along the southern border of Israel.
Coptic Christians are the largest group of Believers in the Middle East, representing about 10 percent of the population in Egypt. Because of this, some observers say it’s no surprise that ISIS is increasingly targeting Christians, calling them infidels and their “favorite prey.” ISIS’s war on Egyptian Christians has an obvious goal: to “encourage” them to leave their homeland under the threat of extermination. This attack won’t be the last.
We need to understand this: ISIS doesn’t merely want to make life difficult for Egyptian Believers; it wants to run them out of the country.
As ISIS amps up the frequency and brutality of its attacks across the Middle East, we must keep our fellow Believers in prayer. You and I might not be in a position to prevent further violence, but we serve a God who can. Let’s stand in union with the faithful in Egypt and pray to Yeshua, the Prince of Peace, for their safety.
Thank you for joining me in prayer for our brothers and sisters in Egypt—AND for partnering with Jewish Voice. Your support helps us continue to spread the Good News of Yeshua to a world in desperate need of His peace and hope. And we are so grateful for you.
As a token of our appreciation for your contribution of $40 or more today, we’ll send you Radical Islam: What You Should Know, an enlightening DVD featuring a panel of experts debating this rising threat and what it means to you. We’ll also send you a little box of powerful encouragement. The Promise Box is filled with 120 promises of God found in Scripture, and will surely be a lasting blessing.
Once again, thank you for coming alongside us in this Kingdom work.
This year — 2017 — is in many ways a critical time for Jewish people and the nation of Israel.
June 7 marks the 50th anniversary of the recapture of the Old City of Jerusalem by Jewish military forces in the 1967 Six-Day War — the first time the Holy City of God had been completely in Jewish hands in almost 2,000 years.
2017 also is being celebrated as a 50th Jubilee Year in Jerusalem. And it happens to be the 50th anniversary of the US founding of Jewish Voice Ministries International.
It’s particularly important that May-June is the time of Shavuot (Pentecost) in the Jewish calendar. Shavuot — also called the Festival of Weeks — celebrates God’s giving of the Law to the Jewish people through Moses.
Shavuot is recognized as the time when God confirmed His pledge of commitment to the Jewish people. Many Jewish scholars see it as a kind of “wedding anniversary” of the relationship between God and His people.
This “wedding anniversary” of Shavuot is an affirmation that God was and is committed to a continuing relationship with the Jewish people.
And down through history, God has repeatedly demonstrated His commitment to this relationship . . .
All these events point to the great truth that God still loves and has a plan for the Jewish people, for as Paul — referring to the Jewish people — says in Romans 11:29, “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”
And these events remind us of the need for the Jewish people to fulfill their relationship with God by reclaiming the Messiah and coming to a saving knowledge of Yeshua.
And we who already have accepted Yeshua as Savior, whether Jewish or Gentile, now share in the covenant commitment God gave to and through the Jewish people. Because of that, we now have a responsibility to share the Good News with the world, most especially with the Jewish people who have not yet realized that Yeshua was and is the Messiah they have long awaited.
Jewish Voice Ministries International exists to fulfill this goal — to bring Jewish people to recognize Yeshua as Messiah and to accept Him as Savior.
We do this in many ways. Some of our efforts are directly evangelistic. But most often, we tell Jewish people about Yeshua in the context of caring for their physical needs.
For example, we’re now well into our annual “season” of humanitarian medical clinics among Jewish people in Africa. Jewish Voice works actively in Africa because tribal history and practices, together with genetic testing, demonstrate that many tribes in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, and elsewhere are, in fact, of Jewish ancestry — descended from the original Twelve Tribes of Israel.
Many of these Jewish descendants are poor and live in remote areas, with little access to medical care or other basic services. Some are isolated from the surrounding culture, ostracized because of their uniquely Jewish worship and cultural practices.
And all of them are in need of help!
That’s why God has called Jewish Voice Ministries to show His love for these, His people, by providing:
These humanitarian ministries are critically important in themselves, and are in obedience to Yeshua’s command that we care for the needs of hurting people. Without the Jewish Voice medical clinics, many of these Jewish people simply would have to continue to live with pain, disease, and blindness.
But — as important as this help is — we are especially committed to meeting these physical needs so we may gain the opportunity to tell these Jewish people about Yeshua the Messiah.
Every patient treated at a Jewish Voice clinic is invited to receive prayer and hear the Good News of Yeshua. To date, the number of people served by our medical clinics is approaching 400,000, while thousands of our patients have reclaimed their Messiah by professing faith in Yeshua!
But none of this would be possible without the prayers and financial support you and other caring partners provide.
This Shavuot season, at this special time when so much is reminding us of God’s plan for the Jewish people, would you give to help them find and reclaim their Messiah?
Would you help share Yeshua with Jewish people who desperately need to hear the Good News, while also helping ease their physical pain?
The average cost of medical, dental, or eye care services through Jewish Voice clinics is only $30 per person. And when Jewish people come for treatment, we have the opportunity to share Yeshua, pray for them, and help them reclaim their Messiah.
If you can give a gift of any size now, I would be pleased to send you a copy of my book A Rabbi Looks at the Last Days. In this book, I draw from both the Old and New Covenant Scriptures to explain the meaning of many of today’s events, and what role each of us has in the End Times.
In addition, if you can give at least $100, I’ll also send you a beautiful reproduction of the Scripture scroll of the book of Ruth. This is especially appropriate now, as the Megillat (scroll) of Ruth is traditionally read aloud at Shavuot. Full of vivid art based on Ruth and both Hebrew and Greek biblical texts, this is a fascinating limited-edition reproduction of a parchment scroll.
NOW is the time for us to share Yeshua with the Jewish people. We must tell them of God’s ultimate plan for them, and help them reclaim their Messiah. Please give generously.
Thank you for your compassion and faithful support, and may God bless you.
Shavuot (shah-voo-ote) is one of the seven biblically mandated feasts of Israel. There is to be a holy gathering and no regular work on this day. It is one of the three pilgrimage feasts commanded by God in Deuteronomy 16:16 in which all Jewish men were required to travel to Jerusalem to present their sacrifices to the priests for taking before the Lord.
Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, First Fruits, Harvest Feast, Pentecost. The Jewish holiday that falls on the 6th day of the Hebrew month Sivan goes by several names.
In Leviticus chapter 23, the Israelites were instructed to count seven Sabbaths, seven weeks, from the Sunday after Passover and then bring their offerings. Because the feast’s date is identified by this counting of weeks from Passover, it is called the Feast of Weeks. In Hebrew, the word Shavuot means “weeks.”
In biblical times, the holiday commemorated the completion of the wheat harvest. It was a time to give thanks to God for His sustaining provision of another harvest. The unique instruction of God for this moed (appointed time) is to offer, along with other burnt offerings, a sacrifice of two loaves of bread baked with hametz, or leaven. Because it is a gift from the first of the grain harvest, Shavuot is also called the Day of First Fruits or the Harvest Feast.
Pentecost means “fiftieth” and Shavuot was designated for the Sunday after the seventh Shabbat, or the fiftieth day, from Passover. It was on Shavuot fifty days after Yeshua’s (Jesus’) death and resurrection, and when all Israel was gathered in Jerusalem for this pilgrimage feast, that God miraculously gave the gift of the Holy Spirit to dwell in Believers. For this reason, Shavuot is also called Pentecost and Messianic Jews celebrate the gift of God’s Spirit with Believers.
The Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. and the Jewish people were again dispersed throughout the world. With this, the observance of these appointed times changed. According to the book of Exodus, the giving of the Torah coincides closely with the timing of Shavuot. In the absence of a Temple at which to make sacrifices, today Shavuot commemorates God giving the Torah to His people at Mount Sinai.
When God gave the Torah, He revealed more of Himself to the children of Abraham. The people were able to know so much more about the glorious God they served. Following His commandments as given at Sinai set them apart and identified them as His people.
Today, Jewish Shavuot celebrations center on reading the Torah. The tradition is to stay up all night long studying it, reciting the Ten Commandments at dawn, and going to synagogue for a service with more readings.
In Sinai, God wrote His law on tablets of stone. In Jeremiah 31:31-32, He declared there would come a day when He would write His Law upon our hearts. He fulfilled this prophecy on the Shavuot after Yeshua’s death when His Holy Spirit descended like tongues of fire upon the gathered Believers of Acts chapter two. Henceforth, He imparts His Spirit to dwell within every new Believer.
Messianic Jews recognize that through the Torah we see our need for a Savior, and that led us to Messiah Yeshua (Galatians 3:24). At Shavuot, we celebrate God reaching down into human history to reveal Himself through the Torah and also the gift of His very presence with all Believers through His Holy Spirit. It is a time to dedicate ourselves afresh to growing in His Word and the Spirit, gratitude for His provision, and rejoicing in His presence.
Let's see how much you know about this Holiday and what it represents!
