JEWISH VOICE BLOG

January 19, 2014

Kevin, 12, with "Potch" (Sidney Cohen) in 1981 I grew up in Rockville, Maryland, an upper middle class suburb of Washington, D.C. My father’s parents, the Bergers, hailed from Brooklyn, N.Y., having emigrated as children from Poland before WWII. On the Cohen side, “Potch” (my maternal grandfather, so named by me as a toddler) was an immigrant to the U.S. from Lithuania; and “Mimi,” my maternal grandmother, was born a first-generation American Jew. But for all my fully Jewish parents, grandpar...

January 17, 2014

When former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was buried earlier this week at his Sycamore Ranch in the Negev of southern Israel, there was an unusual accompaniment. Because of the proximity of Sharon's home to the Gaza border and the ever present conflict between Israel and Gaza, the Israeli Defense Forces deployed an Iron Dome missile defense unit nearby to protect against terrorist attack. In addition, security forces sent messages to Palestinian leaders encouraging them to take steps to ...

January 14, 2014

A few weeks ago, the newly established Messianic congregation in Buhera, Zimbabwe, born out of our Jewish Voice outreach, held their first service. When the leaders arrived at 8:30 in the morning, they found one man already there. He walked nearly four miles to get there … on crutches! He had come to our medical clinic and was miraculously born again. When he learned of the new congregation, he wasn’t going to let anything stop him from coming and growing in his new faith. This is why we go. ...

January 13, 2014

As we enter a new calendar year, we are looking forward to many new opportunities to see God at work in and through Jewish Voice Ministries International. We know as never before that we need the Lord in every detail of all we do! Join us in these prayers for Jewish Voice as we move ahead in taking the Good News of Yeshua around the world in 2014! Lord, in light of all You have done and are continuing to do, we praise You! As this next year rises up before us, we ask for an even great...

January 10, 2014

Last week on New Year's Day the Palestinian ambassador to the Czech Republic, Jamel al-Jamal was killed in his home in an explosion. At first the Palestinian Authority said his death was a freak accident, caused when he opened a safe that had not been used in decades (They did not explain why a safe in an ambassador's home would have explosives inside that were many years old.) But later reports contradicted that, revealing that the safe was actually used every day, leaving questions about how...

January 05, 2014

Throughout the world, Jewish People are coming to the realization that it is possible to believe in Jesus and remain a Jew. That was not true just fifty years ago. At that time, not a single Messianic Jewish congregation existed anywhere, and very few Jews professed faith in Jesus—several thousand at best. By 2009, more than 350 Messianic Jewish congregations existed around the world, including more than fifty in Israel. At least one million Jews in the United States express some sort of fait...

January 03, 2014

As part of the framework designed to restart peace talks with the Palestinians, the Israeli government released another group of 26 Palestinian prisoners. These are convicted terrorists, many of them murderers. Most have been in prison for a number of years after their conviction for their role in the death of Israeli men, women and children. This brings to 78 the number released so far, with another 26 yet to be determined. The move came as Secretary of State John Kerry returned to Israel fo...