FACTS YOU MAY NOT KNOW

• Many wonderful Christians and Christian organizations have given millions of dollars to the Israeli government, to Israeli charities and other organizations. Jewish Orthodox charitable organizations have also benefited by gathering many millions of dollars from Christians and channeling these funds to Israeli Orthodox and secular organizations. On the other hand, the Messianic Jews as well as the born-again Arabs of Israel, have, for all practical purposes, received absolutely nothing from these gifts from Christians. In fact, these same Orthodox or other charitable funding organizations have done all in their power to keep Israeli believers from receiving any benefit whatsoever.

• Many of the Orthodox institutions and government offices which are staffed by Orthodox Jews, openly and aggressively fight the Messianic Jews – by attempting to deport believers from Israel or keep Messianic Jews from immigrating to the land. The Messianic believers of Israel come under heavy physical harassment by Yad L’Achim, an Orthodox group funded by the Orthodox political establishment, and there are constant legal and illegal attempts by a variety of Orthodox entities to stifle the work of the Lord in Israel – such as calling the place of a believer’s employment and demanding that they fire the employee because he is a Messianic Jew.

• Even funds given by Christians to various secular Israeli government agencies will ultimately be inordinately shared with the Orthodox, as their political leaders extract sums way above what their numbers justify because of their political grip on the Israeli government coalition. Again, keep in mind that Israel’s Orthodox religious establishment and political figures are the very people who aggressively harass and obstruct the Israeli believers and do all in their power to keep the Israeli people from hearing the message of salvation.

• The Orthodox politicians are constantly attempting to pass ever-stricter laws making it illegal to share one’s faith (unless it is Orthodox), under penalty of a prison sentence for doing so. Some basic anti-faith laws have already been passed, although no one has yet been jailed under such laws. And it is a fact that some of the Orthodox politicians most active in persecuting believers in Israel are also on the boards of organizations which collect many millions of dollars from Christians who remain unaware of this fact.

• When Christians donate to Orthodox institutions, it is very doubtful that the average recipient will ever know that the funds came from Christians. For example, if an Orthodox yeshiva receives a donation of Christian origin, the students will never know that the followers of the Jewish Messiah gave them a financial gift.

Obviously, it is biblical to bless the poor no matter what their religious beliefs, but we think that if a Christian or Jewish believer is given the choice of blessing Israel with his or her financial resources as a public testimony of unity and love for our Jewish people in the name of the Messiah, we think most Christians and Messianic Jews around the world would say, “YES! That’s my choice!”