By: Anastasiya Gooding

Since our founding in 1980, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem has assisted nearly 160,000 Jewish people in making Aliyah to Israel. That represents more than ten percent of the Jews who have made the journey home to Israel in the past four decades. They are coming from the north, south, east and west – just as the Bible promised.

These Aliyah efforts were largely done in close cooperation with the Jewish Agency for Israel, a unique quasi-governmental organization which has overseen Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel since even before the state was founded in 1948. Last week, JAFI chairman Isaac Herzog hosted ICEJ President Dr Jürgen Bühler in his offices to talk about the history of the organization and its work with Christians to help Jews returning to the land of their forefathers.

Herzog recounted that it was actually the League of Nations in 1922 which mandated that a “Jewish agency” be created to help secure the Jewish homeland. This agency was to represent Jewish interests in the Land of Israel, on behalf of both those living there as well as Jews still in the Diaspora.

“We have brought in almost 4 million new olim – Jews immigrating back home”, explained Herzog. “Last year, we brought in 35,000 from 45 countries. This year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we only have had 3,500 from about 25 countries. Yet the engine of Aliyah goes on and on and on, and this is our main mission.”

“That’s interesting”, said Dr Bühler. “We have sponsored flights for 1,350 of those Jewish immigrants this year. So that’s over one-third of the new arrivals in 2020.”

“I respect the Christian Embassy for the great work you are doing. Thank you”, Herzog responded.

Herzog stressed the strategic importance of working with the ICEJ and other Christian groups to fulfill the prophetic Return of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland.

“I believe the Christian world has a major role to play in bringing about the fulfillment of the [biblical] prophecies”, Herzog stated. “And we are grateful to kind Christians who support the idea of bringing Jews back to their ancient homeland and in the Ingathering of the exiles.”

That Christian assistance is going to be more important than ever, Herzog added, since the Jewish Agency is forecasting a huge wave of Aliyah ahead. In fact, they expect as many as 250,000 Jews to move to Israel over the next three to five years, as the Corona crisis eases.

“From the beginning of this year, we had almost 100,000 phone calls inquiring about Aliyah”, Herzog said. “Much of this 400% rise in interest in Aliyah came from North America, and we have a rise in requests for Aliyah coming from all over the world. We are working with the Israeli government to complete a national plan for the next five years to meet this challenge.”

When Herzog described how he believes Christians have a major role to play in the Ingathering of the Jewish exiles, this thought comes straight from the pages of Scripture. Indeed, the prophet Isaiah foresaw a time when God would “beckon to the nations” to “bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their hips.” (Isaiah 49:22-23)

Indeed, we are invited to partner with God in the modern-day restoration of Israel. This has been a core mission of the Christian Embassy for forty years now, and it has not stopped during the COVID crisis. We are still bringing Jews home to Israel every week, and we invite you to be a part of this prophetic work by joining our “Rescue250” campaign.

The Rescue250 campaign is a challenge to Christian supporters of Israel around the globe to partner with the ICEJ in keeping up our current pace of flying at least 250 Jews home to Israel each month. With most global travel halted, these “evacuation flights” are bringing Jews caught in desperate circumstances due to Corona. Many had already quit their jobs and left their apartments expecting to move to Israel and then Corona hit and left them in limbo. So this is both a prophetic mandate and a humanitarian mission, and we welcome your generous help in bringing them home to Israel as soon as possible.

Give to our Rescue250 campaign today at: on.icej.org/rescue250