Bridging the gap between Jews and Christians

Many Christians are concerned for Israel, and they make it a point to pray and give support for the country and its people. However, it's not always taken as a positive thing by those who are being prayed for.

"We've definitely seen resistance from the Jewish community," Yael Eckstein, senior vice president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, told Breaking Israel News. Referring to founder Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein's earlier efforts in delivering Christian support for Israel, she said, "My father was ostracized for the once-radical thought that Christians could become Israel's greatest friend."

Many Christian organizations are faithful supporters of Israel. The Victory Christian Center in Oklahoma, for instance, has a yearly fund-raising event called "A Night to Honor Israel," and also partners with the local synogogue. They also have a weekly group prayer that focuses on Israel and Jews. Its prayer leader, however, feels that their prayers are sometimes not welcomed.

Reconciliation for Israel founder Kellen Davison explained that some Jews try to distance themselves from Christians because they're afraid they will try to "convince them to embrace a non-Jewish belief."

Albert McCarn, Executive Director of the Bnei Yosef Congress of North America, told BIN that they are beginning to understand how offensive it is for Jews that someone would try to convert them or even make them accept Jesus as Messiah.

"It is just as great an offense to us when our Jewish brethren seek to convert our people to Judaism, or to persuade them that Yeshua is not the Messiah," he said.

There are groups that try to bridge the gap between the two Abrahamic religions. Reconciliation with Israel, for instance, has hundreds of people in 20 countries praying for Jews and Israel, and Davison said that the Jews he knows receive these prayers and other efforts rather well.

Last year, a petition titled "To Do the Will of Our Father in Heaven: Toward Partnership between Jews and Christians," signed by a number of Orthodox Rabbis, says that they "seek to do the will of our Father in Heaven by accepting the hand offered to us by our Christian brothers and sisters." 

Ecktein, meanwhile, shared that there has been great improvement in the relationship between Jews and Christians.

"The Jewish world is learning that a Christian can love Israel without wanting to missionize or convert Jews," she said. "We are finally at the point where Jewish organizations say they are willing to accept donations from the Fellowship, but we really need to do more."

She did say that there is a need to reach out in return to the Christian Zionists who are supportive of the cause, as "they are a strategic partner in Israel's future, if we are to have a future in the Mideast."