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In “TODAY THROUGH JEWISH EYES”, I cover Jewish themes from a biblical world view. Topics will vary between ethics, spirituality and culture. From Antisemitism to Zionism and everything in-between. I intend to help you to tackle these issues in your own communities and spheres of influence.Let’s consider some of these questions right now!- Does BDS only affect Israel?- What is the true goal of BDS?- How pervasive is it in the United States?- Can we fight it and how?

In “TODAY THROUGH JEWISH EYES”, I cover Jewish themes from a biblical world view. Topics will vary between ethics, spirituality and culture. From Antisemitism to Zionism and everything in-between. I intend to help you to tackle these issues in your own communities and spheres of influence. This week's podcast answers these questions:• What is the best way to remember the Holocaust?• Why is it so important?• What makes the Holocaust different?• Do our kids even know what it is?

In “TODAY THROUGH JEWISH EYES”, I cover Jewish themes from a biblical world view. Topics will vary between ethics, spirituality and the culture. From Antisemitism to Zionism and everything in-between. I intend to help you to tackle these issues in your own communities and spheres of influence.In this week's episode:• What to look for in 2021?• Will the USA remain friendly to Israel?• Have we lost focus on what is important?• What is coming in the prophetic future?

So, last week, I made the statement: “There wouldn’t be Christmas if it wasn’t for Hanukkah!” It sounded a bit controversial if not oxymoronic. From a modern and commercial standpoint, Hanukkah has become the Jewish version of Christmas, but it is much more than that. Last week, we looked at the historical, biblical and modern aspects of Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication also known as the Festival of Lights. Much of the background for the story of Hanukkah can be found in the book of Daniel as Antiochus IV Epiphanes rose to power, outlawed Judaism and murdered Jewish people. Eventually, through the Maccabean revolt, the Jewish people regained control, rededicated the Temple and were free to practice Judaism again. I also promised you that I would explain the correlation between the Feast of Hanukkah and the Jewish Messiah.

What a statement to be making, “There wouldn’t be Christmas if it wasn’t for Hanukkah!” To most people, this might sound like an oxymoron, but I would beg to differ. So, let’s look at the biblical and historical origins of Hanukkah, its modern practice, and finally, let’s investigate to see if it has any connection to Christmas (you might be surprised!) The feast of Hanukkah is known as either ” The Feast of Dedication” or “The Festival of Lights”, and it actually is both. The word itself means “dedication.” As you will see, Hanukkah teaches us how God delivered and preserved His people and prepared the world for the arrival of the Messiah, Yeshua of Nazareth.

When a conference or seminar is organized, it is common sense to gather a panel of the foremost experts on the topic at hand. The last thing that the organizers want to be accused of, is that they have gathered a panel of people who have not earned the right to speak on any given topic. You would not gather a group of white supremacists or KKK members to speak on the ills of slavery, just like you would not ask a group of neo-Nazis to speak on Israel's right to exist. In reality, such gatherings might take place, but nobody would take them seriously, let alone attend the conferences. Well, you would think so, but this is 2020 after all, and the sky is the limit when it comes to the irrational, and when the working definition of antisemitism is non-legally binding, strange things can happen.Well, imagine my surprise when I found out that the webinar on dismantling antisemitism will be led by Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, Marc Lamont Hill, Peter Beinart and Barbara Ransby. This would provide great material for a Saturday Night Live skit if the topic wasn't so tragically serious.LISTEN TO THE PODCAST!

There is a myriad of events that punctuate our daily lives and end-up finding their place in the history of human tragedies. These events are remembered by subsequent generations in the hope that people will not repeat their mistakes. These are very good intentions, but they don’t always work, especially when you link historical tragedies that have nothing in common. Enter George Floyd and the Holocaust!Recently, the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center based in Florida opened a new exhibition called ” Uprooting Prejudice: Faces of Change.” The exhibit displays a series of photographs by John Noltner from Minneapolis. The site goes on to explain, “When someone faces an act of antisemitism, racism, or any form of identity-based hate, whether it results in death or not, there is an uprising of many emotions. We felt it was important to bring the human experience of the aftermath to our museum. ” The exhibit is made of 45 different faces from strangers on the scene of George Floyd’s death, accompanied by a brief message. I command John Noltner for his initiative and creativity in shooting the portraits of those around the tragedy. Events like these must be documented from as many angles as we possibly can. My concern is not with the contents of the exhibit, but with the choice of location to display it.LISTEN TO THE PODCAST!

It is one thing to expose the vile monster of global antisemitism week after week, but beyond the exposure, we must make an effort–at least individual if not corporate–to fight it. As a result of our voices and actions, in some cases, we can nip it in the bud or even reverse it. An encouraging–and yet limited– example of this, is what happened at CNN a few days ago in a statement made by senior anchorwoman Christiane Amanpour. My intention is not to freely bash Ms. Amanpour, but rather to analyze her statement and apology in the scope of the current rise in antisemitism.During the second week of November, she made this statement, " This week 82 years ago, Kristallnacht happened. It was the Nazis' warning shot across the bow of our human civilization that led to genocide against a whole identity, and in that tower of burning books, it led to an attack on fact, history, knowledge and truth. After four years of a modern-day assault on those same values by Donald Trump, the Biden-Harris team pledges a return to norms, including the truth."She received a lot of criticism and days after, at the end of her program, she issued this apology, "and finally tonight, a comment on my program at the end of last week. I observed the 82nd anniversary of Kristallnacht, as I often do. It is the event that began the horrors of the Holocaust. I also noted President Trump's attacks on history, facts, knowledge and truth. I should not have juxtaposed the two thoughts. Hitler and his evils stand alone, of course, in history. I regret any harm my statement may have caused. My point was to say how democracy can potentially slip away, and how we must always zealously guard our democratic values." LISTEN TO THE PODCAST!

We must remember David L. Cooper's “Golden Rule of Interpretation": "When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths, indicate clearly otherwise."  The bottom line is this; a text apart from its context is a pretext!Regardless of all the warnings about taking Scripture out of context to fit the news or one's opinion (eisegesis), people thrive on speculating on end times events. Newspaper eisegesis is running rampant today. Especially in the era of the Internet and social networks, it is easy for someone to become a self-proclaimed prophecy teacher, throwing a bible verse here and there to impress their online audiences. Trying to identify the Antichrist or pinpoint the exact date of the Rapture of the believers are two favorite topics for a lot of people. There have been more potential candidates for the office of antichrist over the ages than we can count or list here. Some say that he will be a Muslim, others say that he will be a Jew or a Gentile. People are divided on that topic, but it preaches well, and it sells books even better. A study of the prophet Daniel and the book of Revelation will equip us to understand that the Antichrist will be a Gentile leader (read "totalitarian dictator") who will appear on the world scene after the Rapture at the start of the Great Tribulation (Daniel 9:27.) LISTEN TO THE PODCAST!

Sometimes when I look at the history of Israel and the Jewish people, I feel like I am watching the opening credits of a Star Wars movie. The main theme appears in text form from the bottom of the screen and slowly moves up as its size reduces towards the horizon and eventually disappears off the screen completely. As years go by, I continue to see the absolute necessity to tell people about critical markers on the timeline of Israel and the global Jewish community. This is why I continue to educate my audience about things like the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Holocaust, BDS and other important events that plague the Jewish people.If it happens today, it is part of the news, but as soon as tomorrow hits, it becomes part of history. The problem is that not all of history is worth recalling, but whose choice is it to pick what part of history to remember? We all have different interests, customs, traditions and even agendas. They all dictate what we choose to remember, commemorate or celebrate. This being said, there are events that transcend history and must be recalled by all, lest history becomes forgotten, erased or altered, putting us in a dangerous position where history could repeat itself.One of these nefarious events took place on the night of November 9-10, 1938 and is remembered every November as Kristallnacht or "The Night of Broken Glass." But, before we can look at Kristallnacht, we must consider what just happened to the Temple mount, that will help us to understand how the two are connected.LISTEN TO THE PODCAST!

     Somehow, when it comes to the Jews, people passionately try to replace us. In all cases, the real Jews being replaced are becoming irrelevant or are being painted as impostors, easily turning them into a target for elimination. There are two main venues to replace the Jews: Theologically or ethnically. They both rely on faulty biblical views that need to be looked at, so that we can help people understand who really is a Jew, who are the ten lost tribes and what promises from God are still in effect for the real Jews.     Theologically, Israel has a place in the Bible in just about every single book. While not by name, it can easily be argued that God’s starting point to deal with the Jewish people and their descendants goes back to Genesis 12, where He makes an unconditional, eternal promise to Abraham and his descendants, reiterated in Genesis 15 as the Abrahamic Covenant, that is still very much in effect today, and absolutely unchanged as to its recipients. That is if you take a literal, grammatical/historical view of the Bible–an approach that isn't necessarily favored by all. Theologically, many of the Church Fathers contributed to what would morph into the racial antisemitism of Holocaust era and even the new antisemitism of today. Justin Martyr and Tertullian are two of them.LISTEN TO THE PODCAST!

Some might argue, “Why does the Gospel have to be Jewish?” The truth of it is, the message of salvation might have been revolutionary to the Jewish audience to which it was presented, but it was not a message of conversion to another religion. The messenger was Jewish. Yeshua of Nazareth was a Jew in His humanity. He was born of a Jewish mother and adopted by a Jewish father. He was raised as a Jew, taught the Jewish Scriptures and went through his Bar mitzvah at the proper age.The message is not Jewish per se, but it is not gentile either. It is a message about the depravity of mankind, the need for a redeemer who would pay the price for our wrongdoings and our need to trust Him in what He did on our behalf. Incidentally, part of the Jewish faith is a belief in two Messiahs. One that would come to suffer and die for His people–Messiah ben Joseph, and one that would come to conquer the world and reign from His throne in Jerusalem–Messiah ben David. It can be argued that Yeshua will fulfill both offices as He already came as Messiah ben Joseph and died on our behalf, only to rise again on the third day to eventually ascend back to heaven and wait there, until His return as Messiah ben David.LISTEN TO THE PODCAST!

This month we remember that eighty years ago in October 1940, in Poland, the Warsaw Ghetto was established. But what is it exactly that we remember, for those of us who do remember? So much can be said about the Warsaw Ghetto, and so much can be learned from what happened there and how it happened. To be sure, the concept of the ghetto didn't get invented by the Nazis to control the Jewish population, but it was simply re-introduced and "put on steroids" so to speak! Holocaust historian and author Raul Hilberg explained that there was a progression in how the world got organized to first control and eventually get rid of its Jews, "Since the fourth century after Christ there have been three anti-Jewish policies: conversion, expulsion and annihilation. The second appeared as an alternative to the first, and the third emerged as an alternative to the second."While the final solution concentrated on the complete eradication of European Jewry, the institutionalization of the ghetto paved the way and helped to organize that step.LISTEN TO THE REST OF THE PODCAST!

It can be argued that the search for the Mashiach (Messiah) is as old as the Jewish people are and his identity as debated as Jewish people are opinionated. It is not debated though, that the Hebrew word mashiach carries the meaning of "anointed." But it doesn't exclusively describe the Mashiach with a capital M. The Tenach speaks of several people as "mashiach" as they were anointed by G-d for a specific purpose, and it doesn't even stop with people. King David, while he was no Mashiach–after all, he was a murderer and an adulterer–was also called "a man after my own heart" by G-d Himself. But King David was a mashiach, in the sense of being anointed by G-d for a purpose. Samuel was led by G-d to select David over all of Jesse's sons and anointed him for kingship in 1 Samuel 16:13. It carries the meaning of being "set-apart" and "empowered" for service. Jehu was anointed for kingship in 2 kings 9:6 , a stone was anointed with oil by Jacob in Genesis 28:18 and even Aaron's priestly garments were anointed for his son's service in Exodus 29:29. So it is clear that the word "anointed" has the same meaning, but can be used for people, things and places.Moving forward, we need to consider the office and identity of the Mashiach with a capital M only. Four individuals will be considered in this PODCAST, only one qualifies!

• Can you name one concentration camp or one ghetto?Nationally, 48% couldn't name one camp or ghetto out of 40,000 of them in Europe and North Africa. In some states the number was as high as 60%.  • What is Auschwitz?56% of all millennials we unable to identify the most known death camp: Auschwitz-Birkenau. As to the other less know but still historically relevant such as Dachau, Treblinka, Bergen-Belsen and Buchenwald, only 1-3% could identify them.• How many Jews died in the Holocaust?It is important to remember that overall, a total of 12 million people died in the Holocaust. Additionally, the number of millennials who didn't know that six million Jews died in the Holocaust was a scary 63% nationally, as high as 67% in some states. Most respondents thought that two million or less died.LISTEN TO THE REST OF THE PODCAST! S1 E20

So, according to Mr. Deutsch from MSNBC, "there is no difference from Trump’s rhetoric and what Hitler preached in the early 1930s." Incidentally, if such an accusation was made in France or Germany, the accusing party would be sued for defamation. American freedom of press and freedom of speech are such that comparing one to Hitler is acceptable. Hitler was a dictator; a mass murderer and he was evil. We absolutely shouldn't say that Hitler was insane because insanity is a mental state that mandates acceptance if not forgiveness. Hitler was evil, period! To compare President Trump to Hitler in 2020 is unfortunately pretty safe because people are so far removed from World War Two and the Holocaust that the stigma remaining attached to Hitler's name is enough to make them hate Donald Trump without checking any of the facts. According to Hitler's biographer Ian Kershaw, "Never in history has such ruination – physical and moral – been associated with the name of one man."LISTEN TO THE WHOLE PODCAST FOR MORE!

The Peace Treaties that were signed are very special because they open the door to more countries in the region, and that is a good thing. Additionally, they put Iran and the Palestinian Authority on notice. When more countries like Saudi Arabia, Oman, Sudan and others decide to normalize relations with Israel, the Middle East as we have known it for the last several decades will be a thing of the past. Iran, already weakened by major US sanctions, is seeing its hegemony of the region erode by the day. As to the Palestinians, their response to the peace deals was still typical of their ideology and agenda; they sent missiles from the Gaza strip. The consensus from the Palestinians is that "there will be no peace until Palestine is free." For now, the Palestinian Authority has decided to dig its heels in the sand, but with a weakened Iran increasingly unable to finance Hamas and Hezbollah, the tide might turn soon. The Palestinian narrative might become irrelevant. Wow, I never thought I would say that in my lifetime! We are truly living as critical history is being written. It is about peace. But there is peace and there is PEACE!

Too often, people have a propensity to ignore issues if they feel that they are not directly concerned or if the issues are far enough from them geographically or otherwise. People might think, “the riots and protests are not my neighborhood, so I am ok!” or “the fires are not putting my house in danger, they are too far, we are safe.” Unfortunately, apathy can be part of human nature to the point where we ignore the obvious if the obvious doesn't affect us at a critical level. At least critical to us. So, many people will reason with themselves and think, “I am NOT antisemitic, but I am also NOT Jewish!” People will quickly claim that they don't hate the Jews, that they don't wish them any harm at all. They will also agree that antisemitism is wrong, and yet they will not hesitate to look the other way when acts of antisemitism are committed. Hurting Jewish people directly, verbally, or physically is antisemitism by commission while ignoring their troubles is antisemitism by omission. They are both wrong!

In  Part one of this two-part series, we defined Zionism and looked at its early development all the way up to the First World War. Key events occurred in the first two decades of the twentieth century that would further define and help establish Zionism as we know it today. They are worth mentioning. For this, we need to go back to the summer of 1914.June 28, 1914, saw the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. As a result, WWI was declared, and the face of Europe changed forever. At the beginning of WWI, eighty percent of the ten million Jews of Europe lived in the Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires. The Jewish communities of Europe had grown accustomed to hardship and had endured many forms of antisemitism. Unfortunately, the advent of WWI worsened their condition as their lives became once again punctuated by lootings, pogroms, and expulsions.As the war progressed, allied nations ratified various treaties and worked on agreements to share the spoils. It was soon agreed that the Ottoman Empire would have to be divided. One treaty superseded the previous; and by the end of the war, the British had conquered the area known as “Palestine” since the first century. In the midst of all negotiations, Britain officially endorsed the Zionist program; and almost overnight, Zionism started to take root in the Holy Land. This was a major step in the right direction for the Jewish people, yet the surprise of a British endorsement would eventually be overtaken by the shock of a British about-face.

Zionism could be defined as "The national movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel."One doesn’t need to peruse the news for too long before reading or hearing about Zionism. So, it becomes necessary to go back in history to understand how Zionism came about. European Jews had suffered at the hands of many popes, kings, and the masses since the Early Church Fathers. Anti-Semitism, in many shapes, from theological to social to ethnic, had punctuated Jewish life throughout the centuries, limiting if not eliminating any semblance of normalcy within the Jewish communities of Europe. The Crusades, the crushing hatred unleashed by false claims of blood libel against the Jewish people READ NOTE, the 1492 Spanish Inquisition and the creation of the first Ghetto in Italy in 1516, to name a few, were ominous milestones of terror against the Jewish people on the timeline of Jewish history. It would eventually get much worse, with the Russian pogroms (massacres occurring during fomented riots against the Jews in the Ghettos) and the Holocaust (1933-1945), a systematic extermination in which six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis.After all this persecution and devastation, something had to change. Jewish people felt they had to “leave the Ghetto” not just physically, but spiritually and emotionally as well. In the midst of their misery, the Jewish people saw a ray of hope with the advent of the Haskalah. LISTEN TO THE REST IN THE PODCAST! [2] Blood Libel can be broadly defined as an accusationthat Jews kidnapped and murdered the children of Christians to use their blood as part of their religious rituals during Jewish holidays. More than 150 claims of blood libel were recorded throughout history resulting in the death of Jewish people (mostly during the Middle Ages). More on blood libel can be read in Joshua Trachtenberg’s book, The Devil and the Jews, The Medieval Conception of the Jew and Its Relation to Modern Antisemitism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983), pp. 140-155.