At this year’s 37th Annual A Night To Honor Israel event at the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio held by John Hagee Ministries, Israeli non-profit Just One Life (JOL) was awarded $100,000 for its live-saving counseling of expectant mothers. The organization was among another 11 charity and non-profit organizations from Israel and the United States that received money fundraised by JHM’s national television audience.
The Israel-based organization offers expectant mothers the appropriate tools and support in cooperation with hospitals, health clinics, government agencies and welfare departments. To date, JOL has played a role in the birth of more than 17,5000 babies in Israel by assisting mothers with challenges ranging from mental health issues, medical problems with the pregnancy, abuse, poverty and more.
Anti-Semitism was alive and well in America, and as Christians we had to stand up and speak out in opposition to this abomination. Anti-Semitism is not a Jewish problem — it’s everyone’s problem.”
The gift from JHM will go towards the organization’s programs of psychotherapy, counseling, financial aid, advocacy, home visits and group workshops for expectant mothers.
“We believe in supporting Israeli and Jewish causes, including helping pregnant Israeli women in crisis,” Hagee told Breaking Israel News. “We believe that for Christians, standing with Israel is a Biblical mandate and a moral imperative. It is our hope that by our example, Christian support for Israel will grow and thrive.”
Hagee urged Christians to financially support Israeli organizations like Just One Life. “In our view, love is not what you say, it is what you do, and we believe that supporting Israeli humanitarian causes is a vital way of fulfilling God’s mandate that we bless Israel.”
Even in the light of diminishing financial support at A Night to Honor Israel – this year saw a total of $1.45 million to 12 charities, while last year JHM presented $2.1 million to 16 charities, in 2016 the organization gave $2 million to 21 charities and in 2015, JHM presented $3.2 Million to 23 Israeli charities – Hagee maintained that Christian support for Israel continues to grow in strength and size each day.
“The explosive growth of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), which now stands at 4.5 million members, is evidence of that, and most importantly, because of CUFI, we now hold Night to Honor Israel all over the United States and each one of them gives to the Israeli cause of their choice.”
Hagee spoke of the importance of the Night to Honor Israel, which began nearly 40 years ago after the pastor “witnessed the world’s appalling reaction to Israel’s attack on Osirak.” He maintained, “Instead of honoring Israel for removing nuclear weapons from the hand of a mad man, the world media condemned the Jewish state and accused Israel of gunboat diplomacy.”
“The first Night to Honor Israel was intended to be a one-time event and not a perennial event,” he explained. “But the reaction of the anti-Semites who came out of the woodwork – they threatened to kill me, they shot out the windows of my car as it sat parked in front of my home – made it clear to me that we had to continue holding these events. Anti-Semitism was alive and well in America, and as Christians we had to stand up and speak out in opposition to this abomination. Anti-Semitism is not a Jewish problem — it’s everyone’s problem.”
A short while later, at one of Hagee’s Nights to Honor Israel, a woman walked up to his wife Diana, lifted her sleeve to show a number the Nazis had tattooed on her arm, thanked Diana, telling her, “now I don’t hate you anymore.”
Clarified Hagee, “I am viscerally aware of the dark and painful history of Jewish-Christian relations, and that is why I have dedicated these events, and my life, to standing with the Jewish people and bringing Jews and Christians together in an atmosphere of love and mutual respect.”
A Night to Honor Israel and its subsequent donations to Israeli organizations like Just One Life represents a vital part of bringing Jews and Christians together, agreed Rabbi Marty Katz, Just One Life’s New York-based director who has been at the helm of the organization for 30 years.
Katz was introduced to John Hagee through Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg, Rabbi of Congregation Rodfei Sholom who has long-partnered with the Hagees for the Night To Honor Israel. For the last eight years, Hagee has donated to the Israeli organization.
According to Katz, through other Nights to Honor Israel throughout the country, Just One Life is the recipient of money from other churches that give additional thousands of dollars to the organization in a domino effect created by Hagee. “His pioneering has enabled us to do more. We say that $1,800 saves a life, so Kindergartens of babies have been born because of that man,” Katz told Breaking Israel News.
Hagee, in addition to the many other donors to Just One Life, have allowed the organization to continue to save lives. “We have saved pregnant women in crisis when they don’t know where else to turn,” said Katz. Just One Life has saved twins, triplets and quadruplets that doctors suggested should be reduced in utero – the quadruplets are now 20 years old and are close family friends of Katz.
“John Hagee and his wife are great people,” Katz declared in gratitude. “He is a lover of Israel, of Jerusalem, the Holy Land and has boundless energy to make sure that what is right should be done – and then he does it. I can’t say thank you enough for what they have done for us and for the Jewish people.”
Written in coordination with Just One Life (JOL)
Source: Israel in the News
