JCF Newsletter—January 2020

“O Little town of Nazareth”

In the Gospel of Matthew, the events surrounding Jesus’ life are interpreted as fulfilling Hebrew Scripture’s messianic hopes.  Twelve times in Matthew it says that episodes in Jesus’ life “fulfilled” what was spoken by a prophet. Every time an event is highlighted, a recognizable Old Testament quotation is directly given.  Every time, that is, except one time.

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“I was in prison and you came to visit me”

This last month of 2019, Danny Kopp visited Ayalon Prison in Ramla, Israel.  Opened in 1950, it is one of the four most secure criminal prisons in the Israel Prison Service.

Johnny (not his real name), is a middle-aged man with a gregarious demeanor and eyes that disappear when he smiles. He’s attentive and appreciative. He’s also a convicted murderer.

Charity Report: 2019 Year in Review

Jerusalem Cornerstone is not a large organization. We are a handful of people that love God, His people, and His land. While there are many other non-profit groups working in Israel and the Palestinian Territories with a greater financial support and human resource base, at JCF we believe that God has given us a special calling despite our limited assets.

We are here to help those who are struggling, those who have fallen through the cracks. Every day we come across people that have been rejected by the world, those forgotten by their families, friends, neighbors, and governments.

JCF does not have a brick and mortar building. We have a simple staff in Israel that receives modest stipends. Our workers embody your prayers and gifts.  Thank you for your faithfulness towards the Lord’s work and His Word. During 2019, JCF has invested in the following areas:

Refugees from Iraq and Syria. Since the outbreak of civil war in Syria in March 2011, more than 5.6 million Syrians have fled their country and 6.2 million people are displaced internally. Among those escaping the conflict, the majority have sought refuge in neighboring countries, like Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt.  In November 2014, JCF began to pursue open doors in aiding some of these refugees.  Since then, JCF has partnered with the Nazarene Church in Jordan and their work among Syrian and Iraqi refugees.  During 2015 JCF gave $52,150 towards refugee needs like food, clothes, blankets, heaters, school tuition, medicine, rent, and transportation costs. During 2016 JCF gave $35,600 in aid.  Starting in 2017, JCF began focusing its efforts on aiding refugees immigrating to the West.  During 2017 and 2018, JCF gave over $18,000 towards emigration flights of refugee families.  JCF gave $12,000 to help Refugees escaping from Iraq and Syria in 2019.

Makor haTikva Messianic Hebrew School is the only Messianic Day School in Jerusalem offering exceptional academic education together with biblical instruction and godly character development for elementary to middle-school age students.  JCF bought new computers for the school this year as well as contributed to scholarships for needy students.  JCF also covered the cost for a student field trip, including the two buses and entrance fees.  JCF gave $14,000 to Makor haTikva Messianic Hebrew School in 2019.

Israeli Social Services.  JCF partners with an Israeli social worker in Jerusalem who refers cases of families in difficult financial, emotional, and medical situations. Many of these are individuals from broken homes with very little income and unable to work due to health reasons.  JCF gave $10,226 to Israeli Social Services in 2019.

House of Light (HOL) is an Israeli Arab Christian ministry led by Anis and Nawal Barhoum that provides spiritual and social aid to both Jews and Arabs. JCF specifically aids House of Light’s prison work, which visits and disciples current and former prisoners, and JCF invests in their youth work.

This past summer, a team of sixteen from House of Light served Syrian refugees in Mafraq, Jordan. Their daily schedule included sharing Bible stories, serving lunches, leading courses on carpentry, blacksmithing, sewing, and playing games with refugee children and their mothers.  The group also visited the families in their homes.    JCF gave $8,550 to House of Light in 2019.

Lifegate Development School is a special needs educational institute for Christian and Muslim Arabs in the Bethlehem area. It provides education, medical care, therapy, and home care programs for 350 to 400 children and adults.  JCF helped purchase Christmas gifts for the children as well as partially funded a special color printer for the work of the center.  JCF gave $5,178 to Lifegate Development School in 2019.

Beit El is a Messianic Jewish Ethiopian Congregation in Jerusalem with more than 100 members. They struggle to make ends meet, while standing as faithful witnesses for the Gospel within Israeli society. JCF gave towards member care, a young adult congregational trip, a youth and children summer camp, a worship instrument, and a baptism service at the Jordan River. JCF gave $4,058 to Beit El Congregation in 2019.

Little Hearts Preschool is a unique preschool where Jews, Arabs, and the nations come together to form a unified community in Messiah. It strives to provide a quality trilingual (English, Hebrew, Arabic), faith-based education at an affordable cost for locals.  JCF helped cover part of the cost for a new roof over the children’s playground.  JCF also contributed to upgrading their online presence.  JCF gave $3,265 to Little Hearts Preschool in 2019.

Coral Center is an Israeli initiative to support, strengthen and empower local families raising children with special needs. Therapeutic horse riding is part of the Coral Center’ support program for these families and their children.  JCF gave $1,000 to help with the startup of the Coral Center in 2019.

Ziv Neurim is an Israeli non-profit program helping impoverished youth at risk by providing group activities on the Mediterranean Sea. Over 5,000 Jews and Arabs, boys and girls, religious and secular youth have participated in groups of fifteen youth at a time.  JCF gave $1,000 to Ziv Neurim in 2019.

Yozmot Atid is an Israeli entrepreneurship program empowering low income Israeli women to launch, run, and grow their own businesses.  The program is highly professional with several hundred mentors from around the country available to assist the women, whether they aspire to be cosmeticians, computer technicians, event organizers, or accountants.  JCF gave $1,000 to Yozmot Atid in 2019.

Club for the Blind is an Israeli social service to the blind residents of Tiberias which was dormant before JCF’s involvement. The club has around 25 members and meets three times a week for classes and trips. They host art and cooking activities led by professionals.  And they have started a long-term theater workshop.  JCF gave $453 to the Tiberias Club for the Blind in 2019.

Individual and Family Needs.  JCF also gives towards individuals and families with endemic, emergency or unrelenting challenges.  JCF gave $4,317.76 to these needs in 2019.

Join a JCF Tour, See israel in 2020

JCF Biblical Study Tours are not your average Holy Land pilgrimage trips—they are an intimate and personal exploration of Israel and its connections to Scripture.

Upcoming Groups

• Bing Group, May 14-26, 2020 (Biblical Landscapes and Memory)

• Ehrlich Group, Oct 26-Nov 8, 2020 (The Land as a Fifth Gospel)

• Allen Family Singers Group, Nov 12-22, 2020 (Biblical Landscapes and Memory)

For more information on how you can join, here.

Israel welcomes record-breaking 4.55 million tourists in 2019.  The leading source countries for incoming tourism between January and November 2019 were the United States, with almost 890,000 visitors, followed by France (338,200), Russia (296,000), Germany (268,900) and Britain (218,700).  More.

Jerusalem ranked world's fastest growing tourist destination.  Jerusalem increased six places to the 61st most visited city in the world.  The six most popular cities in 2019 are Hong Kong (26.7 million tourists despite the demonstrations); Bangkok 25.8 million; Macau 20.6 million; Singapore 19.8 million; London 19.6 million; and Paris 19.1 million.  More.

News in Israel and the middle east

Israel to hold unprecedented third election in one year.  The next election, set for March 2, will likely further polarize the country and fuel deep dissatisfaction with politicians that have been unable to form a government over the last year.  Netanyahu, neck and neck with centrist rival Benny Gantz in the previous April and September votes, will this time go to the people with an extra albatross around his neck -- an impending trial over several corruption charges. More.

Netanyahu seeks immunity from prosecution in the three corruption cases against him.  A request from the Knesset for immunity is seen as unpopular among voters, even among many of the prime minister’s supporters. A poll published Sunday evening by Channel 12 news found that 51 percent of Israelis oppose such a move, while only 33% support it.  More.
Here is a local Op-Ed analysis on Netanyahu’s prospects for immunity and re-election.

This past June, Israel established a new community on the Golan Heights named “Ramat Trump” (Trump Heights) in honor of his recognition of Israeli sovereignty in the region.  The sign for the new community was unveiled in a ceremony in which Government ministers and US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman participated.  More.

The Middle East is heating up under Iranian influence.  Recent attacks and disturbances in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Golan Heights, and Gaza point toward Iran’s invasive reach in the region.

• A mob of pro-Iranian demonstrators stormed the U.S. Embassy compound in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, setting fires and chanting “Death to America!”  More.

• Timeline of Israel-Iran tensions in Syria and the region.  Here.

• Iran prevailing in Iraq and Lebanon.  Iran has built pro-Iranian Shia movements in both Iraq and Lebanon into powerful politico-military forces that orient their countries’ policies toward Tehran and enable Iran to project power throughout the region.  More.

• Despair looms over Kurds in northeast Syria.  Trump’s recent green-lighting of Turkey’s attacks on the Kurdish-controlled areas of Syria have produced more chaos and suffering in the region. “As with other areas invaded by Turkish proxies, the Syrian National Army (SNA) had descended on the civilians of Arishah with brutal force, arresting them, looting homes and farm equipment, and imposing Islamist rule on the village.”  More.

• Benjamin Netanyahu rushed offstage as rocket fired from Gaza into Israel.  More.

ISIS in Nigeria beheads Christian hostages.  A 56-second video was released the day after Christmas depicting one captive shot dead while the other 10 are pushed to the ground and beheaded. “We killed them as revenge for the killing of our leaders, including Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and [IS spokesman] Abul-Hasan al-Muhajir.”  More.

Significant Israeli Technologies and Inventions of the Decade.  Here.

Israel’s Ten Biggest Tech Deals of the Decade.  Here.

Amazon Comes to Israel…Kind of.  Israelis have rushed to take advantage of Amazon’s introductory free delivery offer over the past 6 weeks. Trouble is, the local postal service is proving unable to handle the pace  More.

2019 saw 10% rise in Israeli traffic accident deaths.  Here. 

Immigration to Israel surging, asylum seekers no longer arriving.  Central Bureau of Statistics says Israel on pace for 20% increase in immigration; over 3 million have moved to Israel since 1949, though many have left.  More.

Christians lead Israel in college-entry matriculation grades.  177,000 Christians live in Israel, or roughly 2 percent of the population.  77.5% of Christian Israelis are Arabs and 70.9% of them achieve college-entry matriculation grades, slightly higher than Jews (70.6%), and higher still than Druze (63.7%) and Muslims (45.2%).  Most of the Arab Christians, 70.6% of them, live in the Galilee and in northern cities  Most are from Nazareth.  More.

Half of Israel’s citizens flew abroad during 2019—a statistic unlikely matched anywhere in the world.  More.

Winter Storms bring record rainfall to Israel.  More.

Israel Will See Less Rain, Higher Temperatures by 2050.  More.

The Mediterranean Sea is Dying.  It is warming at one of the fastest paces in the world (up to 0.12 degrees Celsius, or 0.216 Fahrenheit a year, on the surface), and it is choked with plastic. Though the Mediterranean constitutes less than 1 percent of the world’s oceans, it holds 7 percent of its microplastics. The coastal states continue to sully the sea with tons of everything from shipping oil to untreated sewage, meaning there’s scarcely an untarnished ecosystem left.  More.

Israel Building Sixth Water Desalination Plant in Western Galilee.  To meet the challenges of reduced rainfall and multi-year droughts as the climate warms, Israel has built five desalination plants — in Ashkelon, Ashdod, Palmachim, Sorek and Hadera. More.

Tel Aviv beaches are No. 3 in plastic pollution in Mediterranean.  According to the report, the Tel Aviv region has an average of 21 kilograms (46 pounds) of plastic debris per kilometer of coastline, one of the highest in the Mediterranean after Turkey’s Cilicia region and Spain’s Barcelona. Cilicia had 31.3 kilograms (69 pounds) of plastic waste per kilometer of coastline, and Barcelona had 26.1 kilograms (58 pounds) of plastic waste per kilometer.  More.

Archaeology in Israel

• Top 10 Discoveries in Biblical Archaeology in 2019.  More.

• Top 10 Holy Land archaeology stories of 2019 from Times of Israel. More.

• Romans’ favorite funky fish sauce discovered near Ashkelon. More.

• Church of the “Glorious Martyr” excavated near Beit Shemesh. The church was built under Emperor Justinian (527-565 C.E.) A chapel was added when Tiberius II Constantine (574-582 C.E.) was emperor.  More.  And more.

• Rare 1,400-year-old iron hammer found at ancient Jewish settlement, Usha. More.

• Massive 5,000-year-old metropolis that housed some 6,000 residents has been uncovered at Ein Esur.  The ancient city is the largest Early Bronze Age settlement ever excavated in the region.  More.