Events are moving very fast both outside of Israel inside of Israel. The inside of Israel events are somewhat more serious in my opinion than the ones outside of our country. It is already a year since the Orthodox Jewish School in the town of Emmanuel has been litigating in the Israeli courts because the Ashkenazi Orthodox Jewish Girls School has refused to allow the Sephardic Orthodox Jewish girls to attend the same school. Segregation between Orthodox Jews from Ashkenazi background toward Orthodox Jews from Sephardic background. This is the bottom line of what is happening in Emmanuel and the High Court of Israel has put a financial fine on those parents who don't want to send their girls to school because of the Sephardic girls. Now you have to understand that the Sephardic Orthodox girls schools in Israel teach such "heretical" materials like Math and English and Physics and Geography to their children so that they can enter the work force when they finish school. The Ashkenazi Jewish children essentially mainly learn Torah and for them most part they have no plans to enter the work force. Well, this High Court decision from Yesterday to put in jail some forty families for not sending their children to school has caused major riots in Israel. These riots are violent and aggressive with the Orthodox shouting at Israeli policeman "Nazis" and other outrageous epitaphs and the police using mace and wooden clubs and horses to break-up the riots. in the last few days, and today in Jerusalem the Orthodox have called for "the mother of all the riots." The program is to have tens of thousands of young and old Orthodox Jewish men flooding the streets of Jerusalem. In fact the police has already closed several of the main streets of Jerusalem to traffic and it is also planning to face these riots with full force. Dear friends of God and friends of Israel this whole thing is really the work of the devil and it is an additional "black-eye" to the nation of Israel in this very hard times and very challenging spiritual battles. It seems like people have just lost any sense of proportion and any sense of national goals and vision for the people of Israel. It is precisely here that you, Disciples of Yeshua from both Jewish and non-Jewish background, have to lift up your voices to heaven and even shout at God Himself to intervene in behalf of His people. An Orthodox Jewish brother came to my office today and said: "The first temple was destroyed because of idolatry and the second temple was destroyed because of vain hate, and this time there is a danger that our country will be destroyed because of both idolatry and vain hate together." Israel needs your prayers! Israel needs good leadership both spiritually and nationally. Israel needs to focus on the very purpose of God's election and mobilize to be again a light to the nations. Israel needs to learn the teachings of Yeshua and put them to practice, but on this point the Christians have the same need. Israel needs the love and support of Christians all around the world because the attacks from the outside are fierce, farce, and based on false information and misinformation. All this my dear brothers might be leading to the scenario of the Messiah's soon return. On the one hand we should rejoice. On the other hand we should pray so that we don't have to see the destruction of our world. On the one hand we would all be happy to see the Messiah come and we be caught up in the clouds. On the other hand we have too many friends and relatives who still don't know God's salvation. Just rejoice now for the days are very much insistent for self destruction of the whole world and at the same time pray for the millions who are living in darkness and ignorance of God's love and mercy and grace in the life, death and resurrection of that lone Galilean Jew, Yeshua son of David son of Abraham. I believe that He is coming soon!

Last week I was in Portugal and Finland. In Portugal we put the finishing touch for the conference in December this year. The conference promises to be a very important event for the future of a few million Jews in Portugal who have kept their Jewish identity a secret of the family for more than 500 years. Let me tell you just a little of what is going on with that conference. The dates of the conference are December 3-6, 2010. The place of the conference is the town of Castelo de Vide in Portugal. If you are interested to participate in the conference you can send me your request and I will pass it on to Sandra of EuroMar Tours and she will contact you and take your reservation, your money, and your registration. The Conference will be dealing with the plight of those Jews who suffered from the Portuguese Inquisition. The Catholic church forced more than 180,000 Jews to convert to Catholicism, it changed their names, and it made them sign a statement of faith that forbade them to practice any Jewish practice, and any Biblical feasts, and any Kosher food, and in fact they had to forget the fact that they were Jews. Many of those who were forced to convert actually kept their Jewish identity in secret and at the pain of death, and actually many died at the hands of the Catholic church and often it was by burning or after prolonged torture. Now after all these years many of the victims of the Catholic Inquisition actually are reclaiming their Jewish Identity but they don't want to be forced to convert to Orthodox Judaism because they are Jews. This conference is designed to call public attention and public support so that no one forces these people to convert to Judaism or to anything else. We have some of the top scholars in the world participating in this conference and we hope that our voice will be heard all around the world to bring glory to God and to His Kingdom. (my e-mail address is: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

Please pray for Portugal, for Brazil, and for those millions of Jews with names like: Diaz, Lopes, Gonzales, Henriques, Miranda, Mendes, Olivera, Palmera, Videira, Pinto, De Luna, Bartolo, Abuab, pinheiro, or dozens of others who come from a Jewish background and were converted by force during the inquisition. Let me share with you one picture and an event that took place last Tuesday in Castelo de Vide. Marcalo and Matheus from Brazil, and Mr. Carolino from Castelo de Vide, and myself, were walking in the old Juderia of Castelo de Vide. I see this old man walking very slow with a wooden stick up the coble stone street. I stop him and ask him, "Mr. are you Jewish?" "I don't know" replayed the old man. Do you say the prayer, "I don't worship stone, wood, silver or gold, I worship only Adonai." The man smiled and said: "This day we worship everything, wood, stone, gold and silver." Do you remember if your mother or grandmother used to light candles on Friday evening and put them inside a cabinet? "Yes, I do remember this" said the old man. Then you are Jewish I said to him! He turned around and said, "If you wish I am." Here is a picture of the old man and the three of us talking to him. See what is above our heads. This is not a touch-up of photoshop.

Please pray for this conference in Castelo de Vide and pray for all the participants and for the speakers. It is a very tall order for all of us and it is not simple or cheap to make such a major project with such a challenging agenda. We all need your prayers and support.

Kol HaYeshua radio is going through some challenging situations. We are losing 30 minutes per day of broadcast time. We could have those 30 minutes back if we pay for the broadcast. If there is any organization or church that wants to see another 30 minutes per day of Good News broadcast in Hebrew to all the Middle East - please don't hesitate to contact us. Please pray for Kol HaYeshua Radio broadcasts. We have high quality material in the Hebrew Language and we are the only Hebrew language broadcast of Good News to the World.

We have a few people situations that need your attention and our attention and as much as possible our sacrificial giving:

1. We need to have a place, an apartment to house some brothers who have serious housing problems.

2. We need to have some special funds to help brothers and sisters who have health issues and don't have the means for medical care.

3. We need to have some financial help for several families of Jewish Disciples of Yeshua who are unemployed. Some of these families are already receiving food from the Soup-Kitchen, but this does not help with other issues.

We need your prayers for several people who have contacted us of late and who are interested in hearing more of the Good News from the Prophets of Israel. It seems like together with the struggles of the whole State of Israel there is also many people in Israel who are going through some personal spiritual struggles and are looking for answers even among us, the Jewish Disciples of Yeshua the Messiah. P.T.L.

Well, I did not include the sick in our fellowship to remind you to pray for them. Marcia, my wife, is being hospitalized on Sunday so that she can go through knee replacement surgery on Monday morning. Please pray for her and for the doctors and nurses that will take care of her in the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem.

Please pray for our good friend Lynn in San-Antonio, Texas. Lynn is struggling these days with serious illness and needs a miracle from God.

Please pray for Agee, a dear friend from the Tel-Aviv area who is also struggling with the same hard illness as Lynn. And the same is for Sally from the Golan, and Udi's mother, and Sara and Zvi, Lea B, NoiYah, Danah, Noaam, Adam, Ahuva, Leah, Ruby, Paulo, Tim Tucker, and Keijo and Marcelo with knee pain, and the two David's in our congregation who also need strength and healing. Remember that in Judaism praying for the sick is considered a big Mitzvah a good work and you like me need all the good works that we can have. We are saved by God and through His grace, but we are saved "unto good works." So, make that a part of your ministry.

This week-end on Shabbat we will have a special Bar-Mitzvah for two twin boys from S.C. in the United States. They came to Israel to have their Bar-Mitzvah and we are happy that they have chosen to have it in our congregation. Pray for us and for all the guests that we are going to have because the house will be full and many will be standing and many people both from Israel and the United States that have never been in a congregation of Jewish Disciples of Yeshua will be with us for the Shabbat services. We need to have God's blessings upon us all and upon our guests and especially upon the two twin boys who will read from the Torah in Hebrew.

Please pray for our dear brothers and sisters in Finland. There are some of the most dedicated and most supportive brothers and sisters and many of them are getting older, but there are also many wonderful young people, students and young families. The seminar at Karmel House was wonderful as usual and the prayers of our brothers and sisters go up daily to the Lord for the blessing and salvation of Israel.

Please remember Yuda our youth minister who is actually in Finland now speaking and teaching with a full program. He is also not feeling so good these days and needs your prayers.

Be blessed by our God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and by the faithfulness of Yeshua our Messiah!

Joseph Shulam