Racial prejudice is a condemned severely when it is pointed at the Jewish people. We are all appalled when Christians or others show prejudice against Jews and it is automatically condemned by all Jews and by many Christians. It is just not acceptable in the 21st century to be an anti-Semite. I confess that there are many, many, people in the world who are anti-Semites and who hate Jews, even after World War II and the nazi extermination camps. However, there are also many individual Jews who have bought into lives full of hate and prejudice against non-Jews and against particular type of Jews and against Jews who believe that Yeshua is the Messiah. In fact so much of the opposition that exists against us is really based on nothing else than prejudice. The nature of prejudice is such that it feeds on ignorance and lies. This is true for every type of prejudice and especially when it comes to prejudice based on race or religion. The Jewish people have suffered and still suffer from racial prejudice and as Jews we must not allow our brothers to fall into this trap that will actually boomerang some day against us and justify those who hate us. Why is it that there is such hate and rejection and even violence against Jews who hold Yeshua, a fellow Jew, as the Messiah? Well, I can understand the violent history of the Catholic churches (that includes the protestants that are actually also Catholic by their creeds and historical relationships) against the Jews and it is detestable and abhorrent and Christians must recognize that ugly history. However, we as Jews must not allow ourselves to luxury of living in the past and holding our present captive to our past. We can't afford to allow a small minority of hate mungers to dictate the agenda of a whole nation and twist the Torah and the Prophets of Israel that command us as a nation to be a light to the nations, a light to the whole World. The nation of Israel must stand up and raise up against those minorities who teach that non-Jews don't have a soul, and that Jewish Disciples of Yeshua are Amalek and that according to the Torah the memory of Amalek needs to be erased from the face of the Earth, such abominable racist teachings are dangerous and abominations that don't come from the Word of God. I invite every Rabbi in Israel to come and visit us and talk to us as Jewish Disciples of Yeshua and let us pray together and talk about how we can build on God’s favor for our nation and for the accomplishment of the commission that we received from our Prophets of being the light of the World. Let every Jewish Rabbi come and share and talk and reason with us about the place of Yeshua from Nazareth in our History and in our Future. We are a nation set apart and called to be Holy as our God is Holy and we must think about our mission not only to hate mongering small minority but to the prophetic promises of the Almighty God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

I call all of you who pray for the salvation of Israel to pray that an awakening will come to the spiritual leadership of this great nation of Israel and that we can learn to love the stranger and those who have fallen and not hate. There are and have been great Rabbis who have followed false messiahs and still do openly even as I write this note, but they are not hated, there is no reason for the Jewish community to hate a small and I would say numerically insignificant group of Jews who hold Yeshua (Jesus) as their Messiah. There are a thousand reasons for the spiritual leadership of Israel to embrace and love those Jewish souls and learn to hear and share the deep love for the Torah and the Prophets and especially for the Jewish nation. We see more and more Evangelical Christians stand with Israel and support the Jewish people both in Israel and around the world. This is a time of favor and grace for the Jewish nation to learn and return love to their Jewish brothers and sisters, and to those from among the nations who have cast their lot with Israel by embracing that Jew who changed the world from the most helpless position that a human being can find himself, from the cross.

Pray for Israel and pray for the peace of Jerusalem. God has not forgotten Israel and neither should the church forget Israel – stand on the promises that God made to Abraham!

We have good news too! Baby “N” is back at home with her family after near a month of being in the Hospital and going to through an open heart surgery. God is merciful to our generation a generation where doctors can make surgery on a small heart of a two month old baby and save her life. The smiles of this baby even through the post surgery pain are the victory of humanity against the hate and bestiality of racism and prejudice because Israeli doctors are almost daily operating on hearts of Arab babies from Gaza and even from Iraq and they are doing it all pro-bono, for free, as one human being to the other. There are Christians who are being the middlemen of this project and we bless them and the Jewish doctors who are doing this already for more than 10 years. This is a part of the Good News not the bad news of bombs and rockets and hate that we hear every day.

We have to continue to pray for our chronically sick: Ahuva, Ilana, Marcia, Liora, Sara and Zvi, and Sarit, and Miriam. We have to continually pray for Paulo in Brazil who is doing so much better and still needs the merciful hand of God to touch him and deliver him from his illness. We continually pray for Ruby our dear sister who loves God and Israel and continues to battle against pain and weakness. We have to continually pray for Danah our daughters and for Noaam our grandchild’s health.

Please pray for a special forum that our Japanese brothers and friends are organizing in the Galilee this next week. A small group of Israeli leaders of congregations will be gathering for three days to discuss both theological issues and also practical steps that will bless Israel and bless Japan through our mutual faith in God. This is the fourth year that this forum is meeting and we increase the number of participants only by two each year. This year we are actually 12 leaders from Israel and four from Japan. We need your prayers for the successful outcome of this forum.

The challenges of the legal system in Israel in relationship to the Jewish Disciples of Yeshua are still standing and there are several different court cases going at this time that need God's favor for Israel and for us all as citizens with equal civil rights in this country. Please pray for the judges of Israel to be able to look and see through the subterfuge of the devil and stand with righteousness and truth in every one of these cases. We relay on the mercy of THE JUDGE every day of our lives and trust in HIS goodness.

Please keep this special project for Portugal in your prayers. We have just made our first financial investment into it and we have paid the deposit for the hotel reservations. We are going to occupy every bed in the hotels of the small city in Portugal. We had to put a significant amount of money to hold these hotel beds and we trust that you will pray for God's blessings on this very important and monumental move to stand and fight for the rights of these lost Jews of Portugal. They were lost because of religious hate and prejudice and racism of the Catholic Church and now we are going to have Catholic Monseigneur come to confess and apologize for the sins of the Catholic church against the Jewish nation and we will have a clarion call for the Jewish people and the nation of Israel to call home these hidden Jews. This is so much bigger than us and so much greater than what we can even dream about but I really believe that it is the will of God and for this reason I believe that it is going to happen. Please pray for it and stand with us to make it happen according to God's own will and desire.

Please lift up our brothers and sisters in Brazil – there are always struggles and there are always challenges and opportunities for repentance and forgiveness and rebuilding and progress and growth and the Lord is showing all of us how to walk even when we can't run. Brazil is a great country and a great people and there too there are millions of those hidden Jews that have lost their identity and even their faith that need to be restored and called home.

God be glorified in you and in us together!

Joseph Shulam