Today we attended a conference dealing with the lost Jews of Spain and Portugal. You might ask, “who are those lost Jews of Spain and Portugal?” This is a good question because many people don’t know much about one of the saddest chapters in Jewish Christian relationship, the Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions. For centuries both Christians and Jews ignored this bloody and horrible chapter of our joint history, but now the topic is waking up in both camps. For the first time yesterday we heard prominent figures in Israel, like the former chief justice of Israel, a former president, business leaders, and public figures, speak to this subject and demand for justice to be made for the descendants of the victims of the Catholic church. Jews in the Iberian Peninsula i.e. Spain and Portugal, and also in Italy, Sardinia, and the Atlantic Islands, were forced to convert to Catholicism and after that they were judged and executed and their property was confiscated for keeping the Sabbath day, or for circumcising their children, or for eating kosher food. The accusation was “judiazing” - the punishment was death by fire, the excuse was to purify their Jewish souls. On the other-side of this equation were the Jews that did not convert and who rejected and ostracized their Jewish brothers and sisters who became Christians. Now, more than 500 years later, both Jews and Christians are waking up to the need to reconcile the horrors of the inquisition. There are voices in Israel that are calling to receive the children of these “Anussim” or as they were called in Spanish “Marrano” Jews or New Christians, and call them to return home.

One of the speakers in the conference yesterday said that we as Jews have missed every opportunity to receive our lost brothers and sisters with open arms because we did not learn to tolerate the difference that their new fate has made in them. This is true and it puts both the blame and the responsibility to bring home these lost Jews from Portugal, Spain, Central and South America, and Italy, without extra burdens and a second time forced conversion. Both Jews and Christians, all kinds of Christians, ought to feel this burden and the State of Israel above all ought to do something about this because the major purpose of our existence is to be a homeland for the Jewish people.

We are planning to have a major conference that will unite the efforts of several organizations of both Jews and Christians to promote and demand the restoration of these lost Jews back to the fold of Israel without any further demands or requests. Just as they are they ought to be welcomed and received as Jews in this land of our forefathers. We, the Jews people, those who believe that Yeshua is our Messiah and those who don’t, can not be like Cain the brother of Abel and cover the blood of our brothers, because “the voice of [our] brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground.” We can’t say what Cain said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” We are all our brother’s keepers and now we know what happened to the hundreds of thousands of Jews who were forced to convert to Catholicism and who were forced to give up their Jewish identity. We know who they are and we know where they are and for this very reason it is incumbent upon us to restore them and allow them to chose their identity freely. Please pray for us and with us to be able to do this conference in December of 2012 and make our voice heard in Israel and around the world. Also please pray for the Lord to help us have the funds and means to make this kind of conference and public outcry possible in 2012.

There is a much larger principle imbedded in this issue, and that is that as disciples of Yeshua we must always stand for what is biblically right and righteous and stand for civil-rights and biblical justice in this unjust and unrighteous world. We must always know that the end does not justify the means, and that the drum that we march to is different than the drum that the World is marching to. We are always in the world but not of the world. This makes it so that we see what the world is doing and we hear what it is saying but our cry is louder and our voice is clearer and our faces are uncovered without a mask because we represent Yeshua the Messiah and the God of Israel’s interests in love, grace, and righteousness for all. The Christians ought to have a new priority for spending the Lord’s money - first and foremost it ought to be to change the world and only second our own comforts. We as Jewish disciples of Yeshua fall under the same category and must learn to do the same.

The Shulam family in Israel is very busy these days because we are going to have our grandchildren with us, our daughter-in-law and grandson are already here and Danah and Noaam are going to join us soon. It is a very busy summer and we ask you to pray for us all protection and good health and a restorative time for our family.

The enemies of peace in the Middle East continue to plot how to disrupt the peace and for this reason I am asking you to pray against those who are plotting a new flotilla of ships that want to break the boycott of importing rockets and arms to Gaza. The Hamas is a terrorist organization that is recognized by the United States, and most of the countries in Europe, and it has been armed by Iran with rockets in order to shoot at Israel’s civilian population. The arming of the Hamas in Gaza has been done by tunneling under the ground, but if the boycott for Sea transport is lifted they will openly receive arms from Iran and North Korea and no place in Israel will be safe. Israel and the free world can not allow to stop the boycott on Gaza. Gaza in fact is supplied well by Israel with food, electricity, clean water, and fuel. The lie that they are short on food is well evidenced and in fact the prices of food and vegetables and fruit are much much cheaper in Gaza than they are in Jerusalem or Tel-Aviv. We all need to pray agains the lies and the manipulation of all terrorist organizations and also against their manipulative and deceptive programs to drive the region into a major war.

Please keep praying for the sick on our list. We have the chronically ill in Jerusalem, Ahuva, Liora, Leah, lIana, Sarit, Sara, Zvi and Marcia. We need to continue and pray for Lev, Hannah’s father, who has been in the hospital for ten days with blood cults in the lungs. We also continue to pray for Ruby our dear sister in Oklahoma, and for Paulo, and Liz, Tim Tucker, Horace and June who are Marcia’s father and mother, and for Ishiida San and K. Abe’s mother in law. It is a good thing to pray for the sick and this is specially true when you don’t know the people personally. Just ask the Lord to hear the prayers of these brothers and sisters and heal them.

The work of Netivyah and all the workers is doing good and everyone is working hard. We all need your prayers and your support. Kol HaYeshua radio broadcasts continues to have some very wonderful and interesting responses, and most of them are coming from religious people who are living in the periphery settlements. The Soup-Kitchen in it’s new format is doing very well and it keeps growing at a controlled pace. The publication department is working on new books and materials to be published. The work of Netivyah outside of Israel is doing well, and we had board members of Netivyah traveling to Finland and speaking there in conference and fellowships. The summer is always a challenging here in Israel because of the large numbers visitors, but with prayer and supplications we are going to pass the summer in peace.

God bless you all and keep you all well and full of God and full of His Spirit, blessed and prospering in every way. I say thank you to all of you who are supporting Netivyah and who are joining with us in prayer for the salvation of all of Israel and the whole world. We are engaged in a World War for the Peace that God has promised us all. Our tools of War are God’s love, faith and hope, and the promises of His Word. Thank you all!

Joseph Shulam