In “TODAY THROUGH JEWISH EYES”, I cover Jewish themes from a biblical world view. Topics will vary between ethics, spirituality and culture. From Antisemitism to Zionism and everything in-between. I intend to help you to tackle these issues in your own communities and spheres of influence. This week's podcast answers these questions:• What is the best way to remember the Holocaust?• Why is it so important?• What makes the Holocaust different?• Do our kids even know what it is?

In “TODAY THROUGH JEWISH EYES”, I cover Jewish themes from a biblical world view. Topics will vary between ethics, spirituality and the culture. From Antisemitism to Zionism and everything in-between. I intend to help you to tackle these issues in your own communities and spheres of influence.In this week's episode:• What to look for in 2021?• Will the USA remain friendly to Israel?• Have we lost focus on what is important?• What is coming in the prophetic future?

So, last week, I made the statement: “There wouldn’t be Christmas if it wasn’t for Hanukkah!” It sounded a bit controversial if not oxymoronic. From a modern and commercial standpoint, Hanukkah has become the Jewish version of Christmas, but it is much more than that. Last week, we looked at the historical, biblical and modern aspects of Hanukkah, the Feast of Dedication also known as the Festival of Lights. Much of the background for the story of Hanukkah can be found in the book of Daniel as Antiochus IV Epiphanes rose to power, outlawed Judaism and murdered Jewish people. Eventually, through the Maccabean revolt, the Jewish people regained control, rededicated the Temple and were free to practice Judaism again. I also promised you that I would explain the correlation between the Feast of Hanukkah and the Jewish Messiah.

What a statement to be making, “There wouldn’t be Christmas if it wasn’t for Hanukkah!” To most people, this might sound like an oxymoron, but I would beg to differ. So, let’s look at the biblical and historical origins of Hanukkah, its modern practice, and finally, let’s investigate to see if it has any connection to Christmas (you might be surprised!) The feast of Hanukkah is known as either ” The Feast of Dedication” or “The Festival of Lights”, and it actually is both. The word itself means “dedication.” As you will see, Hanukkah teaches us how God delivered and preserved His people and prepared the world for the arrival of the Messiah, Yeshua of Nazareth.

When a conference or seminar is organized, it is common sense to gather a panel of the foremost experts on the topic at hand. The last thing that the organizers want to be accused of, is that they have gathered a panel of people who have not earned the right to speak on any given topic. You would not gather a group of white supremacists or KKK members to speak on the ills of slavery, just like you would not ask a group of neo-Nazis to speak on Israel's right to exist. In reality, such gatherings might take place, but nobody would take them seriously, let alone attend the conferences. Well, you would think so, but this is 2020 after all, and the sky is the limit when it comes to the irrational, and when the working definition of antisemitism is non-legally binding, strange things can happen.Well, imagine my surprise when I found out that the webinar on dismantling antisemitism will be led by Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, Marc Lamont Hill, Peter Beinart and Barbara Ransby. This would provide great material for a Saturday Night Live skit if the topic wasn't so tragically serious.LISTEN TO THE PODCAST!

There is a myriad of events that punctuate our daily lives and end-up finding their place in the history of human tragedies. These events are remembered by subsequent generations in the hope that people will not repeat their mistakes. These are very good intentions, but they don’t always work, especially when you link historical tragedies that have nothing in common. Enter George Floyd and the Holocaust!Recently, the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center based in Florida opened a new exhibition called ” Uprooting Prejudice: Faces of Change.” The exhibit displays a series of photographs by John Noltner from Minneapolis. The site goes on to explain, “When someone faces an act of antisemitism, racism, or any form of identity-based hate, whether it results in death or not, there is an uprising of many emotions. We felt it was important to bring the human experience of the aftermath to our museum. ” The exhibit is made of 45 different faces from strangers on the scene of George Floyd’s death, accompanied by a brief message. I command John Noltner for his initiative and creativity in shooting the portraits of those around the tragedy. Events like these must be documented from as many angles as we possibly can. My concern is not with the contents of the exhibit, but with the choice of location to display it.LISTEN TO THE PODCAST!

It is one thing to expose the vile monster of global antisemitism week after week, but beyond the exposure, we must make an effort–at least individual if not corporate–to fight it. As a result of our voices and actions, in some cases, we can nip it in the bud or even reverse it. An encouraging–and yet limited– example of this, is what happened at CNN a few days ago in a statement made by senior anchorwoman Christiane Amanpour. My intention is not to freely bash Ms. Amanpour, but rather to analyze her statement and apology in the scope of the current rise in antisemitism.During the second week of November, she made this statement, " This week 82 years ago, Kristallnacht happened. It was the Nazis' warning shot across the bow of our human civilization that led to genocide against a whole identity, and in that tower of burning books, it led to an attack on fact, history, knowledge and truth. After four years of a modern-day assault on those same values by Donald Trump, the Biden-Harris team pledges a return to norms, including the truth."She received a lot of criticism and days after, at the end of her program, she issued this apology, "and finally tonight, a comment on my program at the end of last week. I observed the 82nd anniversary of Kristallnacht, as I often do. It is the event that began the horrors of the Holocaust. I also noted President Trump's attacks on history, facts, knowledge and truth. I should not have juxtaposed the two thoughts. Hitler and his evils stand alone, of course, in history. I regret any harm my statement may have caused. My point was to say how democracy can potentially slip away, and how we must always zealously guard our democratic values." LISTEN TO THE PODCAST!

We must remember David L. Cooper's “Golden Rule of Interpretation": "When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths, indicate clearly otherwise."  The bottom line is this; a text apart from its context is a pretext!Regardless of all the warnings about taking Scripture out of context to fit the news or one's opinion (eisegesis), people thrive on speculating on end times events. Newspaper eisegesis is running rampant today. Especially in the era of the Internet and social networks, it is easy for someone to become a self-proclaimed prophecy teacher, throwing a bible verse here and there to impress their online audiences. Trying to identify the Antichrist or pinpoint the exact date of the Rapture of the believers are two favorite topics for a lot of people. There have been more potential candidates for the office of antichrist over the ages than we can count or list here. Some say that he will be a Muslim, others say that he will be a Jew or a Gentile. People are divided on that topic, but it preaches well, and it sells books even better. A study of the prophet Daniel and the book of Revelation will equip us to understand that the Antichrist will be a Gentile leader (read "totalitarian dictator") who will appear on the world scene after the Rapture at the start of the Great Tribulation (Daniel 9:27.) LISTEN TO THE PODCAST!

Sometimes when I look at the history of Israel and the Jewish people, I feel like I am watching the opening credits of a Star Wars movie. The main theme appears in text form from the bottom of the screen and slowly moves up as its size reduces towards the horizon and eventually disappears off the screen completely. As years go by, I continue to see the absolute necessity to tell people about critical markers on the timeline of Israel and the global Jewish community. This is why I continue to educate my audience about things like the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Holocaust, BDS and other important events that plague the Jewish people.If it happens today, it is part of the news, but as soon as tomorrow hits, it becomes part of history. The problem is that not all of history is worth recalling, but whose choice is it to pick what part of history to remember? We all have different interests, customs, traditions and even agendas. They all dictate what we choose to remember, commemorate or celebrate. This being said, there are events that transcend history and must be recalled by all, lest history becomes forgotten, erased or altered, putting us in a dangerous position where history could repeat itself.One of these nefarious events took place on the night of November 9-10, 1938 and is remembered every November as Kristallnacht or "The Night of Broken Glass." But, before we can look at Kristallnacht, we must consider what just happened to the Temple mount, that will help us to understand how the two are connected.LISTEN TO THE PODCAST!

Somehow, when it comes to the Jews, people passionately try to replace us. In all cases, the real Jews being replaced are becoming irrelevant or are being painted as impostors, easily turning them into a target for elimination. There are two main venues to replace the Jews: Theologically or ethnically. They both rely on faulty biblical views that need to be looked at, so that we can help people understand who really is a Jew, who are the ten lost tribes and what promises from God are still in effect for the real Jews.     Theologically, Israel has a place in the Bible in just about every single book. While not by name, it can easily be argued that God’s starting point to deal with the Jewish people and their descendants goes back to Genesis 12, where He makes an unconditional, eternal promise to Abraham and his descendants, reiterated in Genesis 15 as the Abrahamic Covenant, that is still very much in effect today, and absolutely unchanged as to its recipients. That is if you take a literal, grammatical/historical view of the Bible–an approach that isn't necessarily favored by all. Theologically, many of the Church Fathers contributed to what would morph into the racial antisemitism of Holocaust era and even the new antisemitism of today. Justin Martyr and Tertullian are two of them.LISTEN TO THE PODCAST!