Keeping It Israel

Resources in Modern Hebrew for Believers in Israel - Victor Kalisher, The Bible Society in Israel

September 17, 2020 Jeff Futers Season 1 Episode 23
Keeping It Israel
Resources in Modern Hebrew for Believers in Israel - Victor Kalisher, The Bible Society in Israel
Show Notes Transcript

Jeff interviews Victor Kalisher of The Bible Society in Israel to talk about his personal story and also, why it is so critical that the Body of Messiah, the believers in Israel, are resourced with materials in their own language of modern Hebrew.

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Chris Atkins, One Media :

Welcome to the Keeping it Israel podcast with Jeff Futers where Jeff and his guests talk. Everything Israel as it relates to Christian faith and the church. If you are a Christian and you stand with Israel, you will be encouraged and challenged by this podcast. And if you're not so sure about the whole Israel thing, you need to learn how your faith connects with Israel, and why standing with Israel matters. Now, here's Jeff with today's guest.

Jeff Futers :

Hey, my name is Jeff and I am your host today for the Keeping it Israel podcast. My guest today is Victor Kalisher, the general director of the Bible Society in Israel. And we're going to chat with Victor a little bit about his testimony about the work that he does and why it is so important for the Messianic body for the believers in the land of Israel. So, thanks for tuning in. And let's go to my conversation with Victor Kalisher. Well, welcome to the podcast today and great to have you with us. My guest today is coming to us all the way from Jerusalem from I think Yad Hashmona on just outside of Jerusalem, and his name is Victor Kalisher. Victor, welcome to the podcast.

Victor Kalisher :

Shalom, Jeff and thank you so much for inviting me. It is a pleasure.

Jeff Futers :

We appreciate having you on. And you are the Director of the Bible Society in Israel. Is that the right title?

Victor Kalisher :

Yeah, that's the right title. I manage the Bible Society in Israel already for the last 12 years and whenever I say it, I feel like you know, how can it be that it's already like that but yes,

Jeff Futers :

12 years? Wow. I actually today, I think I'm celebrating four years at First Century Foundations which is also kind of hard for me to believe. But here we are. Here we are. Victor, tell us a little bit about yourself. What's your sort of journey to to get to this point? Have you always lived in Israel? How did you come to know Yeshua? Give us just a little snapshot of Victor Kalisher.

Victor Kalisher :

Okay, so I have to actually start with my parents in this case, because, you know, my parents they came into Israel following the establishment of the State of Israel. My father is a Holocaust survivor from a Warsaw, from Poland. And the war started when he was 11 years old. Being a Jew, you know, his parents were taken to the ghetto. His mother put him in an orphanage house before everything started to get worse to save him, and basically I mean, he may managed to survive. And God just kept him again and again and again. You know, just God just put his angels around him. And he survived and no one else from his family did, but he survived, really miraculously. And he came to Israel before in 1947, just into another war, and he fought in the Independence War that started already in 1947. And towards the end of the war, he actually found the Lord. He was saved by receiving a Bible. He was in Tel Aviv on an after duty. And he thought that he'll have some things to do that leaves the city where they are coffee places and so on. So he was sure that he's going to have a nice evening, but when he went there, everything was closed, hardly any people outside because it still was kind of wartime. So he found a bench. He was sitting there and very frustrated that there's nothing to do and you know, for a soldier to have an after duty, it's not something that you get so easily. Definitely not in a time like that. And he was feeling sorry for himself. But then a lady came, and she told him, Look, I have a book for you. And he told her, don't you have something smaller for me because it really looked like a big one. And she said, No, you can have it but you don't have to read all at once. You can read it slowly, slowly. And when he opened it, it opened in Psalm 27 and then in verse 10, I think it said when when they father and mother forsake you, I will gather you and these verse really touched his heart penetrated his heart. And he felt drawn to read this book more and more, and he came to faith in this way. My mother is an Iranian Jew And she came to Israel immediately following the war, because what's happened is that after the war, the Arab world felt very humiliated. And they felt like that their pride was hit because how can it be that such a small country without any army, not even a state yet, a against a, you know, several Arab countries that came together to fight against Israel. And they were, they thought that, you know, it's a matter of 10 days, two weeks, and that's it. They will throw the Jews to the sea, but it didn't happen. So they started taking revenge in the countries where Jews lived in Arab countries. So in this case, my mother you know, being a Jew in a Iran, it became very dangerous. So the parents decided to send her to Israel alone. She was 14 in these countries when you're 14, it's like you know you're a woman ready to get married and everything. So they were concerned for her. So they sent her alone, and she came to Israel. But she remembered, even though that she was just 14, all alone, that her grandfather whenever he had her, he told her on the ear, he told her Don't forget that Jesus is the Messiah of the Jews. And he used to say it quietly. Now, they were, of course Jewish or father was very known in the, in the community, orthodox and so on. But he used to tell her that. So when she came to Israel, after a while, after a few years, she met my father. They lived one next to each other. So this is really a from the Lord. I mean, things like that doesn't happen, just like that. Wow. And so I really feel that God did so much so that I will be born in a believing family, my, my family was one of the first Messianic families, believers, Jewish believers, followers of Christ, one of the first ones in Israel, you know, after after Jesus, you know, it's really like that, because there were hardly any believers. Before that, really none. You could count them on one hand. So this is really something that I consider the God's grace really special. I, I really feeling that God saved my father in the Holocaust so that I will be born to a believing family and He saved my mother and her family. You know, and this is going back generations. You read the Bible, you read about the exile to Babylon and so on. And these Jews in the case of my mother were the Jews that left afterwards and they are still kept there a Jewish traditions and faith and everything. And here now God brings them back to the land just as he promised. So, for us here as believers, it is living the Bible, just seeing how the promises and the prophecies do come through. It is not just Well, we live in Israel and that's all I mean, they, you know, it's it's really special. So, I grew up in a believing family. But of course we say that God doesn't have grandchildren. So I received I, you know, I grew up and I don't remember myself, not a believer, but they knew that it is something that you have to do your own, of course, commitment and give your life to the Lord, which I did at the age of 13 that I committed my life to the Lord, but something that has to do with Bible Society, and I will therefore I will say here is that at a younger age, I think, like at the age of 11, I had a dream And in this dream there were two angelic images that are handing me the Bible and it was really a like a fight, there was a fire and they told me if you don't take it, you will die. And I was really fighting in this dream. Then at the end, I took the Bible and I was saved. And these dreams stayed with all the all my life. I knew that this is not just another dream, you know, your dream, all kinds of things and you forget them the next morning, in the morning when you wake up, these ones stayed with me all my life and I knew that God wants me to serve Him. Anyways, I did my studies, I studied electronics in Israel and then I joined the Israeli Navy. I was a naval officer. I was serving a, on an Israeli ship and I was the electronic warfare officer. I did the six years sir...service there. Because I was an officer on the ship, and then I joined the Intel, a computers company. And they worked there for 18 years, but I always knew that God wants me to serve Him. Between that during my time in there also became an elder of the Israeli Messianic congregation in Jerusalem, which is the first official Messianic congregation in Israel, and one of the very early ones. And so I, I knew that God wants me to serve him, but I didn't know what, and I was praying God show me and God showed me in a miraculous way. I don't take too much time only in that, but God really showed it in a miraculous way. And he brought me to the Bible Society and when I knew that, and I asked God to give me signs, sorry for some people, maybe it's like, well, how can you do that but I really asked with an Israeli chutzpah two signs from God - One to show me that it has to do with this dream. And the other one we were, we had the three girls, it was not easy for us to get children. But we were praying for another one for a fourth one. And my wife said well, if we have the fourth one, I know that this is really a sign that you should also leave Intel because it's it's a career type of work and so on. And, and God answered, gave these two signs regarding the dream, because the only person that knew about it was a Dutch person that already passed away. And then a friend of him that didn't know me, but they knew this guy came to Israel contacted me and said, I'd like to meet you. Now he was the only one that knew about that dream, because I didn't tell it to anyone else. And he came just the day before I had to give my boss at Intel my decision whether I continue or not and he asked me about he told me this guy told me that you had a dream when you were a child. Do you mind sharing it with me? And this was just before I had to give an answer. And he's not even living in Israel, he came for a visit. So God answered in a miraculous way. And then, for 10 years, we didn't have a child you know, we were, we were praying for that. And God also gave a child. So we have a 12 and a half year old daughter and, and, and that's it. So I stop here, but but Yes, I was. I really received such a peace. And I left my job, which which I loved. I mean, I loved working with Intel and enjoyed it very much, but they knew that God wants me and that's His calling, and I left I didn't look back, one day. Really I didn't look back I didn't regret and sometimes people ask me, do you regret it Do you miss Intel? I loved it, but I know that I am were God wants me. And I didn't look back and the truth, Jeff, I don't have time to do that. I'm so busy. There's so much to do.

Jeff Futers :

You are very busy. Wow, what an incredible story. And Victor, one of the reasons I love and respect you so much is that you are the dad of four girls, not very many men could could do that. And I think that that's amazing. But I want to just pick up a couple of things that you said there you said that the very first encounter that your father had with faith was because somebody gave him a Bible. What an amazing what an amazing sort of turn of events that God would bring you to this point in your life where you're working and leading The Bible Society, Israel. That's just that is like, phenomenal to me.

Victor Kalisher :

It's just it's more than that because I remember as a child My father would always speak with Orthodox Jews, sometimes he would take us to Yeshiva, you know, to the ultra, very ultra orthodox yeshiva, and he would go there because he spoke Yiddish and he came from an orthodox background. He knew their way of life, their way of talking everything, the nuances, everything. So we would go there and speak with Yeshiva one time I remember as a child, we went there and they realized that we are evangelizing to them in the most ultra orthodox radical yeshiva in Mea Shearim, which is a very orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem. So they were really starting to you know, like violence was just about to burst. So my father told me, Victor, run away, we wait outside, even. And I thought, you know, growing up, I never thought that I will do that. I thought, No way. I will not be doing things like that. This is really an He could do that. But I don't know how many other people could do that. And now the funny thing, God is really, you know, he's, he has a sense of humor. I find myself talking with Orthodox Jews with ultra Orthodox Jews, again and again and again, that come, you know, and ask questions. Sometimes they come to us, sometimes it's during the different outreach activities that we do. So we thank God and here I am now in the position in which I am in charge of providing Bibles of sharing the Word of God. Yeah, so it is really special.

Jeff Futers :

That is amazing. And then, you know, I said there was two things the one was the fact that that you ended up doing what you're doing when your dad came to faith through a Bible. The other thing that that just sort of stuck out to me is that you are, you're kind of part of Messianic royalty there in the new nation of Israel. I mean, you you are from one of the very first believing families in in the land.

Victor Kalisher :

It doesn't make you a better believer... it is just God's grace, you know, that's not exactly. So that's not I don't consider that in these in these ways. This is really, you know, God's grace. And it doesn't make me a better believer. I'm just saying that because for 2000 years, there were hardly any believers in Israel. And today, you know, we are it's the first time today that there are more believers in Israel than in the time of Jesus maybe. Because today we have in Israel, families in Jewish families, Messianic believers, that are already third and fourth generation believers. You know, I was a second generation my daughters are third generations, but my daughter is not yet married. But other daughters of people like me that are a second generation and third generations now they have children. So you have four generations or full families of believers in Israel. This is the first time in history since the time of Jesus, because even the time of Jesus you didn't get the third generation delivers in Israel.

Jeff Futers :

Yeah. That's incredible. And you know, the numbers that I hear, and you can maybe sort of confirm I mean, I've heard anywhere now from 20,000 upwards of 30,000. believers in Yeshua in the land of Israel.

Victor Kalisher :

Yeah, this is true. These are some surveys that were done, and they giving us these numbers. That's true. And I would even say that they are also numbers of believers that they do believe but they don't yet in a stage in their faith that they are in a fellowship, a local fellowship and so on because of different pressures. You know, for a Jew to become a believer. It's not something that they say, Okay, now I need everything, not always. And I joined a Messianic congregation, it's a lot of tensions and fears and problems that can happen with a family because of that.

Jeff Futers :

So so there are a number of secret believers as well. And I think that that would account for for another number that maybe we can't even put a finger on at this point right? Yeah that's amazing so, so Victor because there are so many believers in the land and we've talked about this many times, but but tell me tell us tell our listeners why it is so important that that the B ody there receive the Bible in modern Hebrew but also other materials in modern Hebrew.

Victor Kalisher :

Yeah, because it is a new thing. I mean, think about it that in the in the US or English, you have so many, such a variety of materials because you have materials that was written, you know, 10s of years ago. It's a development of a 10s of years of a wide number of population of believers. You know, you have theologians and so on from the 18th century, actually, from the time of the reformation, and so on and so on. But in Israel, it's a very new, a movement. Think about it. It's only 1948, you... Jews started to come to Israel, really in bigger numbers. And then you had just a few believers there very few. So they were not busy in creating resources in Hebrew. They were really busy in keeping their faith protecting these believers, helping them sharing the gospel and so on. But it was a very small community. You didn't have really ministries working in Hebrew, because the people their, the leaders of the local body, they were missionaries. mostly who came from abroad, and they were serving in Israel. So they are actually the pioneers of the local body in Israel. But so only in the 80s only in the 80s I would say that then local ministries really started in the 80s and 90s. So this is relatively very recent. And and then you need the resources to help the local body grow and the body here today, it has children and youth and laymen and pastors and everything is in small numbers, but it is everything. So we need resources and materials for a for all of that. For example, you know, we do not have, for example, a large print Bible in Hebrew. If you look for a large print Bible in English that you will have your primary would be, what color do you want and what design do you want? And you want it Do you want it in pink? Or do you want it for a cat lovers or for dog lovers? Or do you want to do illustrations? No, we don't have any. We don't have an option? Yeah, okay. So just now we are producing that or a small mini Bible. We don't have it. We have a Standard Bible and a compact Bible, but we don't have really a pocket Bible. And it is very important here. Because you know, a significant part of the local body in Israel are actually soldiers. In Israel, everyone has to serve in the army. There are a lot of young believers in the army and they are really sharing their faith in the army and the army is open for believers and I know that they are really quality people. But in the army, you cannot be with your you cannot have your phone, your smartphone. When you are in your position. Imagine That a soldier serves around Gaza and you know that there is a lot of tensions there all the time. He cannot have a smartphone, you know, during his posts and so on because it is dangerous, they can listen to you, they can use that against you, you know, today with all the cyber and all the ways in which you can use that, right so they are not allowed to. My daughter is not allowed to use her phone when she is in post. And they want they want to read the Bible. So we need to do a small Bible they can have in their pocket. And this can also serve for students and it can also serve for outreach, and so on. We don't have something like this, this is something very new and and First Century is helping us to produce these a materials so...

Jeff Futers :

That's a great connection I wanted to make, first of all this connection that your dad was a soldier, and he came to faith through a Bible and now today you are working on a pocket Bible that soldiers can use and many of our partners have been able to help with that project. I think that's absolutely amazing. How's it coming? How's the how's the pocket, the pocket Bible coming along?

Victor Kalisher :

So it is on the way it is. It was printed but the ship that brings it had to stay, I received an email from the shipping company that it has to stay in Bay because of a storm. So instead of arriving in the end of September, it will arrive right now they say 11th of October, but it is coming soon. It is coming soon and amazing God willing, you are looking forward for the print and then we are soon also looking forward for the large print that is in different last stages. So yeah, so we need these resources and we need resources for children. Because you know it's not. You can understand of course that we need materials for children, but here you read, you need to realize that it is even more important because our children grow up as a minority. They are all the time challenged, in their faith. People are asking them, how come? How come you are a Jew? Why do you believe in Jesus? Are you a Christian? Or a Jew? They don't realize, you know, how can you be a Jew and believe in Jesus, in Yeshua, so they need to explain it when they need to, to have the strength in their faith, to be able to explain why why they believe is true in Christ. So we need to give them these tools, but they also need to be strong spiritually, in order to stand in these pressures.

Jeff Futers :

That's awesome. It's amazing. Now, there's another project that you just finished earlier this year and you actually, you sent me a copy of this Bible. I don't know if you notice, but it's sitting back here. on my desk, and I wanted to let you know that it came, and that it's beautiful. And we are just excited to be able to tell people that you've completed this project and, you know, challenge people here in North America to help us to help you to do other projects like this family Bible, the Jerusalem illustrated Bible, and in another sort of unique connection, because I love making connections with our friends in Israel, the artist who did many of the illustrations in this Bible, Elhanan Ben Avraham, I think is his name. He actually allowed us to use some of those illustrations in a documentary series that we just released in the last couple of weeks. We have three episodes of the Miraculous Victories of Israel documentary series that are now done and out there for sale. And that's been just another unique connection. And he's a believer. He's a, he's a Messianic believer. And so it's been incredible to be able to sort of tie all these things together. So thank you for connecting us with him.

Victor Kalisher :

Thank you allow me just to say a few more aware words about that. You know, you spoke about Elhanan. That's another example. He is a professional artist, very creative. And God called him 40 years ago, and since then, all his creativity, all his gifts, went to the illustrations that has to do with the Bible, and with the unique insights into the stories of the Bible, authentic, many of them were taken illustrated here in Israel, sometimes during his reserve duty in the army, he was in some historic place like Hebron, the Macpelah cave, you know, the and he took it there. So he's very authentic and we incorporated all of them. And we these Bibles came when we wanted to celebrate 70 years for Israel. And we thought, how can we celebrate 70 years for Israel? There are a lot of things that are very national, nationalistic in their nature and so on. We wanted to thank God for His faithfulness. And we wanted to thank God that now there are really families, as they said, full families of believers, third and fourth generation. So we said let's do a family Bible. And we incorporated about close to 300 illustrations beautiful, ones authentic, it's in Hebrew and English because we want it to be a blessing also to many Messianic Jews and Jews that live in North America because still, the majority of Jews are about half of the Jewish people are still in North America and there is a large community of Messianic Jews, also in North America. So it is in Hebrew in English and it is beautiful. It is encouraging and it is also strengthening the identity of believers in Christ of Jewish believers. It is strengthening their identity in Christ as Jews. That's the purpose of these beautiful Bibles.

Jeff Futers :

Yeah, it really is an amazing project and we're just excited that you've been able to get it finished and and that it will grace many homes in Israel, but but also in other parts of the world. I think it's, it's a real testimony to, to the work that you do. Now, you are supporting the Body with these materials. And you've, we've shared about a number of children's books and materials that you have produced. I have some here in my office that I read to my grandchildren. And they, you know, they they love these books. We actually brought some of them in English and people that came to our table in churches were, were buying these books as well, and so it's it's been amazing to be able to sort of share those resources back and forth. But that's important. All of those things are so important, but you also are using these materials and congregations across the land are using these materials to reach out to people that don't know Yeshua. Tell us a little bit about how that works. And

Victor Kalisher :

So, so you know, we provide a lot of these materials, we provide them to the local congregations we provide them a most of the time free of charge. And we thank the Lord that we can do that and this is really through a support and from the congregation it goes, they also give it further you know, with outreach activities and sometimes when we give it to families, you know it for me and any believer it is forbidden, it's against the law to pro to give a someone who's under 18 anything, right? But, but the child can share it with his friends or her friend. So when we can give to a families, they can share it with their friends, you know, the children themselves and so on. So this is part of the way it happens. Another way is that we do outreach, sometimes just in the open, you know, in the streets. So many times we do outreach in Tel Aviv, we put tables in very public, a places where there are many people like near the beach in some places. And many times you have families coming their mothers with their children, and the mother would come and they take materials for their children. They are very open. I'll give you an example. At one time, there was a mother and she was looking at materials for children. So when I told her you know, these are, this has the stories from both the Old Testament and the New Testament. I want to tell you just so that you know. So She tells me, she says, I'm sure that what they will find in this book is much better than what they find on the internet. And so, you know, sometimes we're more concerned than the people themselves. In another time, you know, there was a family with three kids, the mother came and then one of the kids or two kids, they took children's materials, you know, they were sitting on the floor reading such a beautiful picture it was, and then the little sister she was crying because she didn't have any. So the mother took her and she gave her something for herself. So, you know, very natural innocence, and ah... very open, not in every place, we can do that. But we share it and we provide it and it is reaching a lot of people we give also to the immigrants, the refugees in these way, anytime their children, they grow there already. They speak the language. So there are many opportunities to do that.

Jeff Futers :

That's amazing. And it would be It would be fair to say that you're able to do that you're able to provide those free of charge for congregations and others alike because of partnerships you have with ministries like ours, here in here in North America, right?

Victor Kalisher :

That That is true. And this is really the only way that makes it. I mean, God opens the way for us to do that. But in terms of the support, and the resources to do that, that's that's the way it works. So we're very, very, very thankful to each and every one of you, and we pray for you. I mean, this is our way of, of thanking you really, too. We also pray for you, for all those that pray for us and, and they sacrifice. They could do other things we know but they, they decided to do that because they love the Lord. They love the people of Israel, they want people to be saved. And we are a appreciating that and we were thankful for that. And we sow the seeds and we know that and we see that God brings fruit And there are sometimes much more fruit that still will come. Amen.

Jeff Futers :

Amen. Well, Victor, this has been amazing. Thank you so much for taking some time today to share with me and to share with our listeners about the incredible work that you do. I know there's probably lots more that we could talk about and share about. But I think this is great for today. And we want to leave some things to talk about another day. But we do want you to know that we pray for you also, I know you know that. But especially in these days, with COVID-19 and everything that's happening you there in Israel are experiencing some very, very high numbers of late. And, you know, things seemed to start off so well. But when when the first lockdown ended, and people sort of went back to the streets and to the to the businesses and so on. It seems that the virus is a little bit unchecked there at the moment. So we're just really praying and believing that God will get that under control in Israel, and praying for all of you as you enter this, this next lockdown this week.

Victor Kalisher :

Thank you very much, Jeff, I really appreciate all your prayers and help, which is going back many, many years. So thank you for that. And God also bless you and give you the strength and the health and the wisdom and guidance to continue to serve Him.

Jeff Futers :

Thank you, Victor. And God bless you. Thanks for being on the podcast today. Bye. Thank you for joining us for the podcast today. I love Victor and I love Victor's passion for the work that he does. What an incredible, incredible story. I hope you enjoyed our conversation today and are challenged by the work that is being done by the Bible Society in Israel. I want to remind you if you want to know more about them, you can go to their website, biblesocietyinisrael.com. That's Bible Society in Israel, all one word .com and we just encourage you to check out the work that they do. You can also learn more about them on our website firstcenturyfoundations.com. And if you want to help us to help ministries, like the Bible Society in Israel, please go to our website and donate firstcenturyfoundations.com/donate, and you can make a donation in Canada and in the US and be receipted for your donation. We are official charitable status in both of those countries. Also, we did mention briefly the artwork in the Jerusalem illustrated Bible but also that was used in our documentary s eries, Miraculous Victories of Israel. And if you're interested in getting the first three episodes of that documentary series, you can find those at miraculousvictories.com. It's been great to have you you listening with us on the podcast today. Thanks so much for tuning in. And remember, as Christians, we stand with Israel.