Pastor Clem Salerno, left, presents a symbolic check to Steve Cohen of Temple Sha’arey Shalom, center, as Max Kleinman of UJC MetroWest NJ lends a hand.
Photos by Elaine Durbach
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David Brog, executive director of CUFI, told Christians at the Night to Honor Israel that they are righteous gentiles.
September 23, 2009
Emotions ran high as a crowd of 600 packed an evangelical church in Cranford for the third annual Night to Honor Israel.
Loud applause and roars of heartfelt agreement greeted ministers and other speakers who expressed their ardent support for Israel and the Jewish people at Calvary Tabernacle on Sept. 20.
The event raised some $17,000 from those in attendance; $11,700 was given to Ohr Torah Stone, a network of educational institutions in Israel; Temple Sha’arey Shalom, a Reform congregation in Springfield, received $2,500; and 10 percent of the proceeds were earmarked for Christians United for Israel, the event sponsor.
For the first time at one of these local events, the Jewish community reciprocated that largesse. Max Kleinman, executive vice president of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ, and the final speaker of the night, announced a donation from his federation of $1,000 to CUFI, a national coalition of churches.
David Brog, CUFI’s executive director, also used his turn at the microphone to express his appreciation to the Christians present.
Brog, who is Jewish, said that people often assume that he must be a Jew for Jesus. He said, “I am a Jewish Jew for Jews,” which drew a roar of approval.
The Christians in attendance, he said, reject the “replacement doctrine” that claims that the Jews forfeited their role as God’s chosen people when they failed to recognize Jesus Christ as the messiah. Likewise, they reject the assertion that “Israel” in the Bible refers to the Church, not the Jews’ Promised Land.
“Ideas change the course of history,” Brog said. Replacement theology led Christians to regard Jews as disowned by God and thus inferior and alien. It opened the way for “sorrow and bloodshed, for the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Holocaust.” The Nazis, he said, were pagans — worshipers of blood purity — but they found fertile ground for their views in Christian Europe because of such ideas.
“Thank God, we no longer have to be hidden in your basements. But the existential threat to the Jewish people has morphed,” he said, warning of the danger of Iran’s becoming a nuclear power. “The sad irony is that as the Jewish population of Israel is approaching six million, there is a new Hitler — in Iran.”
Pastor Clem Salerno, senior pastor of the host congregation, Calvary Tabernacle, opened the program, insisting that Christian support for Israel is “unconditional and without strings.”
That theme was echoed by all the speakers that followed, including CUFI’s NJ director, Pastor Walt Healy; the Rev. Victor Styrski, its regional coordinator; Rabbi Dr. Gerald Meister of Ohr Torah Stone; and Dr. Robert Stearns, executive director of Eagle’s Wings Ministries. Stearns is CUFI northeast regional director and founder of the annual Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem, scheduled to be held this year on Sunday, Oct. 4.
Kleinman wished the crowd yasher koah, or strength, for the New Year, and thanked them for their support of Israel, “the only oasis of Judeo-Christian values in a sea of totalitarianism and terrorism.”
“Israel’s enemies are trying to ‘de-Judaify’ the Holy Land” by denying that the Jews lived there in ancient times, he said. “Did Jesus chase money-changers out of the Al-Aqsa Mosque?” he demanded, to gales of laughter.
After the event, a number of the 20 or so Jews in attendance thanked Brog and expressed their desire to have other Jews hear his views. “They think these people have their own agenda, that they’re just using us to get the messiah to come sooner,” explained one man.
Brog quoted Stearns, who, he said, likes to joke that when the messiah comes, he can be asked, “Is this your first time or your second?” Till then, Brog said, Jews and Christians can work together in harmony without resolving the question.
A woman from Morris County — who asked not to be named — said, “I’ve just come through two days of Rosh Hashana services and this was the most moving experience of all.”
Jim Daniels, chair of the Stop Iran Taskforce of UJC MetroWest’s Community Relations Committee, was present at last year’s event. He and his wife, Diana, said they found the evening even more moving than last year’s. “It was more focused this year, and what David Brog said about these people was wonderful,” Diana said.
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shirley olsfanger
October 01, 2009
I was very impressed by the openness and honesty that exists in your part of the world between Jews and Christians