The Rev. Robert Stearns, CUFI’s northeast regional director, addresses the “Night to Honor Israel” gathering in Cranford, September 2007, as the Rev. Walter Healy, CUFI’s NJ director, looks on.
Photo by Elaine Durbach
September 18, 2008
A Christian Evangelical group is planning a pro-Israel rally in Cranford, a follow-up to an event last year that drew some 1,100 supporters and raised $21,500 for a social service organization in Efrat, Israel.
Next week’s “Night to Honor Israel” is one of a series of rallies being staged nationally by Christians United for Israel, or CUFI. Its annual pro-Israel solidarity event in Washington has made CUFI one of the most visible pro-Israel groups within the Evangelical community, and a partner of numerous Jewish defense and community relations groups.
Lori Price Abrams, director of the MetroWest CRC, said CUFI shares Jewish concerns about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his country’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
“There is a point of solidarity. We are seeking to build broad coalitions, and this is a partnership,” she said. “We want to expose more of our Jewish community members to them.”
Few in the Jewish community doubt the intensity of CUFI’s support for Israel, and the organization claims to have raised more than $30 million for Israel.
And yet detractors point out that its founder, Pastor John Hagee, was at the center of a political controversy earlier this year after critics aired remarks by him that variously offended Catholics, gays, Muslims, and some Jews.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who sought and received Hagee’s endorsement, later renounced it after calling such remarks and others “deeply offensive and indefensible.”
Even before the McCain incident, some Jewish leaders were uncomfortable with Hagee’s pro-Israel activities. In April, Rabbi Eric Yoffie of Westfield, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, urged Jewish groups not to partner with CUFI, in part because of Hagee’s statements about Muslims and Roman Catholics.
Nevertheless, the MetroWest CRC is urging broad Jewish community support for the rally.
“I think the leader, Rev. Hagee, has some controversy, but as far as the group itself — we can certainly agree on Israel issues,” said Abrams. “They bridge together people who also share a range of divergent views, and the one thing that unites them under the CUFI umbrella is this love and reverence for Israel.”
CUFI’s northeast region director, the Rev. Robert Stearns, even heads a program called Eagles’ Wings in his hometown of Buffalo, NY. It operates trips called “Israel Experience” for Christian young people that are similar to the Jewish community’s Taglit-Birthright youth missions.
“We are trying to build on the points we share, and there is a sense we should try to bridge some of the Birthright returnees with the Israel Experience returnees,” Price Abrams said.
Speaking to NJJN in March, Stearns said, “I do not agree with everything John Hagee says. I believe many of his comments are often lifted from context and at the end of the day, I know Pastor Hagee to be a fervent and dedicated supporter of Israel. So I unite with him and his organization in that regard.”
In March, Stearns was invited to give a speech at Temple B’nai Abraham in Livingston. Rabbi Clifford Kulwin, writing about Stearns’ appearance in NJJN, said he was moved by the pastor’s visit.
“I believe Israel has firm and committed friends in him and those he represents,” wrote Kulwin. “Surely, there is more we want to know, but it is not too early to speculate that, with our collaboration, these Evangelicals may turn out to be among the best friends Israel has ever had.”
CUFI’s first gathering in New Jersey, held one year ago, also in Cranford, included warnings by local pastors about Iran and the rise of radical Islam as well as an address by Israel’s consul general in New York, Asaf Shariv.
The overwhelmingly Christian crowd donated funds for an organization in Efrat, Israel, that works with underprivileged Jews and Arabs.
Ahead of the second rally, Price Abrams acknowledged another common divide between many in the Jewish community and the evangelical community: the often opposing views the two take on domestic policy issues like abortion and church-state affairs.
“We are not trying to change their views on issues, nor are they trying to change ours,” she said. “We may disagree with them on any number of things, but to the extent we have a common cause, we should embrace that.”
“A Night to Honor Israel” will be held Sunday, Sept. 21, at 6 p.m. at the Harvest Training Center, 69 Myrtle St., in Cranford.
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