Aliyah: Past, Present, and Future
This article talks about:
- Biblical Roots of Aliyah
- Historical Waves of Aliyah
- Messianic Perspective on Aliyah
-By Joseph Shulam-
The Hebrew Bible relates that the patriarch Abraham came to the Land of Canaan with his family and followers in approximately 1800 BC. His grandson Jacob went down to Egypt with his family, but never forgot that their home was the land of Canaan, the Land God gave to Abraham and his seed as an eternal inheritance. Isaac, Jacob, and his children went down to Egypt to seek sustenance, but always wanted to get back to the land of Canaan! It is interesting that God prepared for the family of Abraham, the Hebrews, a ticket for survival, by manipulating Joseph to become the second most important person in Egypt and prepare for his family a lifesaver in Egypt. However, a couple of centuries in Egypt became slavery and misery for the children of Israel, and they cried unto the Lord for help and salvation. The Lord heard their cry and sent them Moses and Aaron to lead them out of slavery and back to the land of Promise, the land of Israel that God promised to Abraham. “Then He [God] said to Abram: ‘Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also, the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.’” (Genesis 15:13–16 NKJV)
When we think about the subject of Aliyah, the above text is of great importance. The Word of God states here clearly that one of the reasons why the children of Israel will not return to the land of promise is that “The iniquity of the Amorites (other nations that have immigrated from the far north to the land of Canaan) is not yet complete.” This gives us a clue as to how God works with the nations, and that includes how He works with Israel as well. The promises of God to Israel include the same paradigm. The reason Israel went into exile more than one time is exactly the same: “lest the land vomit you out also when you defile it, as it vomited out the nations that were before you.” (Leviticus 18:28 NKJV, See also Leviticus 18:25, 28, 20:22, Ezekiel 39:21-27)
As the word of God states over and over again, exile or expulsion from the land of Promise is a part of the paradigm that is stated so clearly: “The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me.” (Leviticus 25:23)
It is interesting that the same paradigm is also for the disciples of Yeshua in the New Testament. As people of God, as servants of the Most High, even the non- Jewish disciples of the Messiah, the Christians, are described in the New Testament as having been “strangers and sojourners.” “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.” (Ephesians 2:19 NKJV)
The major expulsion of the Jewish people out of the land of promise happened in the 8th Century BCE. The prophets all spoke and prophesied that God was going to send the people of Israel out of the land, as God has spoken to Moses, and as it is recorded in the book of Leviticus chapters 26:15ff. Around 50,000 Jews of the elite of the Jewish society, the ruling class, the rich and wealthy and famous, were all taken to Babylon. We have the sad picture of the King of Israel capitulating on his hands and knees before the king of Babylon with the dignitaries of Israel behind him. This is one of the saddest pictures carved on stone, placed in the temple of the Babylonian god, as a memorial to the words of God to Moses in the book of Leviticus.
It is a demonstration of the faithfulness of God and the truth of His Word carved on stone in the capital of Babylon. The book of Daniel in the Bible is written in Babylon, and so is the book of Ezekiel. We have in the Bible the books of Ezra and Nehemiah that tell us the story of the return and the rebuilding of the land of Israel and especially the city of Jerusalem. King Cyrus of Persia/Babylon wrote the declaration permitting and sending the Jews back to the land of Israel in 538 BCE. By the year 459 BCE, Ezra and Nehemiah had returned to Jerusalem and rebuilt the city and the city wall of Jerusalem. You can visit Jerusalem and see the walls of Jerusalem that were rebuilt upon the return of the Jews back to the city. It is interesting that even in that time the neighbors of Israel, including the Arabs, resisted and fought the Jews that returned to Judea. And today, Israel is still doing the same and rebuilding and restoring the desolation and neglect that centuries of Turks, Arabs, and Persians have left in this land. Here are the words of the Holy Spirit from the time of Ezra and Nehemiah; this verse says it all. See that nothing has changed in the process of Aliyah and returning home and that all of it is nothing else other than the very work of God and fulfillment of His promises: “Every one of the builders had his sword girded at his side as he built. And the one who sounded the trumpet was beside me.” (Nehemiah 4:18 NKJV)
The Jews returned from Babylonian exile, rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem and the walls of Jerusalem, and restored the Jewish settlement in the land!
The fall of Jerusalem a second time in the year 70 AD, brought a major exodus from the land of Israel all through the Mediterranean basin, Egypt, Lydia, and all through North Africa, Asia Minor, Greece, the Balkans, Rome and all the way to Spain, Jews searched and settled to find new life, away from the land of their Fathers. The return from this diaspora had a few waves in the 8th century, and again in the 12th, 14th, and 15th, and then in the 17th, 18th, 19th, and finally the 20th century. These waves had a painful and difficult absorption into the land and into the society that lived in the land of Israel in those times.
The attitude of the inhabitants of the land during these periods was lax toward the Torah and the rest of what is called today the “Old Testament.” This was the cause of the Pharisaic Revolution that changed the paradigm of how we read the Bible and especially the Torah. These developments in the land of Israel happened after the destruction of the temple, and the seeds of that Revolution of how we view and use the Bible was the birth of the Pharisaic party in the land of Israel and especially in Jerusalem and in the Galilee.
The most influential Rabbis at the end of the 1st Century BCE and in the next centuries in the land of Israel were immigrants mainly from Babylon. Rabbi Hillel and his family made Aliyah to Jerusalem from Babylon, and so did some of the other most influential Rabbis that collected and edited the material that later became the heads of the Sanhedrin and the main leaders of the ruling cast of Jews in the land of Israel.
Gamaliel, the famous Rabbi, was a relative of Hillel that made a very big and significant contribution to Judaism, and until today the influence of Hillel, Gamaliel, and their families have been most influential in the shaping of Judaism. Their influence is still mentioned and has an impact even until today. Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox Jewish circles are influenced by Hillel and Gamaliel, immigrants to the land of Israel from Babylon. Remember too that Gamaliel is mentioned in a very favorable light in the book of Acts.[1] The Apostle Paul himself was from a family of immigrants from the city of Tarsus.
Ezra and Nehemiah were the two most important immigrants from Babylon that led a major reformation in Judaism and made the reading and the Study of The Torah a major commandment. They were the ushers and brokers of the Pharisaic Revolution.
The events surrounding the exile to Babylon were so traumatic, and the return from Babylon so dramatic that the drama is recorded in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah in the Bible.
The exile from the land of Israel in the first quarter of the second century AD was even more dramatic and much bigger and more traumatic than the exile at the fall of the First Temple in Jerusalem.
The fall of the Temple in Jerusalem and the destruction of Jerusalem, including the temple, and the taking of the Elite of Israel to Rome, is so well documented even on the walls of the Titus Arch in the Roman Forum. The carving in three-dimensional relief on the inside of Titus’ victory arch shows Roman Soldiers carrying the temple’s furniture and the gold menorah and the silver trumpets and the table of show bread that was in the temple, being carried in the victory parade in Rome after the fall of the temple in Jerusalem in 70th AD. The next major expulsion of the Jews from the land of Israel was in the years 235 – 245 AD. Very big numbers of Jewish slaves were sent to Rome and the Roman provinces.
The major trauma of the fall of Jerusalem was the fall itself, the destruction of the Temple and the exile of the Jews from Judea. It is interesting that in the New Testament, we have the prophetic picture of the fall of Jerusalem in the Gospel of Luke: “Then, as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations, He said, ‘These things which you see—the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down.’” (Luke 21:5–6 NKJV) The prediction of the fall of Jerusalem was given in the year 30 by three Rabbis; Yeshua was one of them, Rabbi Yochanan Ben Zachay, and Rabbi Zadock. However, Yeshua also predicted the salvation of Israel and the rebuilding. After the very sad and horrible description of the fall of Jerusalem, Yeshua also gives the time stamp of when there will be salvation and restoration of Jerusalem: “For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. And they will fall by the edge of the sword and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” (Luke 21:22–24 NKJV). The most important in this text is the last phrase: “Until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled!”
This phrase is a prediction of the end of occupation of Jerusalem by the Gentiles’ foreign forces and the salvation of Israel. Jerusalem has been occupied by non- Jewish forces from the first century BCE, and fully occupied by foreign forces of Gentiles since 70 CE (A.D) until June of 1967. The Six Day War was the first time in nearly 2000 years that Jews were in control of all Jerusalem. There were waves of Aliyah several times between the fall of Jerusalem and the Six Days War in June of 1967.
Here is a short list of the main waves of Aliyah:
10th–11th century
In the 10th century, leaders of the Karaite Jewish community, mostly living under Persian rule, urged their followers to settle in Eretz Yisrael. The Karaites established their own quarter in Jerusalem, on the western slope of the Kidron Valley. During this period, there is abundant evidence of pilgrimages to Jerusalem by Jews from various countries, mainly in the month of Tishrei, around the time of the Sukkot holiday.
12th and 18th Century
Many Jews migrated to Israel because of the waves of the crusaders and the persecution of Jews in Europe by the Crusaders. The Crusaders were Christians who were inflamed by some pious zeal to free the Holy Land. But on the way, they burned synagogues and killed Jews, wholesale, just because they were Jews. This persecution caused many Jews to return to Israel right in the wake of the Crusaders.
The same phenomenon continued between the 13th and 19th Centuries. The major cause during that period was the Catholic Inquisition that again persecuted, killed, burned, and mutilated Jews, young and old. This time, the Jews were forced to convert to Christianity or have their property and their livelihood taken. That was a motivation for Jews to convert to Catholicism outwardly, but try to keep their Jewish identity in secret, hidden in their homes. This caused the Catholic Inquisition to create a special court to judge and condemn these Jews that were called “New Christians” and “Marranos.”
These courts were called “auto-da-fé”. In Portuguese auto da fé means 'act of faith'. It was a public ritual of penance that almost always ended in burning alive, in public, those Jews that tried to keep their faith secretly. This caused some rich Jews to migrate to the land of Israel.
Among the most famous one, was the richest person in Europe, Dona Garcia by her Latin name, and Ester Nasi, by her Hebrew name. She was a young widow that managed to have one of the biggest shipping fleets in the world. Her ships carried goods from Asia to Europe and carried Jews from Europe to Asia to hide and run away from the horrors of “Christian love,” which was forcing the Jews to convert to Christianity and give up their identity, tradition, and observance of the Torah laws.
This Christian persecution of Jews in the most horrifying and cruel ways imaginable by humans caused all those who could to run away from Europe. Because of this, the number of Jews who made their way to the land of Israel rose significantly between the 13th and 19th centuries.
The land of Israel during this time was under Turkish Ottoman rule. Jews were safe and protected by the Muslim law in the Ottoman Empire. In fact, this same Ester Nasi, Dona Garcia, was redeemed from Prison in Venice by the Ottoman Sultan, and she purchased most of lower Galilee, including the Tiberius and the Sea of Galilee (The Kinneret) from the Turkish Sultan, and paid in cash.
The expulsion of Jews from England (1290), France (1391), Austria (1421), and Spain (the Alhambra decree of 1492) was considered by many Jews as a sign of the soon coming of redemption and for this reason many made their way to the land of Israel full of messianic expectations.
Even Jews that didn’t make Aliyah to the land of Israel, especially in France, Italy, Germany, Poland, and Russia, began to believe in the imminent restoration of Israel and in the gathering of the exiles and the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel.
The Aliyah during this period of severe persecution and forced conversion to Catholic Christianity caused a wave of hundreds of Rabbis and their families to make Aliyah to the Land of Israel; but sad to say, many of these Rabbis and their families died in the hands of the Crusaders in the 13th Century.
This didn’t stop the Jews and their leaders to keep making serious efforts to return to Jerusalem and to the land promised by the God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 and from Portugal in 1498 caused Jews from Western Europe including England and France (and even some Russians and Ukrainians that ran from the murderous persecution of Bogdan Khmelnitsky in the 17th Century CE) to find their way to the land of Israel.
In the 19th century, motivated by messianic dreams of the Gaon of Vilna, inspired one of the first truly large pre-Zionist waves of immigration to Eretz Yisrael. In 1808, many hundreds of the Vilna Gaon's disciples, known as The Pharisees (Perushim), settled in Tiberias and Safed. This formed what is called the Old Yeshuv. These Perushim also had a branch of immigration to Jerusalem during the same period.
In Jerusalem, there was also a large movement of Jews from Muslim Countries mainly from Bukhara, Yemen, and Russia.
What is very interesting to me is that there were also many Christians that read the Bible and understood that it was time for the restoration of Israel, and they mobilized significant groups to come to Israel in the early and mid-19th century. Among the first were German Christian groups that settled in what today is Tel-Aviv. Then, it was called Sarona, and in Jerusalem the German Colony, whose buildings still exist in one of Jerusalem’s fine neighborhoods. Also, the American colony in Jerusalem was settled by two Swedish families that came to Jerusalem from Chicago: the Spaffords and another family, but I don’t remember their names right now.
In Jaffa, during the same period, Christians from Boston organized and built the American Colony with the same spirit of restoration of Israel and preparation for the Jews to return home and rebuild the country and prepare for the return of Jesus the Messiah to Zion.
The German Christians and the American Christians, both in Jerusalem and in Jaffa, were not the only groups that mobilized with Messianic fervor to come and prepare the land for the Jews. There were large groups of Ukrainian Sabbath Keeping Christians (Subotnicks) who came and purchased land from the Arabs in the Galilee and in the Jezreel Valley and farmed it. David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister to the State of Israel from 1948 and well into the 1960’s, came from Odessa in Ukraine while still a student in the University, and the first place he found work was at a community of Ukrainian Christian farmers in the Galilee.
There was also a British mystic, Laurence Oliphant, who wanted to rent Northern Palestine to settle the Jews there (1879).
The major and most formative waves of Aliyah were in the 20th Century, beginning right after the First World War. Jews, especially from Eastern Europe, started to get organized and came in every possible way to a land that was desolate and occupied mainly by Arab share-croppers.
I find it interesting that when Jews left their homes in the first century CE (AD) during the Roman atrocities, murders, rape of the women, destruction, and burning of the cities of Israel including Jerusalem, the Jews that escaped took with them the keys to their homes. You can see such keys found in the Judean Desert in the straw bag of a women named Babta who was hiding from the Roman soldiers in caves in the Judean Desert. Even though the Jews knew well that Jerusalem had fallen and that the Romans were shipping thousands of Jews to Rome and Greece to be slaves in a foreign land, they took the keys to their homes with the hope that they would return.
This hope has never stopped, and for this very reason the national anthem of Israel is called “HaTikvah” - “The Hope!” Here is the first stanza of our Israel’s National Anthem:
“As long as deep in the heart,
The soul of a Jew yearns,
And forward to the East
To Zion, an eye looks
Our hope will not be lost,
The hope of two thousand years,
To be a free nation in our land,
The land of Zion and Jerusalem.”
This article is getting a bit too long. There are the stories of the First Aliyah and Second Aliyah waves between 1881 and 1914, when more than 30,000 Jew came from Russia, and they were joined by Jews from Austria, Hungary, and Austria. This major Aliyah increased the number of Jews in the land to nearly 300,000. The kibbutz movement started during that period, and Kibbutzim, like Degania, near the Sea of Galilee, started from these groups of Russian Pioneers that came to the land.
There were waves of Aliyah from Poland, Latvia, Morocco, and Yemen, and I have no other explanation for the restoration of the Jews back to the land of Israel, other than the Almighty hand of God moving and shaping history using people, leaders—religious and secular.
Ottoman Turkish Land of Israel (Palestine 1881–1914)
The persecution of Russian Jews between 1881 and 1910 led to a large wave of immigration. Since only a small portion of East European Jews were in the process of adopting Zionism by then, between 1881 and 1914, only 30 to 40 thousand immigrants went to Ottoman Palestine, while over one and a half million Russian Jews and 300,000 from Austria-Hungary migrated to North America.
First Aliyah mainly from Romania and Russia (1882–1903)
Second Aliyah (1904–1914)
Around 35 to 40 thousand Jews immigrated to Israel in these years from the Russian Empire, and also from Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria. The main motivation for this second Aliyah Movement was the pogroms and growing anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe. There were also Jews from the Caucasus, Yemen, Iran, and as far away as Argentina. Some Jews settled also in Jaffa that was predominantly Arab, and also the Yeminite Jews who immigrated settled on the south slopes of the Mount of Olives in the ancient village of Shiloach (Siloan).
The roots of Tel-Aviv were planted by Jews who came in this Second Aliyah, and at first it was considered a Jewish suburb of Jaffa. The Movement was called Ahuzat Bayit (Homestead).
David Ben-Gurion, our first Prime Minister of Israel, had the opinion that only 10% of the people who came on this Aliyah stayed in the land. Most of the immigrants who came on this Second Aliyah found it too hard to survive in this land.
After the First World War, the British and the French divided the Middle East between themselves. The British military occupation, which they called “Palestine,” was between 1919-1948. The British were not neutral in this land, and they limited the possibilities to bring Jews to the Land of Israel, but they did allow Jews who were in Israel before the war to return to Israel.
The Third Aliyah (1919–1923) was mainly supposed to be of returning Jews, but the truth was that most of those who “returned” were never here before, but they were trained by those who were here, to pass the British tests that were given to those who came in this Third Aliyah. One of the institutions that was created by the Third Aliyah and for the new immigrants was called The Hachshara. It prepared and equipped the young immigrants together with some of those who had come earlier to re-settle the Land and work it and build farm communities and towns in preparation for the future waves of immigration. One of the important people in this movement was Abba Hushi – who later became the mythological mayor of the city of Haifa.
I would like to mention one particular ship that came from Odessa in Ukraine with 67 Jews from Romania and Bulgaria but mainly from Ukraine. This was already during the British Mandate and new immigrants were not allowed, only those who were in “Palestine” before World War I and left because of the war were permitted by the British to return. In this ship, called Ruslan, there were 67 young and old Jews. Only 17 of them were refugees of the war. The rest were young intellectuals and working people that wanted to come to the Land of Israel and rebuilt the old-new Jewish Homeland.
The passengers of this small ship called Ruslan, were some of the most influential Jews who made Aliyah during this so called “Third Aliyah Movement.” Here is a short list of those who were on this ship:
- Baruch Agadati, dancer and choreographer; immigrated 1919 on board the Ruslan
- Rachel Bluwstein, known as "Rachel the Poetess"; returned 1919 on board the Ruslan. Some of Israel’s most important songs were written by this Rachel.
- Menachem Ussishkin, Zionist leader; immigrated 1919 on board the Ruslan
- Joseph Constant, sculptor, painter, and novelist immigrated in 1919 on board the Ruslan with his wife
- Henya Pekelman, Zionist pioneer, woman manual laborer, women's equality activist partisan and rape victim; the autobiography she wrote provides a rare documentation of daily life in Eretz-Yisra'el of those times
- Joseph Klausner – One of the most important Jewish scholars of the New Testament. Klausner wrote the book “Jesus of Nazareth.” This book gave a totally new path to the study of the historical Jesus.
The complete list would be long, but almost all of those who came made major contributions to the building and strengthening of the Land of Israel and the people of Israel.
Why am I mentioning this particular ship? The reason is simple. There is nothing too small or too hard or too big or difficult for people who have faith and a mission from God. Like in the movie the “Blues Brothers,” they were on a mission from God to help the orphanage that they were raised in to survive financially. They did the only thing that they knew how to do, and that was playing blues and jazz with old friends from their band.
Today, Israel is still receiving and inviting and promoting Aliyah! There is a myth going on that Israel doesn’t receive Messianic Jews for Aliyah. There is a formidably long list of leaders of the Messianic Movement who are already holding Israeli passports and there is also a long list of leaders of the Messianic Movement who are already living in Israel and continuing to minister and use their God given talents in the land of Israel; from the Northern most boarder with Syria and Lebanon to the port of Eilat at the Red Sea, which is the southernmost point on the map of Israel.
Aliyah is a biblical mandate, it is a prophetic promise by God from the Torah, from the Prophets and from the Psalms and wisdom literature in the Bible. Jews from around the world, religious and non-religious, Messianic and Orthodox Jews, ought to re-read their Bibles and see texts like Isaiah 51, 60, 61, 62, 66, Ezekiel 39:21-27, and numerous Psalms and promises of the Lord, including the last two chapters of Leviticus.
The Jews whose families were converted to Catholicism during the nearly 300 years of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition want to make Aliyah, and I believe that if welcomed, millions would pack their suitcases and board the first plane to come home to the land of Israel, the promised land by God, to all the physical and spiritual descendants of Abraham, in the flesh and by faith.
The future of Israel and the future of Christianity are woven together in the program and the mandate and mission given by God for our times and the future of both Israel and the Church.
Our non-Jewish brothers and sisters who have been born again and are no longer pagans and strangers to the covenants, promises, fruit of the Spirit, and the blessings of Salvation promised by God to Abraham and to Isaac and Jacob, and repeated by the Apostles in their letters and in the book of Acts, must at least carry out the commission of the prophets as they are stated in the following texts:
I am limiting this list only to Isaiah because it would be way to long if I bring similar passages and prophetic promises to Israel from the Torah to the Book of Revelation.
The promises of God to His faithful prophets are beginning to be fulfilled now! This is the future dear brothers and sisters. The Lord is faithful to keep His promises, and we, Israel, and the disciples of Yeshua in this land, are witnessing it being rebuilt right in front of our eyes.
If you have visited Israel five years ago, you might now have a difficult time recognizing Israel, the cities, the roads, the farm communities and even some of the Archaeological sites.
“Indeed, He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’” (Isaiah 49:6 NKJV)
“So, the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness; sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” (Isaiah 51:11 NKJV)
“You shall drink the milk of the Gentiles and milk the breast of kings; you shall know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.” (Isaiah 60:16 NKJV)
“Their descendants shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people. All who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the posterity whom the LORD has blessed.” (Isaiah 61:9 NKJV)
“The Gentiles shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory. You shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD will name.” (Isaiah 62:2 NKJV)
“For thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream. Then you shall feed; on her sides shall you be carried, and be dandled on her knees.’” (Isaiah 66:12)
“I will set a sign among them; and those among them who escape I will send to the nations: to Tarshish and Pul and Lud, who draw the bow, and Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands afar off who have not heard My fame nor seen My glory. And they shall declare My glory among the Gentiles.” (Isaiah 66:19)
I didn’t write about the late waves of the Ethiopian Aliyah, and the Russian Aliyah of the 1990’s and the Aliyah from China. And I didn’t write about the great need of opening up the gates of Israel for the Indian Jews who call themselves Beni Menashe, or the many thousands of Jews in Brazil who are the decedents of the victims of the Inquisition.
Here below are some interesting articles to research these topics further. The articles are hyperlinks. [2]
Main article: Aliyah from Ethiopia
See also: Ethiopian Jews in Israel
The first major wave of aliyah from Ethiopia took place in the mid-1970s. The massive airlift known as Operation Moses began to bring Ethiopian Jews to Israel in November
The Aliyah from the Soviet Union and post-Soviet states
Main articles: 1970s Soviet Union aliyah, 1990s post-Soviet aliyah, and Russian Jews in Israel and Georgian Jews in Israel.
________________________________________
[1] Acts 5:34 “Then one in the council stood up, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in respect by all the people and commanded them to put the apostles outside for a little while.”
Acts 22:3 “I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of our fathers’ law, and was zealous toward God as you all are today…”
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliyah_from_Ethiopia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Jews_in_Israel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Moses
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Jews
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970s_Soviet_Union_aliyah
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990s_post-Soviet_aliyah
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Jews_in_Israel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgian_Jews_in_Israel
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joseph Shulam was born in Sofia, Bulgaria on March 24, 1946 to a Sephardic Jewish Family. In 1948, his family immigrated to Israel just before the establishment of the State. While in high school, he was introduced to the New Testament and immediately identified with the person of Yeshua. In 1981, Joseph and the small fellowship that was started in his house established one of the first official non-profit organizations of Jewish Disciples of Yeshua in Israel – Netivyah Bible Instruction Ministry. Joseph has lectured extensively and has assisted in encouraging disciples around the world. He and his wife Marcia have two children and two grandchildren.