to view the full update

Good News
SPRING 2016
SPECIAL EDUCATION CENTRE
ODESSA (NOW OPEN)
THANK YOU FROM
ANATEVKA
SHOWING OUR LOVE
TO TAMARA
GOOD NEWS
...Helping Jewish people home to Israel.
this is what the Sovereign Lord says:
” See, I will beckon to the Gentiles, I will lift up my banner to the
peoples; they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your
daughters on their shoulders.”
contents
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SPECIAL EDUCATION
CENTRE – ODESSA
ANNA: OUR
‘SHAYNA PUNIM’
TATIANA AND
ARTUR’S TRAGIC
STORY
STANDING WITH
OLGA
SHOWING OUR LOVE
TO TAMARA
14
THANK YOU FROM
ANATEVKA
16
A TACTILE FAITH
18
ABOUT THE
FIXING OF
EASTER...
22
TARGETED
PRAYER NEEDS
Shalom
I hope that this update
finds you and your
families healthy and
well. I thought that
I would share with
you some insight
of how we come to
make the many decisions that we face daily
at 49:22TRUST. As the leader of a Christian
organisation, it is often difficult to make
some of the tougher decisions that I must
undertake in order to ensure the health of
the organisation. No director is exempt from
making major decisions but it is imperative
that one be surrounded by Godly mentors
and others that can be turned to for trusted
advice. That is why I turn to our wonderful,
committed and faith centred board of directors
who assist me and oversee the running of the
organisation. All decisions which are made
on behalf of 49:22TRUST are grounded in
Scripture and are well thought out and prayed
about before they are implemented.
With your prayers, financial assistance and
partnership over the past seven years, we
have together grown 49:22TRUST into an
organisation that is not only well respected in
Israel, but has also forged trusted relationships
within the Jewish communities of the Former
Soviet Union. For example, we are now
developing a project with Rabbi Azman,
who is one of Ukraine’s chief Rabbis. We
are working together on creating a cutting
edge Jewish orphans’ facility that will provide
family-style housing along with our lifechanging rehabilitative services to orphaned
children from the war-torn regions of Eastern
Ukraine. In Odessa, Ukraine, working with the
Jewish community, we have just opened the
first westernised special education centre for
Jewish orphans and underprivileged children.
These are just two examples of how careful
decision making and good stewardship
can lead to successful and productive
programmes that work to fulfil our mission.
I am always putting much thought and prayer
into all of the many wonderful opportunities
that present themselves as well as the difficult
obstacles that we face in our work. I have
found in my own personal journey that God
is and has always been there for me. What
I once considered coincidences in my life
have always revealed themselves to be God’s
will. Whether it was the path that brought
me to adopting my three daughters from an
orphanage in Siberia or the path that brought
me to 49:22TRUST, they were all connected
to the ‘big picture’ of what God has planned
for me. I have also learned that I must be
quiet and listen to God and His direction. It
is because of my faith and trust in Him that I
have had the courage to make some extremely
difficult decisions and followed what I felt in
my heart and soul were the right choices and
directions for 49:22TRUST.
Today, 49:22TRUST is ready take on what I
think will be some of the biggest challenges in
our history as we face a world that is extremely
hostile towards the Jewish people. We are
working in countries where the infrastructures
are literally falling apart, leaving Jewish people
to live in life-threatening conditions. We are
being inundated with requests coming from
around the world to expand our programmes
to help thousands of Jewish children and
adults who are battered, abused, and alone.
We must move quickly, making the right
decisions so that we can fulfil our mission in
new and innovative ways.
At 49:22TRUST, our commitment to our calling
and our faith in God is unwavering. Our path
is clear and it is in front of us now. There may
be no tomorrow for the Jewish people that
we are working with, as most are living in
dangerous or life-threatening conditions. There
is no choice about responding to and assisting
the orphan, the widow, the elderly, the sick
and the poor; it is only a matter of how we will
accomplish it.
I am humbled, grateful and blessed that you
are our partners in this calling that has been
bestowed upon us. Together in faith let us
work in partnership to stand with Israel and the
Jewish people so that we can answer God’s
calling to bring His children home.
May God bless you.
Don Horwitz - Executive Director, 49:22TRUST.
SPECIAL EDUCATION
CENTRE – ODESSA
(NOW OPEN)
By Don Horwitz - 49:22TRUST
O
ne of the greatest challenges
that we face at 49:22TRUST is
protecting and preserving the
Jewish heritage in the fragile
Jewish communities of the Former Soviet
Union. It can be a real challenge as many
people are just barely hanging on to life
and are unable to focus on their Jewish
roots. There is certainly no sensitivity on
the government’s part when it comes
to the issues that Jewish orphans face.
The amount of abuse and neglect that
these children have endured in their
young lives almost guarantees that they
will suffer from a variety of behavioural
problems while attending school. These
children are almost always misdiagnosed
by teachers and school administrators
as having severe mental disabilities
and are then branded for life with a
P E RS O N A L S TORI ES
..................... 4
fictitious disorder. Consequently,
they are removed from the school
and are usually placed in a staterun institution along with children
who are severely mentally impaired
or disabled. The result of this
confinement is devastating as the
child begins to develop layer upon
layer of psychological issues which
will ultimately become debilitating. A
child’s life ends up being destroyed
only because the school system
does not understand the effects that
abuse and neglect can have on a
child’s behaviour. With the correct
psychological care, these usually
bright and talented children can go
on to lead very productive lives.
Our Bnei Israel Orphans’
Rehabilitation programme is
seeing an increase in Jewish
orphans who are in danger of being
institutionalised. These children are
disrupting the classroom and the
teachers want them out. To prevent
losing them to state-run institutions
GOOD NEWS
where their Jewish heritage will be
stripped away, 49:22TRUST has
developed the first westernised special
education programme with advanced
psychological care in the Former Soviet
Union. Our “special ed” centre opened
on 1st February 2016 in Odessa,
Ukraine. What a blessing! The centre is
staffed by special education teachers,
psychologists, speech pathologists
and a therapeutic support staff. All
have been trained by our expert team
of neuroscientists and psychologists
who specialise in the disorders that
Eastern European orphans suffer from.
With a ratio of one teacher for every
three students, we are able to offer
children the best education while at
the same time providing them with the
rehabilitative care that will eventually
allow them to rejoin a mainstream
classroom setting.
This is a very exciting development
within 49:22TRUST. I can’t even begin
to describe what these abused and
neglected children have endured in
their young lives. These children feel
alone and afraid but thanks to your
partnership, prayers and assistance we
have been able to continually build our
children’s rehabilitation programmes.
Together we are wrapping our loving
arms around those who have no one
in their lives to turn to for help. We
are rehabilitating them, educating
them and eventually moving many of
them to Israel where they will have
the opportunity to have a fruitful
and productive life. Together, we
are stopping the destructive cycle
of warehousing children in state run
institutions where they will become
tomorrow’s homeless, drug addicts,
and criminals. Together, we are taking
care of over 1,500 Jewish orphans
and underprivileged Jewish children
and providing them with the love,
care and advanced therapeutic
services that will allow them to
blossom out of the darkness that
they were unfortunately born into.
With all of my heart, I want to thank
you for standing with us. We now
desperately need to expand our
Bnei Israel programmes as there
are thousands of children who are
suffering. Please continue to support
us and please also spread the
message that if we work together, we
can be the ones who save the lives
of these lost children of Israel. May
God bless you as we work tirelessly
to stand with and bless the Jewish
people.
P E RSO N A L ST O RIE S
..................... 5
ANNA: OUR ‘SHAYNA PUNIM’
By Don Horwitz - 49:22TRUST
A
s you read through this update,
I am sure you will notice that we
have shared some very difficult
and intimate stories of Jewish
individuals who are in our programmes.
Most are in the first stages of their journey
to healing and recovery, and are at the
beginning of their Aliyah process. When our
team at 49:22TRUST provides rehabilitative
services, love, prayer, and emotional support,
a beautiful journey begins to take place. A
Jewish individual begins to rise up after living
in fear, poverty and repression. I liken it to the
blooming of a perennial flower in the warmth
of spring after it has died back during the cold
harshness of autumn and winter.
P E RS O N A L S TORI ES
..................... 6
Please say ‘hello’ to Anna Gankin, whom
I first met when I last visited our Saint
Petersburg Na’aleh Prep class. As we
were introduced, an expression which
my father always used with great warmth
popped into my head.
“What a Shayna Punim,” I thought!
‘Shayna Punim’ means ‘pretty face’ in
Yiddish. It is a very endearing term that
was often used in my family. Now, I am
using the term to describe a young lady
of whom I am very proud.
When Anna, our ‘Shayna Punim’, first
GOOD NEWS
entered our Na’aleh Prep programme, she
had no hope for her future. She came to
us from a poor single-parent family who
were struggling to navigate the harsh living
conditions in Russia. Anna studied hard
and became one of the best students in
our Saint Petersburg class. She displayed
a lot of confidence after working with our
psychologists and is now well prepared to
start her schooling and new life in Israel.
Her mother is so proud of her and never
imagined that her daughter would be given
an opportunity like this. Anna’s mother will
also eventually make Aliyah so that she can join
her daughter in Israel. Together we have given
them the chance to live the life that they were
only able to dream about in Russia.
This is what 49:22TRUST is all about. Our
entire staff is dedicated to wrapping the love
of God around each Jewish individual that
we touch and not letting them go until
they rise up and have the ability to move
forward in their lives. Whether it be a lifesaving emergency operation or, in Anna’s
case, providing psychological rehabilitation
along with a world class education, our
programmes are lifting people out of the
Diaspora and then bringing them home to
Israel where they can connect to their land
and their God.
We need your support for the Na’aleh
Prep programme more than ever as we
have hundreds of underprivileged Jewish
children just like Anna who are waiting to
get in. Together, we can expand our classes
and bless the lost children of Israel as we
answer God’s calling to carry His sons in our
arms and His daughters on our shoulders.
P E RSO N A L ST O RIE S
.....................7
TATIANA AND ARTUR’S TRAGIC STORY
By Don Horwitz - 49:22TRUST
A
s we approach Holocaust
Remembrance Day on 4th May,
I would like to urge all of you to
reflect on the atrocities that have
taken place against the Jewish people. From
ancient times to the present, antisemitism
has continually reared its ugly head as Jews
around the world are violently targeted and
killed. It is imperative that we stand together
as Christians and say “No More!” to this
hatred.
I would like you to meet Tatiana and her son
Artur who live in a small village just outside
Kiev, Ukraine. They are really struggling to
survive right now. This mother and son are
the victims of antisemitic treatment, but it
was not a violent form of it that has shattered
their lives. A much more subtle version has
led to them living in poverty and grief. I am
going to let Tatiana herself tell you how their
lives were turned upside down.
Tatiana: “Not only is this difficult for me to
P E RS O N A L S TORI ES
..................... 8
speak about, but it is very painful for me
to relive my story. I am doing this in the
hope that it will bring an awareness to
the disgusting hatred of our people. I will
begin…
My beautiful and beloved husband, Igor,
worked for a food production company
for 14 years here in our city. Every day
he went into work early in the morning
and did not return until late in the
evening. He worked in the factory where
they packaged frozen food that would
later be sold in supermarkets. It was
extremely hard work but he loved it and
was proud that he was able to provide a
decent life for his family.
Igor worked in the same position since
the first day that he started in the
company. He was continually passed
over for promotions while others who
had worked there for a much shorter
time were given the better jobs. He told
GOOD NEWS
me on numerous occasions of the snide
remarks and jokes from his bosses about
him being Jewish. They also tormented
him and threatened to take his job away.
He would not give in to them and always
had a smile on his face along with a
positive attitude. After his first few years
of employment, he stopped complaining
about it but it must have been eating him
alive inside. I admired his positive attitude
and strength, but it sickened me to know
that my husband was giving this company
his best years and in return they were
treating him like rubbish.
It was three years ago when I began
to notice that Igor became tired very
quickly. His colour did not look right and
his breathing seemed to be laboured. I
begged him to see a doctor, but he told
me that he worried that if he missed a day
of work there would be consequences.
I became extremely nervous. What was
going on at work that I did not know
about? Was he so afraid that he would
sacrifice his health because of it?
One afternoon there was a knock on the
door. I opened it and standing there was
the wife of one of his co-workers. She
told me to come with her at once to the
hospital. Igor collapsed at work and the
medics had come and taken him away.
When I arrived at the hospital I was met
by a doctor who told me that my husband
had had a heart attack. He then told me
that Igor was resting and should recover,
but they needed to run more tests to be
sure. I was relieved, but also concerned.
He was so young to be ill like this.
The test results came back and the doctor
told us that Igor was also suffering from
diabetes. He ordered bed rest for him
along with continued monitoring. He told
us that Igor would eventually be able to
return to work but that he needed to take
time to recover first. When Igor informed
his boss about the doctor’s orders, they
delivered this message: “We cannot
have sick people like you working in our
company.” They fired him! It was obvious
that he was fired because he is Jewish!
They always made concessions for
others who were ill, but not for Igor! My
husband gave his life to this company
for 14 years and they degraded him,
intimidated him, and eventually almost
succeeded in working him to death.
Igor became depressed and
despondent. His self-esteem vanished
as he felt useless. His stress level was
awful as he took responsibility for our
declining living conditions. Because
of his high level of anxiety, he suffered
another heart attack a few months later
and then a third one which recently
claimed his life. I miss my husband
so much and I know that my son is
devastated. The beloved man in our lives
is gone, ripped away from us as a result
of pure hatred. I don’t know how we are
going to move forward from this.”
When antisemitism rears its ugly head
it always leaves a trail of grief and
destruction. Jews in the Former Soviet
Union are repeatedly abused and
treated like second class citizens. It is
hard to believe that in this day and age,
antisemitism is on the rise again, as
Jews are being hunted down and killed
around the world. We must stand with
Tatiana and her son and let them know
that they are not alone. We must offer
them our love and prayers and provide
them with food, clothing and shelter
so that they can start to put the pieces
of their lives back together. With your
financial assistance we can raise them
out of this darkness and then bring them
home to Israel where they will receive the
dignity and respect that they so deserve
in their lives. Together, we must stand
strong as brothers and sisters and tell
the world… “No More!” to antisemitism!
P E RSO N A L ST O RIE S
.....................9
STANDING WITH OLGA
By Don Horwitz - 49:22TRUST
“This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I
will take the Israelites out of the nations
where they have gone. I will gather them
from all around and bring them back into
their own land.” (Ezekiel 37:21)
A
s the morning light shines
through the holes in the ripped
curtains, Olga gently cracks
open one of her eyes. The only
escape that she has from her daily dose
of fear, pain and suffering has once again
ended, as she struggles to wake up and face
the reality of her life. Mornings for Olga are
the most frightening as the first thing she
must do is to check on her father, whom she
fears may not have survived the night. Boris
is only 65, but doctors have just told him that
he is in imminent danger of suffering from
heart failure if he does not have an artificial
P ER S O N A L S TORI ES
..................... 1 0
valve implanted to regulate the blood
flow out of his heart to the rest of his
body. The cost of the operation that can
save his life is $3,000. The amount of
money that the family has to pay for the
operation is $0. Tatiana, our co-ordinator
in Bila Tserkva, Ukraine, brought this
case to us as we were putting together
the stories for our spring update. Due
to Boris’s life threatening condition, I
thought that it was imperative that we
include his call for help in this edition of
‘Good News’.
“I live with my parents in a very small
two room flat”, says Olga, who is 45.
“I am completely overwhelmed right
now. I have to take care of my father
with his heart condition, my mother
who is suffering from dementia and my
daughter’s baby whom she is unable to
care for. My husband is a builder and
GOOD NEWS
I have not seen him for months because
there is no work in our region. He is now
working in the east where the war has
destroyed many buildings. I am petrified
that he will be hurt or even killed working
in the war zone. What choice do we have
now? It is the only way that we can put
food on our table. I hope and pray every
day that we can somehow get out of this
misery and get to a better place in our
lives.”
At 49:22TRUST we are inundated with
cases like this every month. Wonderful,
hardworking Jewish people are being
forced to live a life full of pain and suffering.
Poor people who are in desperate need
of medical care are being forced to count
their days because there is no money
and there are no social services to cover
the life-saving operations that they need.
Fathers are having to risk their lives just so
that they can work to feed their families. As
God calls out to the nations in accordance
with Isaiah 49:22, He is asking us to assist
in bringing His people home. Unfortunately,
just giving them a food basket every week
or placing them on an aeroplane to Israel
is not enough. We must take God’s calling
with all the love that is behind it and wrap
that love around families like this. We must
lift this family up to the true meaning of
Aliyah by supporting Olga so that she has
the strength to go on taking care of her
family. We must get Boris his life-saving
medical care before it’s too late. And we
have to get Olga’s husband out of the
war zone and bring him back home to his
family.
We are moving into action now! Tatiana
our co-ordinator is making an appointment
with a heart specialist in Kiev and will take
Boris to his appointment for a pre-surgical
evaluation. We will pay for his surgery,
recovery and whatever medications are
needed. We will stand with Olga and
provide her with the support that she
needs so that she will remain strong.
We will begin the process of getting this
family to Israel so that Olga’s husband
will not have to risk his life just to earn a
living for his family and Boris can receive
some of the best medical care in the
world.
By providing these services, we are not
only saving lives in a practical manner,
but we are stabilising these people and
making them whole, thus allowing them
the opportunity to accept God into their
lives. How can we expect a person
who has been stripped of their religion
because of years of Soviet domination,
treated in a subhuman manner during
years of antisemitic abuse and then
forced to live a life of poverty, to have the
ability to understand the love of God? We
must act now as the hands and feet of
God as, together, we answer His calling
to bring His people home.
There is no time to wait. Please join with
us as we reach out to the thousands of
Jewish people who are suffering in the
Former Soviet Union. Partner with us as
we raise the Jewish people out of the
Diaspora and bring them home to Israel
where they can help build up the land
while they connect to their God.
P E RSO N A L ST O RIE S
.....................11
SHOWING OUR LOVE TO TAMARA
By Don Horwitz - 49:22TRUST
“This is my commandment, that you
love one another as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this,
that someone lay down his life for his
friends.” (John 15:12-13)
I
would like to share with you
an inspirational story of pure
selflessness. Tamara Petrovna is a 79
year old Jewish pensioner living just
outside Kiev, Ukraine. For over 50 years
she worked as a paediatrician in the main
children’s hospital in Kiev. Throughout
her career she has personally saved
the lives of countless children with her
extraordinary medical skills. Her reward
for her life’s commitment to society is a
P ER S O N A L S TORI ES
..................... 1 2
pension of 60 Euros a month to live
on, which does not even pay for the
food that is necessary to sustain her.
Tamara came to the Jewish school
in Bila Tserkva after her retirement
some years ago and offered to
volunteer by providing medical
services for the children there. Of
course, this offer was immediately
accepted with open arms as she
was a well known physician with
highly esteemed credentials. Being
that the children in the school come
from extremely poor families, with
many having suffered neglect, the
opportunity to have a physician
based in the school was a real
blessing for them.
GOOD NEWS
After Tamara began providing
medical care for the children, it was
immediately apparent how much
better they began to do. She worked
with the staff on nutritional issues
and administered routine care for the
children. She treated illnesses that
would normally have gone untreated
and formed a trusting relationship with
the students. She became a loved and
respected figure in the school and was
often referred to as ‘grandmother’.
Just last month Tatiana, our coordinator in the region, walked by
Tamara’s office and heard a weeping
sound. She knocked on the door and
gently opened it. There was Tamara
with her head buried in her arms sitting
at her desk. Tatiana walked in, put her
arms around her and asked what was
wrong. Tamara confessed that she
had been feeling ill and very weak.
She went on to explain that her legs
were swelling and that she had been
short of breath. Tamara told Tatiana
that she just returned from seeing her
doctor who told her that she needed
to stop working and stay at home. He
informed her that she has grade three
hypertension along with the beginning
stages of heart failure.
“What am I going to do…” said
Tamara. “I love being here with the
children and taking care of them.
It gives me a purpose to live. I am
embarrassed to tell you this but I
don’t have enough money to buy
food. When I am here, I eat with the
children in the cafeteria. At home I will
go hungry…” Tatiana told Tamara
not to worry, that she would speak
to the team at 49:22TRUST about
their emergency humanitarian aid
programme. She reassured her that
she would not go hungry.
Tamara, who dedicated her entire
life to taking care of others, has now
been abandoned by the country
that she gave so much to. This
amazing woman has taken care of
our children for years, never asking
for a penny or even any thanks. Her
actions have been driven by the
true spirit of Godly giving. She has
showered our children with love
when their own parents neglected
them and provided medical services
to them when their own government
turned their back.
Let’s stand together and show
Tamara our love and support by
giving her the assurance of knowing
that she will have three meals a
day. Let’s give her the medical care
she so desperately needs to live
out her final years in comfort. Let’s
show her who we are as Christians
by letting her know that she is not
alone. There is no way that we will
let this beautiful soul go hungry.
We need your support more than
ever because there are thousands
of people, just like Tamara, who are
cold, suffering and alone. With your
assistance we can stand with Jewish
people like her in their greatest time
of need.
P E RSO N A L ST O RIE S
.....................13
Thank You From Anatevka
Rabbi Azman
Rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman is the Rabbi of
the Brodski Synagogue in Kiev, Ukraine. He is
also the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine, the Chief Rabbi
of the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress and the
Chief Rabbi of the United Jewish Community
of Ukraine. Born in Leningrad, USSR, Azman
hails from a family of both Chabad and nonHasidic rabbis.
I
would like to introduce myself. My
name is Rabbi Azman. I would like
to start off by thanking you with all
of my heart for standing with and
supporting our Jewish community in the
Kiev region of Ukraine. Your assistance has
been instrumental in saving the lives of so
many children and adults in our region.
The last two years have been a very trying
time for Ukraine as thousands have lost
their lives. Because of the hostilities in the
east of the country, more than one million
people have been forced to leave their
homes and flee their towns as they have
come under attack. With war raging around
them, these people left behind not only
their homes, but also their work, money,
documents, and most of their personal
articles. Most have also left behind a piece
of their heart as they lost family and friends
who were killed in the horrific fighting.
Because of the war, Jewish refugees are
coming to our community in Kiev begging
for help. We do not have the resources
to help them, but how can we turn them
away? How can we deny assistance to
the grandfather who watched his daughter
TH A N K Y OU FROM A NATEV KA
..................... 14
as she was shot and killed by soldiers?
Now he stands before us holding his
motherless grandson in his frail arms,
begging for help. How can we deny
assistance to the hungry family who lost
everything they had when their home was
destroyed by the bombing and are now
crying before us as they beg for food?
Even if it means giving up our own food
we will not turn them away. These are our
people, our Jewish brothers and sisters.
We must embrace them and care for
them. There is no other option.
Today in Kiev, we are not only overloaded
with refugees from the east, but also with
the growing number of poor in our own
Jewish community who are in desperate
need of medical care, food, clothing,
and of course a safe place to live. To
deal with this emergency crisis we have
created a very exciting project called
Anatevka, which 49:22TRUST has helped
to support. We are building a village of
flats and services to house the hundreds
of Jewish refugees who are now destitute
and beaten down.
We decided to name our village
‘Anatevka’ because it is next to an
old Jewish shtetl called Gnativkais
(Anatevka), which the famous Broadway
play “Fiddler On the Roof” was based
on. It is such a blessing to build our
community on this historic site where we
can now have such a positive influence in
our people’s lives.
Today our first apartment building is built
and completely populated. We have also
finished building our school which our
children attend. 49:22TRUST’s support
GOOD NEWS
has allowed us to continue operating
when our current funding recently ran out.
Thank you, thank you, for this generous
support! The problem now is that we
have hundreds of refugee families waiting
to build their new lives in Anatevka, but
do not have the funding to expand the
project. Also, we have many orphaned
children from the east who have tragically
lost their families in the fighting. They are
in desperate need of a safe and loving
home to live in as well as therapeutic
services to help them deal with the trauma
that they have endured. We are praying
for a miracle to bring us the much needed
funds so that we can save our people who
have been so horrifically abused in the war.
Last month I had a meeting with Don
Horwitz, the director of 49:22TRUST. As
we discussed the developing situation at
Anatevka, I could see a spark of energy
that came to his eyes as he came up with
the idea of together creating a children’s
centre where orphans would live in
family style apartments while receiving
the advanced therapeutic care which
49:22TRUST provides to the children in
their Orphans’ Rehabilitation programme.
By the end of the meeting we were
both so excited about the possibility of
bringing this life-saving idea to fruition by
building a therapeutic home that would
save the lives of these beautiful young
souls.
I am looking forward to further
developing this partnership with
49:22TRUST and our Jewish community.
I pray that you all open your hearts to this
idea so that we can together save these
orphaned children who have been so
brutally ripped away from their families.
I would also like to again thank all of you
for your support in helping us to save
the Jewish refugees who are now safely
living in Anatevka! My G-d bless you for
your support of the Jewish people.
THANK YOU F RO M A N A T E V KA
..................... 15
Adam’s Notebook
blessings. I stumbled across an amusing
tongue-in-cheek summary of the basic
theme of all of the Jewish Feasts recently:
“Someone in the past tried to kill us. Thank
God they did not succeed. Therefore, let’s
eat!”
49:22trust
@4922trust
A Tactile Faith
Exploring life, church, faith and
Israel as a follower of Jesus.
A
friend and church leader shared
with me that he thought the
most attractive thing about
Jewish faith-practice was the
emphasis it places upon the family and how
people gather together on Shabbat and for
the Feasts. It was a thought which switched
on a lightbulb for me. It goes without saying
that this picture represents more of an ideal
than the reality for every Jewish family. At
the same time, though, it highlighted for me
one of the things which is arguably more
strongly emphasised and valued within
Jewish tradition than in Christian tradition: the
importance of practical expression of faith.
It manifests in a variety of areas. It is seen
in the way each Torah scroll is treated with
special reverence due to its containing the
Word and the Name of God. It is seen in
the central position afforded to a particular
Promised Land, a Holy City and a House
of God (the Temple in Jerusalem, of which
today only the Western Wall stands). It is
seen in the home in the weekly Shabbat
meal with the candles, the challah and the
A T A C T I L E F AI TH
..................... 16
Food has a special role to play from the
unleavened bread eaten at Passover to the
dairy focus at Shavuot (the tradition being
that the people didn’t know which animals
would be permissible to eat until the Torah
had been given, so they ate dairy instead).
Then of course there are the dietary food
laws which stricter communities observe. It
is these which give Jewish faith-practice a
decidedly tactile quality.
Christians and Church denominations have
plenty of practical expressions too which
we call worship. This includes things such
as baptism, the sharing of the bread and
wine in Holy Communion (itself tied closely
to Passover) and congregational sung
worship. There are, however, certainly fewer
of them and it is perhaps fair to say that the
expression of our faith can slide towards
being more internal, individual, private and
abstract if we allow it to.
All this is not to suggest that Jews have it
better and Christians have it worse, or vice
versa. What various church groups have
already discovered is that they are stronger
when they share and learn from their various
successes and failures, and pray for one
another, and there is an opportunity to
do something broadly similar with Jewish
communities too.
The tactile facets of Jewish faith-practice
and tradition are gifts from God which
have given Israel great strength, depth and
endurance as well as a strong sense of
family and community. But an important
strength in one area has a flip side in
another. There is one vulnerability which
GOOD NEWS
is perhaps hinted, if you will forgive
me being clichéd for a moment, by the
fictional Tevye’s words in Fiddler, “You
want to know why? I’ll tell you… I don’t
know. But it is a tradition nonetheless”. It
is possible for belonging and tradition to
outlive the faith which underpinned it in
the first place, and this can also happen
with little warning.
When our faith becomes less tactile it
will become harder to communicate it
effectively to our children and to those
around us. It can lead us to question in
our moments of confusion, weakness
and doubt whether we ourselves really
still belong. Perhaps worse, we may
be tempted to pass judgement upon
whether others belong.
We proclaim in the Church that by having
faith in Christ we are saved. This leads
us to emphasise the importance of what
we believe. Nurturing a personal faith
becomes the top priority as is evidenced
by our holding to statements of faith, and
nurturing things like a personal prayer
life and reading of Scripture. How we
go about expressing our faith practically
may become our secondary question,
which is also a strength because it can
enable us to do so while being directed
by the Word and the Holy Spirit of God
to meet a particular need. I believe that
49:22TRUST and our mission to serve
vulnerable Jewish people is an example
of one such expression! Theology
and personal faith are indispensably
important, but if they become too
abstract then we introduce another risk.
One of the greatest gifts which is made
more visible by the Jewish people is the
art of making our faith more tactile. It is
wonderful to eat and celebrate together
with people in our church communities.
Being creative in expressing our
worship through music, art, poetry, and
drama is vitally important for opening
our hearts to the Lord. Serving the
poor, the orphans, the widows, and our
neighbours in need will keep us earthed
in the prayer which Jesus taught us:
“Your kingdom come, Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.”
Be encouraged! Let’s remember this
year to reflect on ways in which we can
make our faith more tactile. Once we
do, how much easier will it then be for
us to share it with others?
A T A C T ILE F A IT H
..................... 17
About the
Fixing of
Easter:
An Open Letter
By Adam Raffell - 49:22TRUST
In January this year, news media outlets publicised an announcement from the Archbishop
of Canterbury, Justin Welby, that Anglican leaders would participate with Church leaders
in discussions intending to fix the celebration of Easter to a set Sunday each year. This is
an open letter addressing all Church leaders who hold a stake in these discussions which
offers an alternative suggestion….
Dear Archbishops, Bishops and
honoured Church leaders of all denominations,
I was recently reading reports of an announcement that a new dialogue between
Christian Churches might enable the place of Easter to become fixed to a regular
weekend each year. I wish to submit a letter for your consideration while the
conversation is still young.
The movement of Easter causes disruption to the routine of school terms and
calendars. While recognising that this move is being proposed in the interest of
clarity and simplicity, which is positive in itself, I nevertheless believe that its success
would actually represent a far greater opportunity missed, especially considering the
AB O U T T H E FI XI N G OF EA STER
..................... 18
GOOD NEWS
magnitude of the task. If 15 attempts
to fix the date for Easter have failed
since the 1100s, then it is all the more
vital to ensure that any change which
is successfully made is the right one!
If a change were to be made to when
Christians celebrate Easter, then the
selection of an arbitrary weekend
would contribute almost nothing to
enhance the worship and witness of the
worldwide Church as we remember the
death and celebrate the Resurrection
of Jesus Christ. I wish to offer for
your consideration an alternative
proposal for the regular scheduling
of the Christian celebration of Easter
which would actively contribute to the
meaning of this most important time in
the Church calendar. This proposal also
offers considerable ecumenical merit
because it does not directly privilege
any one Christian denomination
or cultural tradition, although I do
acknowledge that the practice already
has precedence in the tradition of the
Syriac church.
My proposal is that the Church
celebrate Easter on the first Sunday
after the beginning of the Jewish
feast of Pesach (Passover), deferring
to the Hebrew lunisolar calendar for
its regular dating either on or shortly
after the 15th Nissan.
As you are undoubtedly very well
aware, since the time of the First
Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.) the
Church has always commemorated
the death and Resurrection of Jesus
on ‘Good Friday’ and ‘Easter Sunday’
respectively. In other words, we have
prioritised maintaining the days of
the week over a certain calendar
date for reasons such as the lack of
certainty in dating the Passion events
and the sense of drama associated
with ‘walking through’ the Passion
narrative each year which culminates
with the Resurrection of Jesus on
the Sunday. This has cemented the
associated practice of Christians
to meet on Sunday and even to
re-designate Sunday as a Christian
‘Sabbath’ day. I wish to be clear that
I am not questioning the value in
these practices.
As well as choosing to fix the
celebration of Easter on particular
days of the week, the decision was
also taken to determine the place of
Easter relative to the spring equinox
and the cycle of the moon. This
enabled the Christian Church to
determine the dating of its central
observance without needing to
make reference to a Feast of the
Jewish people. It afforded the
Church independence and saved
these early brothers and sisters the
‘embarrassment’ of their Easter
celebration depending upon the
Jewish people for its date. It also
served to diminish the significance
of Jesus’ Jewish identity as though
it were some guilty secret rather
than an integral aspect of what it
means for us to call Him ‘Christ’.
It is the legacy founded in these
far less theologically constructive
considerations with which I take issue.
ABOUT THE F IXIN G O F E A ST E R
..................... 19
The fact that Jesus went up to
Jerusalem in the final week before
Passover and died at the beginning
of the feast is steeped in symbolism.
Matthew, Mark and Luke all record
how Jesus celebrated the Passover
with His disciples before His arrest,
breaking bread and sharing the cup
and giving birth to the communion
which we now share as we gather
week upon week all around the
world. John’s Gospel in particular
develops the presentation of Jesus
Himself as a Passover Lamb, an
understanding which can be dated
earlier still in Paul’s first letter to the
Corinthian church.
Just as Israelite families shared a
lamb on the eve of their Exodus
from Egypt, Jesus is presented as
the one who invites His followers to
figuratively share in a meal of His
body and blood in remembrance
of Him. And just as the Israelites
painted the lamb’s blood on their
front door as a sign of protection that
they would be spared the plague of
the firstborn, similarly, Jesus blood
shed on the cross symbolically
covers the sins of the people in
order to save them from sin and
death. Irrespective of which Christian
tradition we belong to, Jesus’
sacrifice on the cross manifestly
includes an echo of the Passover
Exodus. Little about what took place
in Jerusalem when Jesus died and
rose would have made sense without
drawing upon that formative event in
Israel’s history.
Celebrating Easter during Passover
AB O U T T H E FI XI N G OF EA STER
..................... 20
week, but not necessarily on the first
day of Passover itself, would serve to
offer a witness to the now universally
acknowledged fact of Jesus’ Jewish
identity and reflect the ‘Copernican
revolution’ which has taken place
(and continues to take place) in
Christian thinking with respect to the
Jewish people.
Nearly every Church denomination
has in the past fifty years formally
re-evaluated and rejected the
previously widespread assumption
that God’s covenant relationship
with the Jewish people had in fact
ceased after the time of Jesus. This
re-thinking was made necessary by
the fact of the Holocaust and the
role which Christian anti-Judaism
and antisemitism played in rendering
it possible. Celebrating Easter
during Passover would better fit
a more positive re-interpretation
which affirms that God’s unique
identification with the Jewish people
today remains intact. It would also
serve to enhance both the clarity
with which the Christian Gospel is
communicated, and the position
which the Church communicates
about itself with respect to the
Jewish people in particular.
Generally, celebrating Easter
during Passover week would better
emphasise that, through Christ,
the covenantal love which God
has shown to the Jewish people is
being extended to all people and
nations. It would invite renewed
Christian reflection and attention
upon Passover as the context for the
GOOD NEWS
history of Christ’s Passion.
Particularly, through consciously
celebrating Israel during Passover,
the Church would be formally
recognising that the Jewish people
today remain recipients of God’s
“irrevocable” covenant, gifts and
call (Rom. 11:29), as well as its own
eternal connection with the house
of Israel as covenant partners. Or
as Paul put it, the fact that, “We do
not support the root, but the root
supports us” (Rom. 11:18). We would
create a new opportunity in which
important Jewish and Christian
dialogue can take place.
Finally, retaining the Church’s FridaySunday observances on Passover
week would maintain both proximity
and a respectful distance from the
Pascal celebrations of the Jewish
people themselves. After all, the
vast majority of Christians are not
Jewish and it would not be a fitting
witness to either usurp or attempt to
amalgamate our distinctive traditions
and celebrations on the one hand, or
to blunt our claims about Jesus which
are necessarily absolute on the other.
Unfortunately, this solution would
not serve to eradicate variation in
the dating of Easter each year, but
it would at least provide a regular
date on the Hebrew calendar and
clearer justification for that variation.
I expect you would agree that there
is far more value in explaining to
a confused bystander that we
celebrate Easter at the time when the
Jewish people celebrate Passover
because this is when Jesus died and
rose from the dead, than attempting
to explain what the ecclesial equinox
is! Perhaps a regular spring holiday
independent of Easter would enable
the fixing of school and university
terms.
Surely the central challenge for the
Church in the world today is the
faithful presentation of the Gospel
that Jesus is the Christ of the people
of Israel; our Lord and Saviour;
the Way to the Father who came
because God so loved the world
that He gave His only Son so that
all who believe can inherit eternal
life. This same message is also the
absolute antithesis to antisemitism,
xenophobia, intolerance, and to
any violation of the image of God
in a human life. I would argue that
the dating of Easter during the
Jewish Passover, and publically
acknowledging our already
undeniable association with the
Jewish people, has potential to better
contribute to that message than the
dating system for Easter, either as it
is at present or as fixed according to
a newly proposed regular weekend
each year.
I submit this proposal for your
prayerful consideration.
Yours faithfully,
Adam Raffell
49:22TRUST - Director of Ministry
Development
ABOUT THE F IXIN G O F E A ST E R
..................... 21
LET US
PRAISE
THE LORD TOGETHER
FOR HIS GREAT FAITHFULNESS IN ANSWERING OUR PRAYERS:
WE WANT TO THANK THE LORD FOR:
Anna Gankin who has completed Na’aleh Prep in St Petersburg. She
has made amazing progress over the past year and will soon be going to complete her
schooling in Israel on the Na’aleh Programme. Please pray for her transition and her
success, and also for her mother who will be making Aliyah in the relatively near future.
The opportunity which He has provided for us to support Rabbi Azman
in his very important work assisting Jewish refugees from the east of
Ukraine. As we give thanks for this, we also need to pray for the establishment of the
children’s family style home where we can provide advanced therapeutic care to orphans
in ‘Anatevka’.
The opening of the Odessa Rehabilitative Centre on st February !
This has been months of planning and prayer in the making and we are very excited
to see the impact that the centre will make on the lives of the children. Please pray for
all of the new staff starting there: special education teachers, psychologists, speech
pathologists and a therapeutic support team.
Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west.
I will say to the north, “Give them up!” and to the south, “Do not hold them back...” (Isaiah 43:5-6)
PLEASE PRAY FOR:
Olga’s father, Boris, who will receive the heart surgery which he requires
to stabilise his condition. Please also pray for Olga for strength as she cares for
him as well as her mother and granddaughter. Olga’s husband is forced to work in a
dangerous location far from home; please pray for his safety. We want to ask God to open
the way for this whole family to make Aliyah and rebuild their lives in Israel.
God’s restoration in the lives of Tatiana and Artur after the death of
husband and father Igor. Let’s pray that they can make Aliyah and be released from
the devastating impact of antisemitism on their family. May the peace of the LORD be upon
them and may He bring them to safety soon.
Tamara, who has worked so faithfully with the children in Bila
Tserkva and before that in Kiev. Pray that she will feel God’s great love for
her as she receives food, moral support and the medical care necessary for her grade
three hypertension. We want to pray that as she has to step back from working with the
children, which has been so rewarding, that she will not lose her sense of purpose and
identity and that she will continue to receive the affection of her friends and co-workers.
…Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth – everyone who is called by my
name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.’ (Isaiah 43:6-7)
TA R GE T E D PRA YER NEED S
..................... 22
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