Christians, Jews in Holy Land alliance
Pastor Dale Morgan
Christians, Jews in Holy Land alliance*
* Story Highlights
* Orthodox Jew asks evangelical Christians to fund West Bank settlements
* Florida church among supporters, writing checks and observing
Jewish Sabbath
* Poll found 59% of U.S. evangelicals believe Israel is fulfillment
of prophecy
* One rabbi raised $39 million last year from Christian Zionists for
Israel
Editor's note: This is part of a series of reports CNN.com is featuring
from an upcoming, six-hour television event, "God's Warriors," hosted by
CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour.
Sondra Oster Baras: "Israel has many enemies. We have to take advantage
of every single one of our friends."
MELBOURNE, Florida (CNN) -- Sondra Oster Baras is an Orthodox Jew doing
an unorthodox job.
"If you had asked me 10 years ago what I would be doing with my life, I
don't think I would have told you I'd be in church," she said.
Baras stumps for money from evangelical Christians to support Jewish
settlements in the occupied territories -- land she calls biblical Israel.
A recent stop finds her in Melbourne, Florida, visiting Pastor Gary
Christofaro at his First Assembly Church of God.
Christofaro and his flock take their Jewish roots so seriously that on
Friday nights they observe the Jewish Sabbath with Hebrew prayers.
This is not just religious ritual. They support Israel -- which to them
includes Jewish settlements on the occupied West Bank. Church members
tour settlements with Baras and have donated more than a $100,000 to
support them.
"If it wasn't for what the Jews brought to Christianity, there would be
no Christianity," Christofaro said. "There is a promise to those who
bless Israel to be blessed. Those who curse it will be cursed."
Christofaro and Baras are part of a growing alliance between evangelical
Christians and Israelis. Video Watch the bond between observant Jews and
evangelical Christians »
A recent poll found that 59 percent of American evangelicals believe
Israel is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy.
God's Warriors
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimates 85 million
evangelicals believe God tells them to support Israel -- more than six
times the world's Jewish population.
One of the most successful Jewish fundraisers, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein,
raised $39 million last year from Christian Zionists to fund human
services and humanitarian work in Israel and the settlements.
Christian Zionists often converge on Washington by the thousands to
lobby members of Congress in support of Israel.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Connecticut, was among the speakers at last
month's convention of Christians United for Israel.
"There are a lot more Christian Zionists in America than Jewish
Zionists," the former Democratic vice presidential candidate told the
group. "The support of Christian Zionists today is critical to Israel's
security and strength and to America's security and strength." Watch
behind-the-scenes with CNN's Christiane Amanpour for the making of the
TV special "God's Warriors" Video
Back in church, Baras told the congregation: "We need to stand together
so that our governments will believe that the land of Israel, the entire
land of Israel, belongs to the Jewish people."
Baras said God called her to this work. She left her high-powered,
high-paid job as a Wall Street lawyer and moved to Israel in 1984.
"I was never fully American," she explained. "I was Jewish." Judaism was
not only her religion but also her nationality.
"We learned how to read Hebrew before we learned how to read English,"
she said.
Her parents, who narrowly escaped the Holocaust, sent her to Zionist
summer camps that championed the Jewish homeland.
"My parents felt very safe in America ... but there was always a part of
them that said there needs to be an Israel in the event that we have
another Hitler. Put it all together and I couldn't help but be a Zionist."
Baras moved her family to Karnei Shomron, a settlement deep inside the
West Bank.
"Just by building my house ... I was strengthening the Jewish presence
here in Samaria," she said, referring to a biblical name for the
northern part of the West Bank.
In 2002, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up inside a pizza
parlor in her neighborhood, killing three children. She said she fought
back by encouraging support from evangelical Christians in America.
"If we give any part of that land to the Arabs, we are looking at
terrorism," she told a church audience.
Christofaro's Florida congregation responded with money -- all while
singing a prayer for peace in perfect Hebrew.
Their money builds parks, child care centers and music therapy programs
-- projects that make Jewish life in the settlements more comfortable.
And more permanent.
"If you don't live somewhere, if you don't take possession of it, it is
not yours," Baras said.
Some people say Jews and evangelical Christians make strange bedfellows,
given historical anti-Semitism.
"Because of this doctrine of a Jew being a Christ-killer ... so much
hatred and anti-Semitism has been propagated throughout the Earth,"
Christofaro said.
Now such historic anti-Semitism has given way to an urgent support of
Israel among some evangelicals, many of whom believe that when Jews live
in all of the Holy Land -- what they call Greater Israel -- only then
will Christ return and true believers be raptured up to heaven.
"It is a controversial issue here in Israel as to whether we should be
partnering with the Christians in any way," Baras said.
It's controversial in part because in the judgment day scenario embraced
by some evangelicals, Jews who don't convert to Christianity burn in
hell. But Baras said she isn't worried.
"I know that I'm not going to burn in hell because I didn't accept
Jesus, because I don't believe Jesus is the Messiah," she said. "So how
could I possibly be threatened?"
Baras concedes the alliance between God's Jewish and Christian warriors
may seem odd to some people. But if Baras is anything, she's practical.
"Israel has many enemies," she said. "We have to take advantage of every
single one of our friends."