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The Jewish roots of Christianity

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Dear Friends,

With his focus on his burgeoning New York City law practice, man-of-the-world Harry Cohen rarely took time to visit his devout Jewish mother in Los Angeles. Many months and years lapsed and, being unable to live with himself any longer, the guilt-ridden lawyer-son conceived a brilliant plan to make amends on his mother’s eighty-fifth birthday. Knowing that she craved company and religious conversation, Cohen contacted an upscale, kosher pet store in Beverly Hills and bought her a $200,000 parrot—a very special gift.

Why so expensive?

This parrot was trained in a rabbinical school where it was tutored to recite the entire Old Testament Scripture from memory, and to give the traditional rabbinical explanations of the Sacred Texts in both English and Yiddish.

Though he, of course, was too busy to attend her birthday party himself, Cohen knew that his religious Jewish mother would love the bird—and would forever love him for sending the unique present in his stead! A detail-oriented business lawyer, he scheduled the bird to be delivered the morning of her birthday. “Oy,” he anticipated her exclaiming, “vat a vonderful, expensive gift from my extremely successful son—the famous lawyer!” The day of the birthday finally came. Harry waited and waited… Then, after dinner, he finally called his mother to wish her well. “So, Mama…,” he sheepishly inquired. “So, what do you think of the bird?” In response, his mother said, “Thank you, Son. It was delicious!”

This cute and pleasant Jewish story underscores two unpleasant realities: (1) too many women are abandoned in today’s world, and (2) shallow gifts offered to help are often both misunderstood and woefully insufficient.

Recently, BBC News reported the horrible results of the World Health Organization’s survey of 24,000 women in ten not-particularly-Christian countries. The survey found that, on the average, one in six women suffered “intimate partner abuse.” Another WHO study noted that 15 percent of Japanese women suffered from domestic violence, compared to 71 percent of Ethiopian women. Half of women surveyed in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Peru, and Tanzania reported being abused during the previous year alone. A survey of 8,000 Turkish housewives revealed that about half of them believed they actually “deserved to be beaten” if they “argued with their husbands” or “refused to give them sex.” Drawing on an Amnesty International report, the BBC reported that a third of Nigerian women experienced spousal abuse and accepted it as normal. Sounds horrible, does it not? There’s more. Two million young girls suffer genital mutilations annually in Africa and in non-Jewish sectors of the Middle East; 5,000 brides are reportedly burned each year in India, freeing husbands to find other brides and dowries. The crimes of “honor killings” and forced marriage have spread even into the heart of the West, including London and Paris, as immigrants from outside the Judeo-Christian influence cling to traditions that treat women as mere property. Millions of women are sold every year as sex slaves in Thailand and elsewhere. One is forced to conclude that, beyond the sphere of biblical influence, a devastation of global proportions is being wreaked upon womankind, exacting a toll that surpasses the annual carnage caused by hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and even incessant political violence! Why? Because biblical values aren’t embraced.

The world needs Jesus!

Even in the United States, where many secular people deny or abandon Judeo-Christian moorings outright, the crimes of Assault and Family Violence are unleashed in cataclysmic proportions. Unfortunate victims are reported in one fourth of all relationships, Adding “abandonment through divorce” and the economic and social disasters created by childbirth outside of marriage paints another unpleasant picture whose colors darken when we consider that women hurt themselves, too, by searching for self-esteem in the quest for superficial rather than ethical and spiritual goals.

In her book God of Thinness, Dr. Mary Bringle, professor of philosophy and religion at Brevard College, drew upon a study of young girls and lamented that about half of all female fourth graders were dieting, and that two-thirds of American women subject themselves to “rigorous” dieting, which is frequently unnecessary and at times extremely unhealthy—all in the interest of conforming to shallow, worldly standards of beauty.

America needs Jesus!

I have scheduled the immediate production of an eight-part outreach television series, filmed on location in Israel and dealing with Famous Jewish Women of the Bible. I’ve got Good News from the King of the Jews, news that can truly liberate women bound by the shackles of oppression. I desperately want to share the lessons taught by the heroines of the Bible, with women and men the world over. Please help me share it! This series will complement the evangelical teachings we developed in The Gospel According to Isaiah and Daniel and the Last Days’ Battle for Planet Earth.

This ministry will produce and release the new women’s series as we broadcast a prophetic series you requested—Lights Out for Christian Europe is its working title. Traveling to Germany in mid-April, Sandra Levitt, our film crew, and I will develop a television series that considers the dreaded demise of Christian influence in Europe, the concurrent rise of Islam, and the reemergence of anti-Semitism such as gave rise to the Holocaust—you know, the event that some now claim never really happened.

Slated for production later this year, a Messianic Jewish series that I want to call In the Footsteps of the Rabbi from Tarsus will follow Paul’s journeys through Turkey and Greece, and, in typical Zola Levitt Ministries fashion, will shed Jewish insights on Paul’s famous “Christian” teachings. I am particularly excited about this series.

Speaking of excitement: Sandra Levitt, associate executive producer Jerry Hodges, and I recently attended the annual National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Orlando, Florida, and met with a number of television executives in the interest of taking our ministry to just about every country on planet Earth. I am happy to report that our ministry will broadcast these upcoming Messianic-Jewish teaching series all over the world! In addition to now being an internationally syndicated, teaching ministry, we are retooling our outreach vehicles to become one of the most powerful Messianic Jewish voices on Earth!

As ambassadors with Bibles in our hands and people’s needs and interests in our hearts, you and I together, with God’s help, can offer the love-starved world a perspective on life that is typically missing in today’s Godless world—with its horribly biased media.

You can be a Christian ambassador to Israel by making a pilgrimage there with Sandra and me this June or October. Our Discovery Tour, which tours the Holy Land from June 5–15, includes a one-day archaeological dig. Our Fall Tour offers four options:

  • Deluxe (Israel only) Oct. 21 – 31
  • Grand Petra (Israel with a Petra extension) Oct. 21 – Nov. 4
  • Grand Athens (Greek Isle Cruise and Israel) Oct. 16 – 31
  • Ultra Grand (Greece, Israel and Petra) Oct. 16 – Nov. 4

For a tour brochure, please call Tony at (214) 696-9760 during office hours or 1-800-WONDERS (966-3377), anytime.

Your messenger,

Jeffrey Seif

P.S. Thank you for supporting one of Jesus’ works on Earth through Zola Levitt Ministries. Believing in spiritual warfare, I know your prayers are as helpful as your dollars, particularly now as we boldly expand our Messianic Jewish teaching ministry to reach far beyond the comfort of our U.S. borders. The net result is harvest, and “white are the fields.” (John 4:35)

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“Here is my gift for April. Godspeed to you in completing your two new TV series, Famous Jewish Women of the Bible and Lights Out for Christian Europe.”

Daniel and the Last Days’ Battle for Planet Earth

“Daniel and the Last Days’ Battle for Planet Earth” video

Dr. Jeffrey Seif compares today’s news to yesterday’s prophecies, demonstrating that we are living in ominous times. Co-host Sandra Levitt gives key insights to help viewers perceive world events with a Word-inspired perspective. Zola makes special contributions in brief teaching episodes.

Zola’s Introduction to Hebrew

“Zola’s Introduction to Hebrew” study book

Zola’s Ultimate Hebrew Primer teaches both print and script, so you will be ready to read, speak, and write Hebrew in Israel and in Heaven. Assumes no prior knowledge and progresses gradually, so even the fainthearted will find immediate value.

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