YOU ARE STANDING WITH ISRAEL AND BLESSING HER PEOPLE IN NEED ISRAEL
VICTIMS OF TERRORISM | ANATOLY AND LUBA’S STORY
Anatoly and Luba left Ukraine years ago and moved to Sderot in southern Israel, where they lived with their four children. Although they became accustomed to sporadic rocket fire from Gaza, the attacks of October 7 felt different.
Luba heard a whistling sound, and Anatoly shouted, “Run!” The family rushed into their safe room just seconds before a Hamas rocket crashed into the adjacent bedroom. “My husband had to force the door to open—and then this sharp, black smoke. The kids were scared, and I was shaking all over,” Luba told us. Although no one was hurt, the apartment was badly damaged and their belongings were destroyed.
They were evacuated to temporary housing for seven months, living out of boxes and sleeping on air mattresses. The government repaired their apartment, but all their possessions were ruined. Worried, Luba said, “The children’s beds, the furniture—it was a big expense. How would we pay for it?”
They were deeply thankful when you came to their rescue through CBN Israel! Sometime earlier, as a recent immigrant, Luba had been in counseling with Rina, a local ministry partner of CBN Israel, who helped her adjust to Israel’s culture.
Rina contacted CBN Israel about Luba’s plight, and you provided funding to restore her children’s room, buy needed furniture, give them a new computer, and make their place feel like home again.
“It felt wonderful, knowing there are people who care,” said Luba. “Your help is a big bright light in this situation.”
And your gifts to CBN Israel are making life brighter for many other victims of the war—plus single moms, desperate refugees, and Holocaust survivors. Your continued support can bring them hot meals, financial aid, and trauma therapy. In addition, you help deliver important news and documentaries from the Holy Land to the world. Thank you for all you are doing!
THANK YOU FOR MAKING THE DIFFERENCE!
HUMANITARIAN WORK
Your support provides food, assistance, education, economic development, and hope to Israelis in need. You are blessing Holocaust survivors, victims of terrorism, single mothers, immigrant families, and others who desperately need our help.
BREAKING NEWS
Your gift allows us to produce unbiased, independent journalism through broadcasts, podcasts, and online media dedicated to informing the world about what is happening in Israel and the Middle East through our news bureau in Jerusalem.
BRINGING FRESH FOOD AND PRODUCE TO ISRAELIS IN NEED
It’s hard to function well when you’re battling hunger. Yet in Israel today, 20 percent of the population suffers from nutrition insecurity. Sadly, the most vulnerable tend to be children, at-risk youth, single-parent families, and the elderly—all living below the poverty line.
For many, it means skipping meals, going to bed hungry, or eating cheap processed foods high in sugar and fat. This can lead to poor health, malnutrition, diabetes, and obesity. And low-income families often can’t afford the fresh fruits and vegetables that are high in nutritional value. Meanwhile, according to a recent report, 2.2 billion pounds of nutritious food are wasted each year in Israel, even as over 500,000 families struggle to put healthy meals on the table. In fact, 35 percent of all food produced in Israel ends up being destroyed rather than consumed, adding to environmental problems of waste disposal. Is there a smart way to solve both issues?
Thankfully, you are an important part of a sustainable solution. Through CBN Israel’s partnership with one of the country’s largest food banks, you are rescuing nutritious food and fresh produce that would otherwise go to waste—by
DOCUMENTARY FILMS
Your support allows us to produce educational documentary films that tell the true history of Israel, its right to exist in the face of growing anti-Semitism worldwide, its innovative and entrepreneurial culture, and its commitment to helping others—even its enemies.
bringing them to households that desperately need them.
This invaluable program mobilizes tens of thousands of volunteers, hires professional pickers, and deploys drivers and vehicles to collect excess food and produce from fields, orchards, and packing houses. The rescued food is then redistributed free of charge to nonprofit organizations that bring it to local families and individuals.
This is just one of the ways your gifts to CBN Israel help people in the Holy Land during these challenging times. You are suppling groceries, housing, and other essentials to soaring numbers of refugees, Holocaust survivors, and war victims. Thank you!
OCTOBER 7 AND THE RESILIENCE OF THE STARTUP NATION
By Chris Mitchell, CBN News
SEast Bureau Chief
ince last October 7, Israel has been facing a multi-front war for survival from Hamas in Gaza, to Hezbollah on its northern border, to the Houthis in Yemen on the tip of the Arabian Peninsula. The war puts enormous pressure on Israel’s economy.
But a leading Israeli economic expert told CBN News that despite it all, Israel is not only surviving but, in some areas, thriving. Jonathan Medved, the founder and CEO of OurCrowd, cautions that fighting for survival is expensive, however.
“All of this costs money, and there are also impacts on certain parts of the Israeli economy, such as construction and agriculture, where foreign workers, in particular Palestinians, have played a large role. They’re now hard to get and there is a shortage of labor—and in particular, tourism is challenging because of travel schedules and flights.”
The tourism sector—one of Israel’s most important economic engines—had begun booming after COVID-19 shut down the country for nearly two years. But since October 7, the war brought tourism
nearly to a standstill. Yet Medved says one sector of Israel’s economy for the past year is thriving.
“The good news is that the major industry here in Israel is … high tech—why we’re called ‘the startup nation.’ It’s responsible for about 53 percent of all of Israel’s exports and represents today almost 20 percent of our GDP, our gross domestic product.”
This startup nation is booming.
“The tech area is still very, very strong. We have amazing companies who lead the world in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, in food technology, in defense technology, in the cloud, in alternative mobility and energy. And what’s remarkable is that this year already—in 2024, in the midst of war—the investment dollars that are coming into the Israel tech scene have gone dramatically up, about 40 percent from last year, the second half. So, that’s leading the world in terms of an uptick. The U.S. is doing well. Israel is doing better.”
And the God of Israel is at the center of it all.
Where does Israel’s success comes from? Medved explains, “Its roots are in the Bible, its roots are
A tattered Israeli flag still hangs in a home that was bombed on October 7.
in prophecy. And it’s prophecy coming true when you realize that the Jewish people, the indigenous people of this land, have come home after 2,000 years of wandering and have ingathered the exiles.”
Medved says this biblical mission drives Israel. “We’re a significant country, one of the strongest countries in the world in terms of our ability to defend ourselves, leading the world in many areas of technology, helping to cure cancer, and helping to feed the planet—because we believe that our destiny and mission is not just to survive. Survival is critical, but we need to contribute to the world. We need to build the world. We need to help fix things. It’s called tikkun olam.”
It’s a resilience that survived the Holocaust.
“The dry bones from the prophecy of Ezekiel came up and we succeeded. But we didn’t just succeed to survive. We’ve succeeded in building a beautiful country, a country which is not just fun—with great food and beautiful beaches and an incredible infrastructure—but a country on the cutting edge of building the future, a country that believes in the future. Our birth rate is the highest birth rate than any country in the OECD [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development].”
Despite the immediate threats of rockets, drones, and terror attacks, Medved takes the long view of Israel’s destiny.
“We are a people who have suffered a great deal over thousands of years, and yet we’re still here. A lot of our enemies from thousands of years ago are gone; there’s no memory of them. And if you want a little prediction: Organizations like Hamas, for whom the whole purpose is to destroy the Jewish people—well, I’ve got some advice for them. A lot of people have tried—better people than you. And they’ve all failed.”
Top: IDF soldiers on the lookout for Hamas terrorists within Gaza. Second: Jonathan Medved, founder of OurCrowd. Third: Tel Aviv, the heart of Israel’s startup nation. Fourth: Israeli innovations on display at OurCrowd’s annual conference. Fifth: Jewish people making Aliyah by returning to Israel.
BECAUSE WE TRUST, OTHERS WILL TRUST HIM
He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.
–psalm 40:3
In a moment of great peril, the psalmist cried out to the Lord, and God delivered him. By delivering him, God put a new song in his mouth—and now, the psalmist praises God.
The result of this expression of worship is that many will see what God has done, and they will fear and trust the Lord for themselves. Put simply: God’s name is at stake in us.
The psalmist could not help but praise God for His deliverance. Do we live our lives in such praise to the Lord that others see what He has done for us and come to fear Him and trust Him?
God does not save us only for ourselves. His rescue of us should lead those around us to see, to fear, and to trust. But they cannot do this if we do not openly give Him credit for all He has done.
How can our families, our children, our grandchildren, and others around us learn to fear and trust the Lord if we do not model those traits before them?
People watch us, especially when we proclaim the name of the Lord with our lips. Sometimes our
perils put us in a place where others can observe how we respond. They watch. They observe. Will they see us trust in God?
The psalmist cried out to the Lord and waited. God answered and delivered him, so that many would see and fear and trust God.
We are called to trust Him in all circumstances in front of a watching world. Our testimony falls short if it depends only on our words. But when we trust Him amid perils, and He delivers us, people will see and fear and trust Him.
Circumstances may not immediately change. Yet, we trust a God who hears our cries and will not leave us in the depths forever. And we can never forget: He not only hears us in our depths, He hears the cries of others in their depths too.
PRAYER
We praise You for You have delivered us. Use our trust and faithfulness to You as a display to the world around us, to draw them to fear and trust You. Amen.
Scripture is quoted from the Holman Christian Standard Bible.
PRAYER
POINTS
Pray for Israelis to stand strong as they fight for their survival.
Pray for America to maintain strong bipartisan support for the nation of Israel.
Pray for Christians to stand with Israel and the Jewish people in prayer and action.
Pray for the continued prophetic return of the Jewish people to the Promised Land.
Pray for the Lord to give wisdom to the leaders of Israel as they fight for Israel’s survival.
Pray for CBN Israel to be able to expand its humanitarian outreach to Israel and her people in need.
Pray for CBN News Jerusalem to continue to broadcast the truth about Israel.
DO YOU HAVE A PRAYER NEED?
Based on the New York Times bestseller by Dan Senor and Saul Singer, The Genius of Israel reveals why the Jewish state is largely immune to the social problems that plague many Western societies.
Filmed on location in Israel and hosted by Gordon Robertson, this new CBN Films documentary explores the unique religious and cultural traditions that make Israel one of the most innovative and resilient democracies on earth.
