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Feb. 16, 2007
Shared love for Israel
Christians, Jews and First Nations are united.
RON FRIEDMAN
Nearly 300 people, representing the Christian, Jewish and First
Nations communities, gathered to celebrate the relationship between
Canada and Israel in Vancouver last week.
The Feb. 8 event was part of the Canada Israel Together tour, a
joint project of the Watchmen for the Nations Christian group, the
Knesset Christian Allies Caucus and the Canada-Israel Committee.
The alliance was created in order to increase solidarity between
Christians and Jews and to raise support for Israel.
Vancouver was the culmination of the tour, which had stops in both
Ottawa and Toronto and included representatives from both the Israeli
and Canadian governments and leaders from the Jewish, Christian
and First Nations communities. Among the guests were the Israeli
ambassador to Canada, Alan Baker, members of the Knesset Orit Noked
(Labor) and Ran Cohen (Meretz), member of Parliament James Lunney
(Conservative), Grand Chief Lynda Prince and the head of Watchmen
for the Nations, Rev. David Demian.
The evening included speeches by the dignitaries, the exchanging
of gifts, a dance recital and a medley of Hebrew songs performed
by Noked.
At one point, Demian invited all the members of the Jewish community
who were present to go up on the stage. He then asked the audience
to join him in oath. "If you want to make this declaration,
I want you to lift up your hand with me and look at the Jewish people,"
he said. "We are not praying to God now, we are speaking to
the Jewish people. Don't close your eyes and make it a prayer, open
your eyes and look at them and say: 'Your God is my God. Your people
are my people and you will not be alone.'
"This is not about being sentimental about the support of Israel,"
he added. "This is something very deep in the heart of God
and that is why I wanted to use this trip to make a declaration
in the face of the heavens, in front of all the Jewish people in
Ottawa, in Toronto and in Vancouver, that they will know and they
will hold us accountable to these promises."
The Israeli representatives assured the audience of their gratitude.
"When we can come to the people of Israel and say, 'We have
a friend in Canada. We have the support of the Canadian government,
of the Canadian prime minister, of the Canadian people, of the Christian
communities in Canada and of the First Nations throughout Canada,'
we in Israel feel the strength that this gives us and it gives us
the strength to continue," said Baker.
"You, the Canadian people, have been so supportive and give
the feeling that we are not alone, particularly during the difficult
time we had last summer," said Noked.
"I return to my home in Israel with a different feeling than
when I came here. I will return with a message of love and friendship
and full of your warm feelings toward Israel and that is a great
feeling," said Cohen.
The warm feeling was shared by Christians present at the event.
"I was really impressed by how deeply the Jewish and Christian
creeds feel towards each other and I thing it's just beautiful to
see in today's era. I think that the relationship between Canada
and Israel is essential, because there are so few countries that
are prepared to stand up for Israel," said Andrea McMasters,
a Christian from Abbotsford.
"I think anyone who was at this evening could see that it was
a tremendous success – the fact that Jews and Christians really
came together in heart and in mind," said Josh Reinstein, director
of the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus. "I think that these
events are critical to increase support of Israel. There are just
over 300,000 Jews in Canada but there are three million Bible-believing
Christians who support Israel and the fact that the government here
in Canada is supporting us is just a clear expression of that support."
CIC Pacific Region director Adam Carroll said that before the event,
he was "a bit nervous about how members of our community would
react to anything like this, because it was really unprecedented
for our city and even our country."
However, Carroll said he was gratified after speaking to people
following the event.
"This is huge for the CIC's advocacy efforts," he said.
"What advocacy is, is trying to have as many people as possible
understand the Jewish community's perspective on Israel. Here you
have a situation where people are understanding the true nature
of Israel because it is a part of what they're focused on and, through
that, they're learning the Israel that we all in the Jewish community
know and love."
Ron Friedman is a student in the journalism master's program
at University of British Columbia.
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