VFI News April 2, 2021

Thanks to wonderful supporters like you, hundreds of families all over the country have just received financial aid from VFI. Among them were: terror survivors, lone soldiers, families in need (including many single-parent families), Holocaust survivors, new immigrants from Ethiopia and other nations.

Police in Turkey says they have seized a 2,000-year-old Torah scroll in a coastal city 300 miles east of Istanbul. Separately, remnants of an abandoned synagogue in Istanbul caught fire in what police say may have been arson.

The scroll was seized on Friday when police, acting on intelligence, stopped two cars for an inspection in Samsun, Sputnik reported. In one of the cars, police said, they found 19 pages of an ornate Torah with golden letters with pages framed by an engraved leather passe-partout.

Five people detained in connection with the find are suspected of illegally dealing in archaeological finds.

The Sputnik report did not contain further details about the document, which would be one of the world’s oldest if the information reported is accurate. (TOI / VFI News)

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. - Romans 15:4

The articles included in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of Vision for Israel. We try to provide accurate reporting on news pertinent to Israel, the Middle East, the diaspora, and Jewish issues around the world—and we hope that you find it both informative and useful for intercessory prayer.

An annual survey from the Anti-Defamation League found that a quarter of American Jews have personally experienced anti-Semitism in the past five years and that most American Jews have witnessed anti-Semitic comments targeting others.

In that same time period, 9% of Jewish respondents said they have been the victim of an anti-Semitic physical attack.

In total, 63% of Jewish respondents reported that they had either witnessed or experienced anti-Semitism in the years since 2016, an increase from 54% last year. The survey was taken in early January and includes responses from 503 Jewish-American adults. The margin of error is 4.4%. (TOI / VFI News)

And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. - Matthew 10:22

An Israeli company said Wednesday that it received European approval for its rapid coronavirus test and it was poised to help kickstart international travel.

The handheld SpectraLIT machine eliminates the need for complex lab equipment by shining light through samples and giving immediate results using the spectral signature.

This means that staff in airport booths who are currently tasked with collecting test samples and dispatching them to labs will simply have a machine at hand and be able to give passengers results after just 20 seconds of analysis. (TOI / VFI News)

“God, we ask that you bless those who strive to heal and protect your people—and that you continue to encourage their work.”

An improvised explosive device is detonated in a building where a commando unit is gathering, deep inside enemy territories. Several elite unit soldiers are trapped, and there’s a need to join forces with a Home Front Command Search and Rescue company, racing against the clock in order to save those who are under the rubble.

This is the scenario that was exercised in the first-ever joint commando brigade and Home Front Command battalion drill, which was held in the Rotem training center in southern Israel.

Participating were the elite Egoz unit – one of three battalions comprising the Commando Brigade – and the Ram Home Front Command Battalion, which is currently holding a series of exercises. (JPost / VFI News)

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. - Ecclesiastes 3:8

Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi approved Bahrain’s first-ever ambassador to Israel on Tuesday, ahead of the Gulf state’s opening of its embassy in the coming weeks.

Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani appointed Khaled Yousif al-Jalahama to the position on Sunday. Jalahama is the Director of Operations at Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry and was deputy chief of mission at Bahrain’s Embassy to the US in 2009-2013.

A Bahraini team is expected to arrive in Israel in the coming weeks to set up an embassy in the Tel Aviv area. (JPost / VFI News)

“God, we ask that you continue to foster friendship among the nations.”

For the first time in a year and a half, thousands of people were able to attend the traditional priestly blessing event at the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem on Monday, made possible by the rolling back of coronavirus restrictions ahead of the Passover festival.

Traditionally, tens of thousands of Jewish pilgrims make their way twice a year to the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City, on the intermediate days of the Passover and Sukkot festivals, with crowds of men and women spilling out from the Wall’s plaza to surrounding areas.

As the COVID-19 pandemic reached Israel and the virus spread, mass public events were canceled, and last year, just a symbolic 10 people were permitted to gather at the Western Wall to perform the ceremony, part of the special holiday prayers. (TOI / VFI News)

“In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you will have the Passover, a feast of seven days when matzah will be eaten.” - Ezekiel 45:21

The last three Jewish families in Yemen were deported by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, leaving only four elderly Jews in the country, the London-based Saudi daily Asharq Al-Awsat reported over the weekend.

The move marks the virtual end of a 2,600-year-old Jewish community in Yemen.

The families, totaling 13 people, told Asharq Al-Awsat that they were now searching for a new home. The families had resisted leaving but finally agreed after the Houthis made their departure a condition for the release of Levi Salem Marhabi, a Jew who was captured by the rebels about six years ago. (JPost / VFI News)

“God, we ask that you bring justice for those who have been persecuted for being Jewish.”

When the details of a multibillion-dollar, 25-year economic and security agreement between Iran and China leaked last summer, the headline was: “Proposed China-Iran deal is bad news for Israel.”

Now that Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi signed an agreement in Tehran on Saturday, it still means nothing good as far as Israel is concerned.

What’s more important than the content of the agreement at this point is the message being sent in the timing – and that message is that Beijing and Tehran are thumbing their noses at the US.

As Carice Witte, executive director of SIGNAL, a think tank dealing with China-Israel relations, said on Monday, “this is 100% a statement to the US.” (JPost / VFI News)

“God, we ask that you sow peace among the nations, but also that you hold accountable those who would do harm to your people.”