ICEJ Aliyah

“On May 28, 1990, in the early hours of the morning, the first Christian sponsored flight of Soviet Jews arrived at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport. As the weary new immigrants descended from the El Al plane to the crowd of joyful, singing Christians waiting, many broke into tears. Like electricity the news was spread throughout the Israeli media later that day. It was like a prophetic moment in time that touched people across the nation and spread during weeks and months to Christians worldwide.”   

 

This flight was conceived and organized at the International Christian Embassy’s National Directors’ meeting in Finland earlier that year. Ulla Järvilehto , the director of the ICEJ Finnish branch recounted how it happened:  “We had a reps meeting in Finland, and the Germans had brought along money for Exodus. So we asked the then Ambassador of Israel to Finland, Asher Naim, about what would be the best way to use it so as to help Aliyah. He suggested that we would pay for a flight. The Germans agreed; they had money for half a flight, and the Finnish Branch paid the other half. This is the story of the very first ICEJ flight- ‘Ezekiel’. “

 

By the end of the 1990s, ICEJ had sponsored 54 full airplanes and brought more than 15,000 Olim home this way on the “wings of eagles”.

 

In the following decade ICEJ would resume the flight programs by sponsoring group and individual flights from Finland, Russia, Sweden and France. 

 

The flights were resumed after the Jewish Agency closed their office in Finland in 2004 because of budget cuts. The Aliyah numbers from the FSU were dropping and much less money was being allocated. Ulla and the Exodus Committee offered to take over the full responsibility of the Aliyah through Finland and even pay for the flights.  This offer was met with many thanks from the Israelis. Now the Finnish route began to operate with charter flights because El Al also stopped direct flights from Helsinki. This made the situation even more complex.

 

Ulla told me: “Howard, the bible is full of verses which tell us about God’s plan for Israel and the Jews, but there is one thing that God tells us specifically we should do and that is to bring the Jewish people home!”

 

Because so many Finnish people come to visit Israel every year, charter flights were  organized. At first, there were empty-leg flights to Israel after the Finns were flown home by the Israeli charter flight so we could buy seats on these empty flights and send the Russian Jews home on them.  This worked out well.

 

In the next few years the Finnish airline company tried to minimize the empty legs to economize so we started putting the Russian Jews on the plane together with the Finnish Christians going to Israel for their pilgrimage and vacation tours. The Christian Zionists were very excited to be bringing Jewish families home to Israel with them on their way to Israel.

 

Later, Swedish Olim were ready to come on our Finnish flights because of the terrible Muslim anti-Semitism in places like Stockholm and Malmo.  

 

Today, Muslim anti-Semitism is driving the French Aliyah and ICEJ decided to start flights from France in December of 2010.

 

The prophet Isaiah wrote: ”And they [the Gentiles] shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the LORD out of all nations… to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the LORD, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the LORD.” 

 

In the book of Enoch we find a reference to the return of the exiles: “In wagons carried by the winds the exiles shall be borne along with a mighty noise.”  

Could it mean that the Jews would come home on airplanes?  Certainly!

 

Why does the Lord raise His banner to the Gentiles?  His plan to bring the children of Israel home, as a sign to the unbelievers that He is God and His word is true. The ones he calls to help are the body of believers who read His word and understand His plan.  And by the leading of the Holy Spirit respond to His call to help bring the exiles home.  

 

There is a precedent also in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah when the Gentiles helped the Jews return after the Babylonian captivity. The prophet Isaiah foretells this 400 years in advance!   

 

In Genesis Chapter 15 God made a promise to Abraham. God said:" Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land, which is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them for four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge and afterwards they will come out with great possessions."  

 

And when the children of Egypt came out of captivity, the Egyptians gave them all kind of valuable things that the children of Israel used to build the Tabernacle. And today we ,the believers, are the Tabernacle and He dwells with us in our hearts.

 

In addition to sponsoring flights, the ICEJ became involved in many other areas of Aliyah work. Beginning in the 1981 with the Mordechai Outcry, when ICEJ organized demonstrations around the world in support of imprisoned Soviet Jews. When the major wave Aliyah began, ICEJ was involved in helping Russian Jews come to Israel through Finland, sponsoring flights, and supporting busses that brought Jewish people to Warsaw and Budapest. And it was in Budapest where the ICEJ Raoul Wallenberg Center was established as a safe house for Ukrainian Jews on their way to Israel. Later ICEJ sent a bus from Finland to Uzbekistan to help with the Aliyah transportation there and we still have fishermen there who have been working ever since to help the Jews come home.  

 

Then ICEJ established programs to assist FSU Jews who had immigrated to the USA, Canada, and Germany. Donna Holbrook spearheaded this program. Donna is the national director of the ICEJ Canadian branch. During an ICEJ meeting in the mountains of Switzerland, Donna Holbrook, the director of the Canadian branch of ICEJ came to me and said: “ Howard, The Lord showed me that Russian Jews will come through Canada on their way to Israel. I spoke with Malcolm Heading and he confirms this. Where do you think they will come from and how can we help them? Sometime later and after much prayer I replied to Donna: “ They are already in Canada. When a million Russian Jews moved to Israel, another 800,000 moved to the USA, Canada and Germany, just as their forefathers did after the pogroms more than 100 years ago. “  After the events of September 11, 2001 Russian Jews in the USA, Canada began to move to Israel. Donna organized the program which is still operating today in the US and Canada. 

 

More than 110,000 Jewish people have been helped somewhere on their journey

home by the International Christian Embassy. Thousands of people have been directly involved in the work over the past 22 years. More than 42 million dollars have been spent on bringing God’s people home.  There are so many stories that could be told about this work.  How I wish I could thank everyone for his or her part!

 

Today the work also continues in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan and the Baltic countries. Just as in the times of the Soviet outpouring ICEJ has responded to requests for help from the Jewish Agency. One of our newest projects is to help sponsor the Red Carpet Aliyah program which helps incoming families to get nearly all their documents, banks accounts, mobile phones organized in the first 24 hours after arriving.  Olim stay for a night or two in one of the good hotels in Jerusalem while They have an intensive Aliyah fair and a festive award ceremony to receive their Israeli IDs.  The bible says that the redeemed of the Lord will return to Zion with singing!

 

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