The Rev. Joe Daltorio, lead pastor of the River of Life Community Church in Hudson, OH, told the Cleveland Jewish News that he and his community want Jews and the people of Israel to know “we stand with them.” And so, on Nov. 17, Daltorio’s church will hold “A Night to Honor Israel.”
“Israel is often denigrated and has been given bad press, and we feel unjustifiably so, and we want to rectify that,” Daltorio told the CJN. “Christians have not always treated the Jewish population well throughout history, and we feel it’s very important for Christians to stand with the Jewish people and the people of Israel.”
Bruce Mandel, from the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, will be one of the speakers, discussing “Jews standing with our Christian friends, because these days we need to stand together.” Mandel told the CJN that the idea for the event began when “the community relations committee of the Federation reached out to our evangelical friends, and we met with respect and love for the Jewish people and Israel. We’ve nurtured this relationship over the past seven years, and it’s been wonderful.” Mandel added: “If there was ever a time for Christians and Jews to stand together, this is the time, because both are being persecuted.”
Moran Birman, Israeli deputy consul general in the Mid-Atlantic Region, will also speak at the event. Birman graduated in December, 2014 from the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s three-month course for diplomatic cadets. He noted in a humorous article published by the ministry, that one of his big challenges was learning how to knot a tie, which he overcame using a YouTube instruction video.
The River of Life Community Church’s website states that the church recognizes the Bible as the infallible and authoritative rule of its faith and conduct, and that “We conform our lives to Scripture, not the other way around.”
Other speakers will include Laurie Cardoza-Moore, founder and president of Proclaiming Justice to the Nations; Rabbi Jonathan Hausman of Ahavath Torah Congregation in Stoughton, Mass.; and the Rev. Joe Green, outreach director of American Friends of ALYN Hospital, a children’s rehabilitation facility in Jerusalem.
