Stand for Israel

Shabbat Shalom from Israel! Wishing a Happy Easter weekend to our Christian friends.

Praying for a blessed Good Friday for all our Christian friends! May the bounty of God be upon us always, and may His peace guide our faithful hearts.

Chag Sameach! Wishing a blessed Passover week to the Jewish people around the world as this sacred holiday begins at sundown! Thank you, God, for Your promise, Your deliverance, and for this holy opportunity of faithful rejoice in You 🙏

Dora and Shifra Reznik were Jewish sisters who led happy lives until the Nazis invaded their homeland of Lithuania. Except for the sisters, their entire extended family was murdered. Dora and Shifra escaped, and wandered for months. At last they arrived at the home of Jonas and Felicija Radlinskas, a couple who were barely able to feed their own three daughters with their livelihood of subsistence farming. But seeing these starving sisters clothed only in the same shabby rags they had worn for nearly a year, Jonas and Felicija knew they could not turn the girls away. During the summers, the sisters were hidden in haystacks in the fields, but during the brutal Lithuanian winters, they stayed safe in the Radlinskas’ cellar. To pass the winter days, Felicija would go down to the cellar and teach Dora and Shifra how to sew. And at night, the family would pull the shades tight and bring Dora and Shifra upstairs to share their supper. Being poor, rural farmers, Jonas and Felicija could not read. So when the girls were upstairs, they would read the newspaper to the family, telling them the latest developments with the war. In August of 1944, there would be no more need to hide and no more need to search the papers for news, as the area was liberated from the Nazis and the Reznik sisters were safe at last. For their kind and brave actions — which carried on for nearly two years — Jonas and Felicija Radlinskas were named Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, Israel’s official Holocaust memorial.

Ongoing Iranian cluster munitions threaten central Israel going into Passover. Read more at: ifcj.org/news/stand-for…

To all of our Jewish friends in America and across the world, Happy Passover.

Shlomo and his family made aliyah from France in time for Passover in Israel. Read more at: ifcj.org/news/stories/w…

Hear from Gadi of The Fellowship’s Israel office as he shares how travel restrictions and gathering limits are impacting Passover celebrations this year.

Iranian cluster munitions fell across central Israel while IDF troops engage Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon. Read more at: ifcj.org/news/stand-for…

What do you love most about Israel? 💙🤍

Hezbollah directed most of its rocket fire at IDF forces operating in southern Lebanon over the weekend. Read more at: ifcj.org/news/stand-for…

The IDF has confirmed the IAF has carried out more than 600 strikes against Iran this week. Read more at: ifcj.org/news/stand-for…

This vehicle is especially needed for the small community of 8,500 in northern Israel. Read more at: ifcj.org/news/fellowshi…

Shabbat Shalom from Israel!

Yael and Fellowship volunteers prepared Passover packages for families and elderly in Tiberias. Read more at: ifcj.org/news/fellowshi…

This is the third IDF casualty since the ground offensive against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon began. Read more at: ifcj.org/news/stand-for…

Robert Seduls was a Latvian Christian who had been both a seaman and a boxer. But when the Nazis overtook his country during World War II, Robert was working as a janitor in the city of Liepaja. He was friends with David Zivcon, a Jewish resident of the building, and as the Nazis began their dastardly plans for Latvia’s Jews, Robert promised David his help. What Robert did not know was that he would soon be helping more than just his friend. The Nazis had gathered the city’s Jews into a ghetto, as they did across much of Europe. By October of 1943, David realized the ghetto would only lead to death. It was time to flee. Along with his wife and another Jewish couple, David escaped the ghetto. Robert welcomed the four into his home, hiding them in a concealed area of the cellar. More were to come. The initial four would stay hidden in the basement for a year and a half, until the area had been liberated from the Germans. But a few months later they were joined by three more Jewish men, then three more. In April of 1944, David’s sister Rivka arrived with her three-year-old daughter Ada. Robert realized the cellar was no place to hide a toddler, so he arranged for the girl to stay with a widow nearby. But even with the toddler gone, the cellar still held 11 people. Feeding themselves during the war was hard enough for Robert and Johanna, much less 11 extra mouths. Some of the hidden Jews were expert workmen, so they helped with numerous repairs for Robert, bringing in more money to feed them all. One of the Jews in hiding wrote of the time in the cellar in his diary, describing the crowded and stressful conditions and the constant fear of being found. The stress wore on Robert, too, as a diary entry from December 1944 notes: “Robert is terribly nervous.” Robert had every reason to be nervous, as the Nazis and their lackeys were always on the lookout for escaped or hidden Jews. Because of these raids, Robert installed a special light in the cellar to warn those in hiding of approaching patrols. Once, he flashed the light as Nazis approached. For an hour, the hidden Jews stood ready, armed with pistols, ready for a firefight with the murderous Germans. Luckily, the Nazis left before the Jews could be discovered. The physical light was not the only light Robert brought to his hidden friends. He also provided them with books and newspapers to keep their spirits up, and would regularly visit little Ada, taking photos of her for her mother still in the cellar. Sadly, Robert Seduls would not live to see the war’s end. He was killed by a shell from the approaching Russians in March of 1945. Johanna, however, kept up her dead husband’s good work, caring for the Jews until the war was over. Of the 7,000 Jews who had lived in the city of Liepaja before the war, only 30 of them survived the Holocaust. Eleven of those 30 were saved thanks to Robert and Johanna Seduls, who were named Righteous Gentiles in 1981.

Nuriel, a 27-year-old youth counselor and preschool assistant, was killed in strikes in the Upper Galilee. Read more at: ifcj.org/news/stand-for…

Celebrate America 250 with how President Martin Van Buren stood up for the Jewish people during the Damascus Affair. Read more at: ifcj.org/news/fellowshi…

Overnight strikes from Iran damaged buildings in Tel Aviv and minorly injured four. Read more at: ifcj.org/news/stand-for…