“Hayovel Ministry”- Candid Reflections from the Haaretz Article

Let me be clear. Haaretz is a vile left-wing rag fit to use as kittie litter. Yet like many writers and researchers, I frequently scour the sewer of the web to see what’s out there, and to stay abreast of issues from different perspectives, including the worst expressions of self-hating Jews. In a similar vein, back in the day, I would occasionally pick up a copy of the virulently anti-Semitic NY newspaper, “The Amsterdam News” to stay abreast of what black supremacists of urban America/New York had to say about Jews. It was a mouthpiece for the Khalid Muhammads, the Louis Farrakhan’s, the Al Sharptons, and the Jesse Jacksons of the world. After scouring the paper and clipping out any pertinent data, the paper itself was good for lining a gerbil cage or creating a Millwall brick.

And so it is with Haaretz. Fortunately, we can read many of these rags online today which saves us from having to purchase such filth. Haaretz offers a window into the twisted brain of extremist left-wing Jews. I forced myself to read a curious article in Haaretz about the notorious “Hayovel Ministry” and other evangelical missionary groups who contribute so much money and voluntarism in Judea and Samaria. The import of the Haaretz investigative article, Inside the Evangelical Money Flowing into the West Bank by Judy Maltz, is NOT the author’s leftist biased positions. The bias is nakedly apparent. More interesting were the statements and perspectives of several of the key Jews and gentiles involved in this madness. In large measure, the article confirmed many of the troubling things we have been saying for years, both in the candor of responses as well as the lies, distortions, and gross generalizations. 

Ten Things We Learned from The Recent Haaretz Article on “Hayovel Ministry” and other evangelical organizations.

1. Perverted Priority: The article illustrates that Haaretz doesn’t give a damn about Jewish souls or the spiritual dangers of evangelism. They are bothered that so much money is going to communities they deem outside of Israel, in what they disgracefully believe to be “occupied territory”. This is nothing new. Haaretz is the voice of Jewish secular Hellenism. Yet as the cliché goes, a stopped clock inadvertently records a truth twice a day. The writers of Haaretz hate Jews who live in the liberated areas. They care what the Jew-hating world thinks of us. They care as much as the Torah account of events or our claim to the land, as I care about whatever upcoming transgender festival may be coming to Tel Aviv in the spring. And they hate Torah values which oppose the morality of the swine. The real tragedy is that a dozen religious newspapers should be regularly investigating and writing about these issues from a proper Torah perspective. 

2. Normalization: Jews and Christians admit that their efforts to normalize have removed much of the past public opposition. Yet their assurances that MOST rabbis in Israel support such interfaith relationships and activities are inaccurate. Let’s be honest for a moment. Most Jews (including Rabbis) in Israel don’t even know about these issues. Those that have a vague sense cannot comprehend the full extent of the problem, certainly not these new peculiar marriages, and when they are apprised, they often express horror. Furthermore, such people often lack the temperament or the ability to research the issue and take steps to address the problem.  

It is equally inaccurate to say that MOST rabbis in the Shomron support such measures. To my knowledge, there are only two very prominent personalities who have taken an open position on these issues. Many prominent Rabbis in Israel have issued rulings in opposition to accepting funds or forging relationships with Christians. For an excellent compilation of classic and more recent Torah positions, check out: https://jewishisrael.com/page/halachic-rulings-opinions-and  Nevertheless, it is true that a terrible normalization has occurred over the years through a savvy campaign of hiding information from the public, abrogating basic halachic/hashkafic mores relating to interfaith dialogue, sanitizing "Hayovel" and other groups, isolating rabbis from missionary experts, and demonizing the few vocal activists on the scene.

FACT: Tommy Waller has a better chance of speaking with Har Bracha’s Rabbi Melamed than good Jews on the scene who were denied an audience with him over the years. 

FACT: Several of the most knowledgeable experts on the scene are righteous converts to Judaism who lived as evangelicals for years. The attempts to destroy their reputations by certain people is a chillul Hashem and a blatant violation of the biblical prohibition. 

3.Our Tax Dollars: The government will now be gifting Hayovel $16, 000 a year. This number will surely grow in the coming years. The government doesn’t GIVE anyone money. We Jews in Israel are now funding Hayovel with our tax dollars. An absolute outrage. Sixteen thousand annual dollars is merely the beginning of what will become a pot of gold for them. It will also free up their own capital for other nefarious projects.

4. Unscrupulous Business: Many Jewish businesses who profit from Hayovel Ministry’s free agriculture labor are doing very well financially. Not only are they involved in halachically prohibited labor, but they are also denying their fellow Jewish citizens employment, and affecting the businesses of any Jews who might refrain from such free labor. Being profitable businesses, they could pay Jews today, but greed has taken over. Call them out and they get defensive. When the author of the article asked the owner of Tura Winery some probing questions, he got defensive:

To hear it from (Nir) Lavie, there is no reason to take pity on him or his business.

Asked if the winery was profitable, he responds: “Baruch Hashem” (“Thank God”). He becomes more defensive, though, when asked how much money he saves from all the free help. “And what about the kibbutzim?” he responds angrily. “They didn’t save money with all their volunteers from Holland and Sweden?” 

He has a point, of course, except that volunteers on kibbutzim traditionally received room and board in exchange for their work. Hayovel volunteers do not; they are required to cover all their expenses on their own. 

This is big business. Many self-appointed leaders, rabbis, and organizations have made lucrative businesses and are earning large salaries courtesy of these obscene relationships with evangelical missionaries. “Lipkin Tours” dominates a peculiar form of Christian tourism, catering largely to some of the most aggressive missionary organizations in the world.

5. Pious Frauds: Hayovel likes to play the righteous card about how they are fulling their part to bring "restoration" (keyword for their nefarious missionary agenda). When asked if they would take money from vintners who are profitable, they play the pious card about not wanting to take their money. The truth is that they already profit with percentages of sales from the wine purchases going to Hayovel. The image of pious pilgrims is a farce. The Waller family are doing very well. It is the foolish pilgrim who pays for his volunteerism.

6. Open Purses: Jews know that for every program or business they want to start in the liberated areas, they can easily reach out to any number of prominent organizations to get the money that would be otherwise harder to procure. Evangelicals are brilliant when it comes to finding niches to peddle their charitable wares. From preying on forgotten vulnerable Jews living in depressed regions to purchasing MRI machines in a country which until recently had so few of them (shame on Israel!), they know that Jews want beautiful parks and need ambulances. In a country which may deprive them of niceties and necessities, the lure of Christian generosity is too tempting for many people.

7. Arrogance: Hayovel and evangelical groups are brazen, a clear reflection of how Jewish leadership dropped the ball. It is also true that many good individuals abandoned the fight after frivolous lawsuits from powerful Christian interests, or because they were tarred with libel and slander from many of the Jews involved in this sin. As Rabbi Meir Kahane often stated, “those who can’t debate, defame”. Much has changed since the days when the Waller’s had to look the other way each time they met a fellow Christian for coffee or visited their notorious friends, the messianic Ortiz family in Ariel.

8. Not Only Anglos: It is not only those Jews with an Anglo background who enable these predators. Many of the most prominent players in Israel are native-born Israelis who discovered the evangelical cash cow. All that was required was a willingness to tread on the forbidden ground for money and other interests, and to close their ears to the religious hymns being sung/played while the harvesters picked away at the vines. As Maltz notes in the article:

“On Haaretz's visit to Har Bracha, volunteers from the United States, Sweden, Norway, Hong Kong, Austria and New Zealand could be heard singing Christian hymns as they picked grapes in the vineyards owned by Tura Winery. Some of the women had babies strapped to their backs as they moved up and down the rows.”

9. Clever Tactics: Hayovel’s normalization is s tragic illustration of just how effective "Relational Evangelism" can be. It is the most pernicious and successful form of evangelism since it opened doors with religious Jews; an unprecedented thing in Jewish history. Missionizing is more than baptizing people. They are breaking down barriers, changing the mindset and values of Jews on the issue of Jesus, and planting roots within the framework of “restoration”. In truth all evangelicals had to do was exchange the thirsty sword for the sweet nothings of a forked tongue, and Jews would bite the bait. Who knew that the tongue could do what the sword could not?

10. Unspoken War: Most Jews don’t know what is happening with the evangelical incursion. Many don’t care. Many lie to themselves and speak of “pragmatism” and “righteous allies”, neither of which applies to these evangelical opportunists. Perhaps Jews need to start researching some of the wines they drink on Shabbat and get a history of the process. Besides the uniquely crafty tactics of Hayovel, the impact of the millions of evangelical dollars coming into Israel is impossible to calibrate, and those Jews who have the most to lose are those most vulnerable to the toxic sweetness. These would be those who draw near to the church for psychological, financial, and cultural/religious reasons. Some of the more outrageous street missionaries of Israel’s depressed area are experts at preying on the destitute and the elderly. Evangelicals spread their money everywhere, from the coarse street performer Jacob Damkani types to the more respectable outlets who zealously avoid such garish tactics. 

We have three threats exhibited in the article: 1) biased Jewish Hellenists who don’t like religious Jews or evangelicals because neither has a tolerance for abortion on demand or gay rights. 2) enabling Jews who flout Halacha and halachic precedent to form forbidden relationships. 3) Brother Esau types who play the part of Santa year-round. 

Chanukah and Purim epitomize the two types of war Jews face throughout history. The threat of physical and spiritual extinction. Every G-d fearing Jew knows that missionaries deserve the same fate as physical Amalekites. This is basic Torah, despite what spokespeople for Israel365 may say on the matter. Evangelicals and Jews are not natural allies. We are the most natural of enemies. They wish to replace us, and when that term became provocative, they developed/evolved the doctrines of restoration (Esav Exposed) to say what they really want to say in nicer ways. 

Chanukah may be over, but as I noted recently, the war for Chanukah is never over. It is a lifelong war until the arrival of the true Jewish Moshiach; a figure who will be a man of flesh and blood and not some made-up "reincarnated" composite of ancient pagan religions.

Hashem, give us the will and the wisdom to combat and destroy our enemies. Whether it be the sword-wielding crusader, the smiling apostate, or the Ishmaelite fiend with a vest of explosives strapped to his person. Or the grinning “Brother Esau” who wishes to hug us with a deadly embrace. Beware his teeth