International Mission to Jewish People (IMJP) is organising evangelistic coach tours in order to reach Jewish Holocaust survivors with the gospel.
An increased openness among Jewish people to hear about Jesus as Messiah means that hundreds of Jewish people are now regularly joining IMJP’s Bible tours, where they visit sites in the Holy Land which have a particular significance in the story, life, and claims of Jesus.
Typically, tours visit key New Testament locations, such as where Jesus was baptised, shared the Beatitudes, and fed the 5,000. As well as being tourist sites for Christian pilgrims, these sites are now places of gospel encounter for Jewish people who have not yet embraced Jesus as the promised Messiah – but are now open to considering His life and His claims.
Following the coach tours, participants are offered Bibles and other Christian literature to take home as well as further one-to-one Bible study to examine Messianic prophecies and the claims of Jesus to be Lord.
Miriam is an 86-year-old Holocaust survivor and coach tour guest. She was born in 1935 into a professional Jewish family where her father was a doctor and her mother a teacher. After the Second World War her family fled from Ukraine to Kyrgyzstan, where she became a teacher herself. Miriam said that she first experienced God through meeting a girl in a velvet dress who told her about Jesus. ‘I saw kindness, holiness and trust’, she said.
The Revd Joseph Steinberg, CEO of IMJP, and Jewish himself said; ‘While the Holocaust took place over 75 years ago, its horror and pain continues to be very real in the lives of most Jewish people, but especially those who suffered first-hand. As Holocaust survivors are now near the end of their lives, there is an added urgency to share the good news of Jesus with them. He can bring healing to the terrible pain these dear people have suffered; He is the only One who can give them life in all its fullness, and bring them real Shalom, peace with God.’
He concluded: ‘The Holocaust has left deep scars on so many Jewish people, but the love and grace which Messiah Jesus offers is helping to restore broken lives after a lifetime of pain.’
