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By Nicole Jansezian

Amos Brill has been helping people celebrate life since he was a child deejaying parties and organizing events from his parents’ basement. His business, “Ma’atefet Events,” is a natural extension of his personality.

But after the Hamas invasion on October 7, and for the first time since he founded his company, Brill is concerned about the future.

“When the war broke out, the company was at its highest point. We were booked through Hanukkah and were looking at a record year,” he told CBN Israel. “Now, my calendar is empty. Zero.”

Brill’s warehouse was full of deflated bouncy houses and other inflatables and party props collecting dust in Rishon LeZion, a coastal city outside Tel Aviv.

But through a quick partnership between Brill and CBN Israel, this equipment has come off the shelves for special events featuring Superbook, the animated biblical series, a life-size Gizmo mascot, bouncy castles, and fun games for children who have been living in hotels and temporary shelters after being evacuated from their homes since the war began.

“Children need to move around and play,” Brill said. “The moment we did this project for them, it was like a breath of fresh air. They were on cloud nine. The parents couldn’t stop thanking us. They came to me to say thank you, but I told them the thanks goes to CBN Israel and Superbook.”

With no work right after October 7 and the entire nation grappling with the unfolding tragedy, Brill wanted to help Israelis impacted by the war, and so he voluntarily set up some of his bouncy houses for kids in different venues.

However, after a few weeks of funding such activities on his own, he took an honest look at his dwindling bank account. He unfortunately had to place some of his staff on unemployment, and others were called up to reserve duty. Brill prepared to shut his doors.

That’s when CBN Israel stepped in.

“I had the inspiration to call CBN Israel, so we met and immediately decided to do something big,” Brill told us.

CBN Israel agreed to sponsor 30 special events featuring the Superbook movie, “David and Goliath,” around the country for children evacuated from their homes. Brill outfitted his van to display the Superbook and CBN Israel logos and took the show on the road.

“One of the best things you can do to get out of trauma, to get out of a painful situation, especially for children, is activity and movement,” Brill said. “What we provide is the opportunity for movement—a lot of it. Instead of sitting in front of screens and iPhones, the kids get to jump, play sports, and get out of the hotel rooms and into a different place.”

“This would not be possible without CBN Israel,” Brill said.

With CBN Israel’s partnership, not only are the children—and their parents—given a reprieve, but Brill’s company has been able to survive another few weeks. His workers felt they were giving back to fellow citizens in need, and his suppliers also benefit from the business he is able to give them.

“Something amazing came out of this—not only were we helping the community and the evacuated children, but also CBN Israel helped us from a financial perspective,” Brill said. “We’re not in the same place we were before as a thriving business, but I’m able to pay the salaries and… there are many economic ripples in this partnership as well.”

“It’s such a wonderful collaboration, and I’m so grateful to CBN Israel and Superbook for their help,” he said.

Nicole Jansezian is the media coordinator for CBN Israel. A long-time journalist, Nicole was previously the news editor of All Israel News and All Arab News and a journalist at The Associated Press. On her YouTube channel, Nicole gives a platform to the minority communities in Jerusalem and highlights stories of fascinating people in this intense city. Born and raised in Queens, N.Y., she lives in Jerusalem with her husband, Tony, and their three children.

October 7, 2023, changed the lives—and expectations of survival—for all Israelis. Since that day, the Hamas attacks have displaced over 250,000 people. Finding themselves under constant threat of rockets and terrorists, many moved into bomb shelters, afraid to go out. And they were running out of food.

“We do not have a safe room, so we ran to the basement,” explained Daria. “I tried to stay calm, to keep my kids from seeing how terrified I was.”

After escaping the Russian invasion of Ukraine the year before, Daria and her family had moved to Israel and sought refuge in Ashkelon, near the border with Gaza—only to come under siege from Hamas. “We left one war and ended up in another.”

Another victim, an elderly shut-in, was in bed when terrorists attacked. “One rocket hit the building next door—the whole first floor was gone,” she said. “My daughter wrapped me in a blanket and helped me get to a hospital. Then she found this apartment, and we moved here.

But thanks to kindhearted friends like you, CBN Israel’s team of brave volunteers walked down Ashkelon’s ravaged streets, searching for families like these who were trapped in their homes and in shelters. Caring donors made it possible to deliver bags of nutritious groceries to their door—letting them know they are not alone.

Daria was thrilled. “A very big thank you to all the people helping families like mine in such a difficult situation. We try to stay inside as much as possible. This was a big deal to us.”

And the elderly woman exclaimed, “My daughter and I are very grateful! Yesterday, we couldn’t leave the house, and you brought us food. I can eat today—thank you very much!”

Your gifts to CBN Israel can provide a lifeline to those caught in the crossfire—while offering compassionate relief and hope to others in the Holy Land who need our help.

Please join us in blessing those in crisis at this perilous time!

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By Marc Turnage

Bethlehem gains its notoriety as the birthplace of Jesus (Matthew 2:1; Luke 2:1-7); however, by the time of Jesus’ birth, the village already had quite a history. Bethlehem first appears in the Amarna Letters (14th century B.C.) as a Canaanite town. Its name comes from this period and means “house” or temple (“beth”) of Lahmu, a Canaanite deity; it did not, as is commonly assumed, mean “house of bread.” Bethlehem played an important role in the Old Testament, as it was the home of David (1 Samuel 16). 

Bethlehem’s location along the central watershed route that ran north-south through the Hill Country accounts for much of its importance. Located five-and-a-half miles south of Jerusalem and thirteen-and-a-half miles north of Hebron, it served as a major juncture of roads coming from east and west that connected to the watershed route. Its strategic position and close proximity to Jerusalem led Rehoboam, king of Judah, to fortify it as part of his defenses of Judah. So, too, Herod the Great built his palace fortress Herodium to the east of Bethlehem, guarding a road that ascended to the Hill Country from En Gedi in the first century B.C. 

Bethlehem sat at the eastern end of the Elah Valley (1 Samuel 17), whose western end opened onto the Coastal Plain, the land of the Philistines. Thus, when the Philistines moved into the Elah Valley (1 Samuel 17), Bethlehem was their goal, which explains the interest of Jessie and his son David in the conflict taking place in the valley. During the wars between David and the Philistines, the Philistines eventually set up a garrison at Bethlehem (2 Samuel 23:14-16; 1 Chronicles 11:16), indicating David’s struggles to control the major roadways of his kingdom. 

David’s connection to Bethlehem derived, in part, from its location within the tribal territory of Judah, in which it was the northernmost settlement of Judah (Judges 19:11-12). In the fields around Bethlehem, David’s ancestors Boaz and Ruth met, and the prophet Samuel anointed David in Bethlehem, at the home of his father Jessie (1 Samuel 16). 

In the first century, Bethlehem remained a small town on the southern edge of Jerusalem. The proximity of these two locations is seen in the stories of Jesus’ birth (Matthew 2 and Luke 2:1-38). Early Christian traditions, as well as the earliest Christian artwork, depict the birth of Jesus within a cave in Bethlehem. Homes in the Hill Country often incorporated natural caves into the structure. Animals could be kept within the cave, having the main living space of the family separated from the animals by a row of mangers. 

Following the Bar Kochba Revolt (A.D. 132-136), the Romans expelled Jews from Bethlehem and its vicinity as part of their expulsion of Jews from Jerusalem, which was renamed Aelia Capitolina. The Emperor Hadrian built a pagan sanctuary to Adonis above the cave identified as the birthplace of Jesus. The church father Tertullian confirmed that at the end of the second century A.D. no Jews remained in Bethlehem. 

In the fourth century, the Emperor Constantine—as part of his move toward Christianity—built three churches in Palestine (which is the name the Romans called the land at this time). One, the Church of Nativity, he built in Bethlehem over the traditional site of Jesus’ birthplace. Begun in A.D. 326, the church incorporated the traditional cave identified as Jesus’ birthplace into the building. St. Jerome came to Bethlehem and lived in caves around the church at the end of the fourth century to learn Hebrew from the local Jewish population, so he could translate the Old Testament from Hebrew into Latin (the Vulgate). A Samaritan revolt in 529 partially destroyed the Constantinian church. The Emperor Justinian ordered its rebuilding, which the modern Church of Nativity reflects with minor modifications.

Very little archaeological work has been done in Bethlehem. Most comes from around the Church of Nativity, but no systematic excavations have been carried out. The modern city of Bethlehem impedes the ability of much archaeological activity; thus, very little is known about Bethlehem’s archaeological past. 

Marc Turnage is President/CEO of Biblical Expeditions. He is an authority on ancient Judaism and Christian origins. He has published widely for both academic and popular audiences. His most recent book, Windows into the Bible, was named by Outreach Magazine as one of its top 100 Christian living resources. Marc is a widely sought-after speaker and a gifted teacher. He has been guiding groups to the lands of the Bible—Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, and Italy—for over twenty years.

Website: WITBUniversity.com
Facebook: @witbuniversity
Podcast: Windows into the Bible Podcast

“And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city” (Luke 2:1-3 NKJV).

Luke places the birth of Jesus with the census of Quirinius (2:1-2). This event held bitter feelings for the Jewish people. Rome officially annexed Judaea as part of its empire with the census of Quirinius.

The Jewish people of the land of Israel were brought under pagan, Roman rule. In response to the census, a stream of Jewish philosophy emerged which taught that submission to Rome was a sin, since God alone was Israel’s king. The response to Roman rule was: Take up the sword, resist, and spill Roman blood; this is the path of redemption.

In the midst of this turmoil, God sent His Son, born to Joseph and Mary. He fulfilled His promise not through the resistance movement and bloodshed, but through a child, who would grow up to call upon those seeking redemption to repent.

Turmoil has the ability to make us yearn for God’s assistance. It can also lead us to seek our own means to make it happen. God is never deaf to our cries of help, yet He often uses means that we find ourselves blind to because of the turmoil of our circumstances.

Jesus entered a world of turmoil. Rome had taken over. The people of Israel cried for God’s redemption. The question became, how would He achieve it?

Some sought armed resistance as the path, yet God’s redemption entered the world through a baby born to a pious family. A baby who would grow up and tell people that the kingdom of Heaven (God) has come near and that returning to God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the pathway to receive God’s salvation.

This baby would grow up and one day offer His life as the ultimate sacrifice to bring about that redemption, but God would raise Him from the dead as evidence that His salvation has come near.

The Christmas season often heightens our feelings of turmoil. Financial troubles. Being alone. And many people feel sadness and turmoil during this season. The message of Christmas is that God steps into our turmoil. He is near. He does not abandon us. Yet we don’t always see Him or understand His purpose.

Into the turmoil of the first century, God sent forth His Son, who called upon the people to return to Him and to His ways. And He calls us to do the same today.

PRAYER

Father, even in the midst of our own turmoil and frustrated hopes, may we lean into Your presence realizing that You never forsake us. May we see that You still come to us inviting us to return to You and submit ourselves to Your plans and purposes. Amen.

By Nicole Jansezian

CBN Israel is preparing to deal with an expected “tsunami” of psychological and emotional counseling that will be needed as Israelis process the Hamas atrocities of October 7 which left 1,200 dead, tens of thousands displaced and 240 as hostages in Gaza.

“It wasn’t just those injured, and people directly affected that were impacted by this war—it affected the whole nation,” said Arik Pelled, director of CBN Israel’s Family Department. “The atrocities created a national trauma.”

Since the war, Israel has seen an increase in anxiety, fear, and insecurity, according to experts who spoke with CBN Israel. And Israelis who were directly affected by the atrocities are not the only ones impacted. An estimated 120,000 residents have been displaced and are living in hotels. Many still live under the threat of rocket fire and every resident is watching the morbid news on a regular basis.

“The 7th of October was a change in the mindset, I think, of the Israeli society,” said Talia Levanon, CEO of Israel Trauma Coalition. “We’re going to carry it for many years, also for more than one generation.”

CBN is teaming up with the Israel Trauma Coalition to meet this need including training more therapists, introducing emergency early-intervention therapies and building mobile therapy units.

“We are making it possible for more people to get the counseling they need either on an emergency basis or regularly,” Pelled said.

Pelled noted that the October 7 attacks shattered many securities that Israelis held onto as terrorists invaded their guarded communities and their homes with weapons that penetrated even the bomb shelters.

“The entire country is in a place where personal security has been shaken. A home is no longer a safe place, a shelter is no longer a safe place, parents are no longer a safe place—they can suddenly disappear. The army is no longer a safe place, the police, authorities—everything has been shaken.”

Rina Matigil, who operated One Heart, has been counseling residents in Sderot, a southern Israeli city that has come under rocket bombardment for more than 20 years.

“Even before this war, when I spoke with people or did interviews, I always said, ‘We are all, unfortunately, in a state of trauma,’” she said. The recent events, she added, add more layers to the existing trauma.

Two months out from the onset of the war, most people are in survival mode and have not reached out for therapy, but when they do, experts are expecting a tidal wave of demand.

“They are very busy at the moment with finding themselves, whether in hotels or looking for a job or taking care of the kids,” Levanon explained. “So, people will not now turn to therapy. What we know from our experience is that after the event, we have a tsunami of people who want therapy.”

Levanon said another assumption is that not only will there be more people seeking help, the types of situations they need to cope with are unprecedented.

“We need also to take into consideration that the issues that we will be dealing with are very different. It’s not just a higher number of people—it’s people who are dealing with grief, people who are dealing with very traumatic events, not to mention being a hostage and so on,” she said. “And so the therapists need to be trained to do things that address issues they’ve never dealt with before.”

“Now with residents scattered around the country after evacuating their homes, CBN Israel is working with Israel Trauma Coalition to create a national call center that will connect people to the closest therapist in their new location,” Pelled said. “We are trying to open one national center, not in one geographic location because everyone in the country is scattered and displaced.”

CBN Israel also hosted a workshop for Israeli counsellors, psychologists, and family therapists so they can implement an emergency intervention method in their counseling. Dr. Gary Quinn, a psychiatrist based in Israel who specializes in crisis intervention, anxiety, depressive disorders, and PTSD, led the workshop at the CBN Israel office. Quinn pioneered ISP, Immediate Stabilization Procedure, a type of intervention was successful in Ukraine.

Pelled said the purpose of this early intervention therapy is to break the loop of repeating a negative experience in the hopes of preventing PTSD.

“Of course, it is possible to work with a person at any point, but if you catch the person in time, this will start the healing process sooner,” he said.

CBN Israel is also building a similar program for leaders of congregations around the country to equip them as well to deal with these unprecedented traumas.

Nicole Jansezian is the media coordinator for CBN Israel. A long-time journalist, Nicole was previously the news editor of All Israel News and All Arab News and a journalist at The Associated Press. On her YouTube channel, Nicole gives a platform to the minority communities in Jerusalem and highlights stories of fascinating people in this intense city. Born and raised in Queens, N.Y., she lives in Jerusalem with her husband, Tony, and their three children.

For 30 years, Lina had lived in Ashkelon, a target for Hamas rockets near Gaza. She had grown used to missile attacks, sirens, and running for shelter. But October 7 was different.

“This time it was like a horror movie,” she recalls. “So many children, so many people were killed for nothing. Ashkelon is like a war zone now. There is a smell of burning everywhere—the smell of war.” Where could she and her children go to feel safe again?

Fortunately, caring friends like you made a way for Lina and her children to stay in Eilat, a peaceful area away from the attacks. Through CBN Israel, donors are providing temporary shelter for families and offering therapy to help them process the terrible trauma they’ve experienced. They are also supplying them with hot meals and basic necessities. As Lina shares, “We fled from our houses with practically nothing, and we are left without work or income.”

She added, “You gave me a complete hygiene kit—toothbrush, deodorant, and everything we needed.” Donors also enabled her to purchase clothes and toys for her kids. She said, “I couldn’t bring toys at all—I didn’t think of that. What you’re doing really helps a lot. Thank you!”

In addition to rushing relief aid to these terror victims, your gifts to CBN Israel can also deliver ongoing assistance across the country to elderly Holocaust survivors, single mothers, immigrants, and those struggling to survive.

The war has devastated thousands of lives across the Holy Land. Your support to CBN Israel can rush emergency relief to those escaping battle zones, while offering groceries, housing, financial aid, and more to others in need.

Please join us in providing a lifeline to those who need our help!

GIVE TODAY

By Marc Turnage

Nazareth—the boyhood home of Jesus—sits on a limestone ridge (the Nazareth Ridge) in the Lower Galilee that separates the Jezreel Valley to the south from the Beit Netofa Valley to the north. Nazareth first appears in ancient literary sources in the New Testament (Matthew 2:23; Luke 1:26; Luke 2:4, 39, and 51). According to Luke, Jesus’ mother, Mary, came from Nazareth (1:26). Matthew relates how the Holy Family, after returning from Egypt, relocated to Nazareth (2:19–23). Jesus taught in Nazareth’s synagogue (Luke 4:16-30), and as His popularity grew, He became known as “Jesus from Nazareth” (Matthew 21:11).

Although Nazareth is not mentioned in ancient sources prior to the New Testament, archaeologists have uncovered remains from the Middle Bronze Age (time of the Patriarchs), Iron Age II (time of kingdoms of Israel and Judah), and the late Hellenistic eras. The discovery of tombs from the early Roman period (first century B.C. to second century A.D.) indicates the limit of the village, as Jews do not bury their dead inside of cities or villages. The site in the first century covered an area of about sixty 60 acres, with a population of maybe perhaps 500 people. 

Ancient Nazareth sits 3.8 miles (about an hour-and-fifteen-minute walk) to the south of Sepphoris, the capital of Galilee when Jesus was a boy. Its proximity indicates its dependency upon Sepphoris; moreover, its location between the Jezreel and Beit Netofa Valleys, both of which contained international travel routes, suggests that Jesus was anything but “a hick from the sticks.”

Archaeologists uncovered what they tentatively identify as a Jewish ritual immersion bath from the early Roman period. If they are correct, it may point to the location of the synagogue of Nazareth (see Luke 4:16-30). This, as well as early Christian structures, are now enclosed inside the modern compound of the Catholic Church of the Annunciation, built in the 1960s. 

Later Jewish tradition identifies Nazareth as the location where the priestly course of Hapizez settled after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in A.D. 70; an inscription discovered in the coastal city of Caesarea, from the Byzantine period, repeats this. The church fathers Eusebius and Epiphanius indicate that the population of Nazareth was Jewish into the sixth century A.D. 

By the fourth century A.D., Christian pilgrims began to journey to Nazareth and were shown a cave identified as the home of Mary. It remains a place for pilgrims to this day. It has housed churches since the Byzantine period. Today, Nazareth contains two main pilgrim churches: the Catholic Church of the Annunciation and the Orthodox church built over the spring of Nazareth. 

Marc Turnage is President/CEO of Biblical Expeditions. He is an authority on ancient Judaism and Christian origins. He has published widely for both academic and popular audiences. His most recent book, Windows into the Bible, was named by Outreach Magazine as one of its top 100 Christian living resources. Marc is a widely sought-after speaker and a gifted teacher. He has been guiding groups to the lands of the Bible—Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, and Italy—for over twenty years.

Website: WITBUniversity.com
Facebook: @witbuniversity
Podcast: Windows into the Bible Podcast

“He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty. He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever” (Luke 1:51-55 NKJV).

The Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) and the Benedictus (Luke 1:68-79) voice the Jewish redemptive hopes and aspirations of the first century. They yearned for God’s removal of Rome, freeing His people so they could worship Him. And they anticipated the reversal of the social order. These were subversive ideas; they upset those who resided in palaces and felt comfortable with the status quo. They hoped God would exalt the lowly and bring down the mighty, that the hungry would be filled and the rich would be made poor. 

God’s redemption was not merely inward and personal. God’s redemption impacted all His people and manifested itself in visible, tangible ways within the social and political order. Mary’s words are anything but safe; they are radical. Israel’s long-held hope for redemption has now come, and it will disrupt the established world.

We tend to view Christmas through our own lens—what God has done for me. In doing so, we can all too easily fail to feel the collective sense of hope and upheaval that the message of Christmas originally articulated. It’s there in Mary’s song; in the song of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist; in the angelic proclamation; and even in Simeon’s utterance about the newborn Jesus in the Temple. 

God is fulfilling His promises to Israel’s fathers—to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—with the birth of Jesus. The hopes of His people, and the world, are being realized in the baby in Bethlehem. But this redemption will upset the social and political order of the day. 

It’s hard for us sometimes—wrapped in the lights, sounds, and smells of Christmas—to hear the disruptive and subversive tone of the first Christmas. But we need to. What God did in sending Jesus was more than for our personal benefit. It manifests itself in visible and tangible ways to all humanity—the mighty and the lowly. 

Jesus articulated the message of Christmas when He read from the book of Isaiah in the synagogue of His hometown Nazareth: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19). 

PRAYER

Father, manifest Your redemption this Christmas in the world among the hurting, suffering, poor, and oppressed. And help us to be present where You are. Amen.