The Birth of Israel My Glory
Editor’s Note: We praise God that He has kept this publication strong for more than seven decades. As we begin our 75th year, we thought you might like to read an excerpt from the lead article that ran in the first issue we ever published. The date was December 1942, and the world was at war, fighting the satanic evil of Adolf Hitler. We introduced our supporters to the new name of our ministry and to our new magazine, Israel My Glory.
The Friends of Israel Refugee Relief Committee, Inc., greets you with this first issue of a pamphlet or magazine which we are naming “Israel My Glory.” We have found that by printing a pamphlet issued quarterly we can give our membership and friends [important information] more economically than in any other way. Letters to individuals are more direct and more personal but more expensive also and your committee desires to reduce operating expenses. We ask our friends, to whom this quarterly comes, to accept it as a personal message from your committee.
We are naming the periodical “Israel My Glory” to call attention to the fact that God is not through with the Jewish People. He has promised that one day He will endow Israel with spiritual power and zeal and use this nation as powerful preachers when Christ comes to earth to establish His Kingdom….In naming our quarterly “Israel My Glory,” we desire to remind ourselves of God’s irrevocable promises to Israel and of His benevolent purpose in choosing them to be the human Channel through which Christ should come and the Channel also of future blessing to the world.
Changing Our Name
For about four years we have operated as The Friends of Israel Refugee Relief Committee, Inc. We are changing the name of our organization to “The Friends of Israel Missionary and Relief Society, Inc.”
Emigration from any of the oppressed and conquered nations is now impossible except as the Nazis forcibly deport men from their native lands to work in Germany’s factories and mines. Immigration to the “lands of the free” has ceased and those who have succeeded in escaping from their oppressor are now known as “newcomers.” The word “refugee” is therefore practically outmoded and obsolete.
A Call for Help
As we face the future and attempt to visualize the conditions that will surely prevail after the war is over, we can be certain that the sorrows and needs of the Jewish Christians [Editor: Jewish people who have placed their faith in Jesus as their Savior] will be intensified and pitiable in the extreme. Hitler’s plan is to rid Europe of all Jews—and Jewish Christians are regarded as Jews in his sadistic program.
Professional and business Jews and Jewish Christians have been forcibly ejected from their homes and businesses and Nazi tradesmen have taken possession. These usurpers and robbers are living in stolen homes and are reaping the profits from business built up by the skill and careful work of others through the years. After the war is over, whoever conquers, it will be impossible for the Jew or Jewish Christian ever to recover his lost estate. The “Nordics” will hold on to all confiscated property and ill-gotten gains. The Jew and the Jewish Christian will still be without a country and without home or business.
If the condition of the persecuted children of Israel is tragic now, what will it be when Europe is further decimated and destroyed by war, famine and pestilence?…The Friends of Israel Missionary and Relief Society, Inc., today has contacts and friends over a large part of the earth and our substantial help has been sent to many. We rejoice in what God has permitted our Committee to do through the cooperation of our many friends, but we believe that God is calling us to a more intensive interest in the persecuted members of His Church. We therefore publish this quarterly, change the name of our organization and appeal for increased support.
In the article which the Reverend Paul L. Berman, our corresponding secretary, has written and which comprises the interesting contents of this issue of “Israel My Glory” there are statistics, extracts from letters, word pictures of persecutions and stories of Christian heroism which both horrify and thrill us. Again and again in letters received from persons assisted we have this or equivalent sentences: “I have no other help.” “You alone of all the people on earth can help me.”
Thus many true Christians of Jewish origin appeal to us. And your help has been the means of reviving courage, renewing faith, satisfying hunger and saving souls.
by Joseph Taylor Britan, secretary of The Friends of Israel
Missionary and Relief Society, Inc.
