What is Menorah Ministries?

 

What are we all about?

Based on over 100 years of combined experience in this field, the staff of Menorah Ministries has a multi-dimensional purpose:

• to effectively communicate the message of Jesus (Yeshua) the Messiah to the Jewish people;

• to establish a model Messianic synagogue which will be a home for Jewish and Gentile followers of Yeshua the Messiah, serving as a pattern and a training ground for Messianic synagogues elsewhere in the world;

• to develop and distribute materials for reaching, discipling, and training Jewish followers of Yeshua;

• to train believers in Yeshua in communicating their faith sensitively to Jewish people;

• to educate believers in discovering the richness of the Jewish roots, foundations, and connections of their Christian faith;

• to promote, within the church, a greater understanding of the Jewish people and Jewish concerns;

• to combat the evils of anti-semitism.

 

As part of its educational program, the staff of Menorah Ministries conducts classes, seminars and conferences on a variety of topics:

• communicating the Jewish gospel to Jewish people;

• understanding the Israel of yesterday and today;

• appreciating the significance and relevance of the Jewish holidays;

• comprehending the Jewish roots and foundations of the Bible and Christianity;

• understanding the Jewishness of Yeshua;

• responding to the history and menace of anti-semitism.

 

Menorah Ministries staff also conducts Passover demonstrations as well as leads “Experience Israel” trips as part of their educational program.

 

More things you should know

Through its efforts over 30 years ago, the staff founded and established Congregation Ohr Chadash, a Messianic synagogue in Clearwater. It is a fully-functional synagogue which has served as a model for numerous visitors and congregations from around the world. Several years earlier, Menorah Ministries staff founded Congregation B’nai Maccabim, which remains a major Messianic synagogue along Chicago’s North Shore community.

 

The staff of Menorah Ministries developed the booklet “L’chaim” which is a tool used to communicate the message of Yeshua within a Jewish context. Over two million copies have been distributed worldwide in English, Russian, Spanish, and Italian. Another 25,000 copies of the pamphlet “Messianic Synagogue” have been distributed in English, Russian, Urdu (a major language in Pakistan), and Telugu (the main language in southern India). This pamphlet explains the history, purpose, and importance of Messianic synagogues.

 

THE OLIVE TREE CONNECTION has gone through several printings and is now an e-book. It has been used around the world to train over 10,000 people to sensitively communicate their faith in Yeshua the Messiah. In addition, many Jewish people who have read the book have realized that Yeshua is their Jewish Messiah. Another 10,000 people throughout the English-speaking world and in Israel have come to understand the significance of the Jewish holidays, for Jews as well as Christians, through reading THE MEANING AND IMPORTANCE OF THE JEWISH HOLIDAYS, another Menorah Ministries publication.

 

Perhaps even more significantly, Menorah Ministries has been able to supply the rapidly growing number of Messianic synagogues with vitally needed materials for their life and worship. The SIDDUR FOR MESSIANIC JEWS (the prayer book for Sabbath services) has gone through nine editions, and the MESSIANIC SERVICES FOR HOLY DAYS AND FESTIVALS (the prayer book for the Jewish holidays) has gone through five. Both volumes are now available as e-books. There is a Russian edition for Russian-speaking communities, where the Messianic Jewish movement is steadily growing. Additionally, Spanish editions have been prepared for publication and distribution in the Hispanic world, another area of rapid Messianic growth.

 

Through the literally hundreds of Passover demonstrations conducted by Menorah Ministries staff, some 20,000 people have learned of the Jewish roots, foundations, and connections of their faith. The staff have also been responsible for establishing Jewish studies courses at one seminary (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) and for establishing and leading a Jewish studies department and major at still another (St. Petersburg Seminary and Yeshiva), as well as teaching courses at both Fuller Seminary and Denver Seminary. Further, Dr. John Fischer, the Executive Director, helped establish the yeshiva (seminary-level) training program for the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations (one of the largest associations of Messianic synagogues in the world). He was also one of the founders of the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations itself.

 

In addition to all this, the staff of Menorah Ministries have educated Christians and have also trained Messianic leaders at seminars and conferences throughout the United States and around the world. This has included seminars and courses (as well as sessions at major professional archaeology conferences) in France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Russia, South Africa, Japan, Nepal, the Philippines, and the Ukraine, plus repeated opportunities in Israel.

An unanticipated ministry has developed in recent years: as a result of their own initiative, a dozen or so prison inmates are being assisted by Menorah Ministries in their walk with God. A number of these inmates are helping to lead Messianic fellowships in various prisons around the country. CDs and literature are being supplied at no cost to enable these groups to worship and grow.

In 1998 Menorah Ministries, in cooperation with St. Petersburg Seminary and Yeshiva, established the Netzer David International Yeshiva, a full-time graduate school to train leaders for the Messianic Jewish movement worldwide. It combines a residential program with periodic intensive courses offered by extension. A distance program has also been developed through which courses and degrees can be completed by Internet and Skype. In addition, the yeshiva is establishing a cooperative program in Israel with its network of contacts there.