Seeking to restore traditional values in the United States and Israel, dozens of Conservative Christian and Jewish leaders who met recently in New York stressed the importance of faith and spirituality to the everyday lives of Americans and Israelis.
The event comes amid a wave of antisemitic attacks around the globe against the backdrop of the nine-month-old war against Hamas in Gaza, including a whopping 137% increase in antisemitic hate crime in New York alone last month.
The gathering, which was organized by the Israel Heritage Foundation (IHF) last month and reported by Breitbart News, included the unveiling of a golden replica of the biblical Ark of the Covenant commissioned by American philanthropist Lewis Topper.
“We are dealing with a Godliness that has to be brought back to the world,” said Israel Heritage Foundation (IHF) Executive Vice President Joseph Frager. “Our roots are spiritual,” he added, stressing the need to combine military prowess on the ground with faith. He noted that beyond being a historical article, the Ark represents Israel’s purpose of bringing about global recognition of God’s glory.
Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, said that the fundamental values and principles of Western civilization are under assault. He highlighted the burgeoning relations between Israel and the predominantly supportive evangelical community around the world.
“The values that we hold, we really got from you,” he said, stressing the shared Judeo-Christian tradition. “It’s time for us to return to those principles, restore our own nation to greatness, and defend the State of Israel and the Jewish people.”
He added: “I want you to know, tonight—on behalf of the 60 million evangelical Christians in the United States—that your struggle is our struggle [and] that Israel’s fight to survive is our fight to survive, and we will always defend the State of Israel and the Jewish people.”
Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman cited the Declaration of Independence in arguing that contrary to public perception, the United States is not a godless country.
“In fact, I have practiced law for 35 years and I have never walked into a courtroom without seeing the words ‘In God we trust,'” he said. “Our Declaration of Independence is the only document that creates divine human rights that don’t come from men, but come from God.”
Mordechai Kedar, a prominent Middle East scholar and counter-terrorism expert at Bar-Ilan University, warned of the perils facing Western civilization due to the Islamic Republic, which launched its first direct attack on the Jewish state earlier this year and is pressing ahead in its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
“The danger lies [in] people like the Iranians [walking] around feeling they are directed by Allah through the hidden imam,” he said, adding that “the world cannot tolerate such a group of mullahs carrying these beliefs.”
Kedar warned that if Israel were to collapse or fail in its mission, the United States and other Western countries would be targeted by Islamists.
“The Atlantic Ocean is not wide enough to keep the American shores safe from the same waves of jihadism,” he said.