Shofars blasted, Israeli flags flew and Israeli music filled halls of Bethel Church, House of God in Anaheim, Calif., as some 100 evangelical Latinos and their pastors gathered to express solidarity with Israel and launched a new Zionist nonprofit targeting Spanish speakers on Nov. 22.
The brainchild of the Nicaraguan pastor Marvin Garcia, who has led a Los Angeles church for the past 25 years, La Iglesia a Favor de Israel, or “the church in favor of Israel,” responds to what Garcia sees as a need to educate Spanish-speaking evangelicals about the importance of supporting the Jewish state.
“We found that there were no evangelical Christian organizations in Los Angeles and Orange counties that were specifically reaching out to the Latino churches to educate them on how the Bible teaches us to love Israel and that those that bless Israel will be blessed themselves,” Garcia told JNS.
For those who speak English, there is Christians United for Israel, which Garcia supports, he said. “But we wanted to reach the 80% of those evangelical churches who speak Spanish, do not know of our biblical connection to Israel and have received negative exposure about Israel in the Spanish media.” (CUFI has a Spanish version of its site and Spanish-language programs.)
There are currently about 200 Latino evangelicals in southern California, who come from 20 churches, who are members of the new group and about 35 Latino pastors, according to Garcia.
“The vision we have for LAFAI is to provide moral, spiritual and any other support to Israel and the Jewish people, because we love them and want to show them our solidarity,” the pastor told JNS.
Membership in the group is free, but it asks three things of its members and churches, “to allow us one service to discuss Israel, to attend our conference on Israel and help us gain access to media or social media to express our solidarity with the people of Israel,” Garcia told JNS.
Ruben Malekan, an Iranian rabbi who lives in the Los Angeles area, sang a Hebrew song at the event and delivered a message in Spanish thanking attendees for supporting Israel.
“At this difficult time when Israel is facing serious threats to its survival from Islamic terrorists on multiple fronts and antisemitism is on the rise in America, we in the Jewish community need to show our appreciation to our Christian friends, who are standing with us and Israel,” Malekan told JNS.
Garcia told JNS that his passion and activism on behalf of Israel has been ongoing for several decades and that he has launched two pro-Israel associations in Nicaragua. He has also promoted Israel among evangelicals in El Salvador and Guatemala and has taken evangelical Latino groups to Israel over the years to solidify their biblical connection to Israel, he said.
David Edery, who has operated an informal group of 300 evangelical pastors called Friends of Israel-Amigos de Israel for more than 30 years, told JNS that members of the group have connected with Israeli officials, nonprofits and the consulate in Los Angeles.
The group covers “hundreds” of evangelical, Zionist churches in Southern California, Hawaii, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Arizona, whose members visit Israel annually and fundraise for “worthy causes” in the Jewish state, according to Edery. “These Christian friends remain connected to Israel and us in the Jewish community,” he said.
“We, in the Jewish community, need to step up and embrace our friends in the Latino Christian community who are the fastest growing population in America and can make a huge difference for Israel in the future,” Edery said.
Richard Escobedo, senior pastor at Word of Faith Center in the Los Angeles area, is a member of the Friends of Israel group. He told JNS that his and other Latino churches have been supporting Israel and fighting back against Jew-hatred.
“As Christians, we are mandated by God to stand and support Israel and the Jewish people,” Escobedo said. “It’s vital that we come against the tide of growing Jew-hatred in America, because this hate always starts with the Jews but doesn’t end with the Jews.”
“It’s a demonic evil and we need to educate the Hispanic church that it should not be tolerated anywhere,” he said.
Escobedo and other local evangelical Latinos gathered last year at his church to honor the Oct. 7 victims, and his church has invited the local Jewish community to come celebrate Israel’s independence and has raised funds to help Israelis, he told JNS.
“Our message to the Jewish community and Israelis is very clear. You are not alone in this fight for your survival,” he said. “Millions of Bible-believing Christians in America and worldwide stand alongside you and will fight back against those who seek to harm you.”
Edery told JNS that relations between evangelical Latinos and others in the Los Angeles area pro-Israel community isn’t a one-way street. He noted that the prior Israeli consul general in Los Angeles, with help from the local Jewish community, donated computers to young people in Latino churches in the area in 2023 “to show our appreciation to our Christian friends and help lift them up.”
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of global social action at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, told JNS that he was pleased to see some non-Jewish groups openly supporting Israel amid the latest rise in antisemitism in America today.
“How wonderful it is that there are righteous Christians amongst us, who haven’t abandoned us, to the contrary they stand tall in solidarity today with the Jewish people,” he said. “God bless these wonderful faith leaders and their congregations, who publicly stand with the truth and with the people of Israel.”
