Chief Rabbi Sees Yeshua and Defies the Nazis: When Jews and Christians Stood Together

Avi (00:01):
One morning, Robert Ion gets up in the morning, he praises Sharri his morning prayer. And there is a vision of a person, a white person, glowing with light and he sees him and then he disappeared and he’s totally shaken. What is that? So he ask his friends, nobody knew. So he went the next day to see the metropolitan Stefan. They were meeting, discussing things, and he told him what happened, and Stefan told him, that’s interesting. So Robinson, what shall I do? Who is this? So Stefan said, I tell you what, why don’t you tell him? He nanny, here I am. It’s a very good Jewish thing. Like,

Wayne (00:42):
Here I am,

Avi (00:42):
Here, I’m Hini. Who are you? And Rabbi said, okay, if it happens again, I’ll do it again. He sees this white person glowing, and he goes, Hini, who are you? And the person answers and says, Ani, Yeshua, I am Yeshua, your Messiah. And then rabbis ask him a very important question, okay? If Yeshua, if Jesus the Messiah, what shall I do? Shall I leave my position as the chief rival, Bulgaria, my synagogue and my people, and join the Orthodox Church? And Stefan gave him a very wise suggestion. He said, don’t do that.

Wayne (01:39):
Welcome to the Covenant and Conflict Podcast, where we take ancient truths and modern issues and see how they connect with one another. And today we’re very fortunate to have Avi Meraki, the founding pastor of Roy Congregation in Tel Aviv and EE Outreach Ministry. And Avi is a leader in Israel in the Messianic community in an international conference. Speaker. Avi, thank you so much for coming. Thank you. Of course, you and I have been friends for many, many years. We’ve been involved in a prayer initiative, and of course we knew you when you were in Dallas for a short season, so goodness, what? Maybe

Avi (02:29):
40 years?

Wayne (02:30):
40 years. Yeah. At least. Yeah. So we’re not young pups anymore, are we? But anyway, Avi, we honor you and we’re really going to get to this book that Avi wrote and very important, very important. But before we do, Avi, tell us a little bit about your family. Tell us about what’s going on in Israel right now. It’s in the news all the time, and our hearts break for the circumstances there right now with the hostages and so forth. But tell us a little bit about yourself. What’s going on right now in your community, in Israel?

Avi (03:21):
Yes. Well, first of all, I’m a sub. I’m a native Israeli, born and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel. Came to know the Lord, went to Bible school here in Dallas. I’m married. I have four daughters, and we live in Israel and I have 11 grandchildren. And I’m very, very happy. All my family are serving the Lord, following the Lord. And I’m in Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. That’s where the international airport is, the center for Business and Commerce and the banking and everything. And a very secular city. That’s where we started almost 40 years ago, an evangelistic outreach center, Masonic Center called Duge, which means Duge means a small fishing boat where fishes of men in the heart of Tel Aviv. And people came to salvation. And then we started the congregation. And that’s how the Lord led us to start aai Congregation 30 years ago.

(04:21):
And all I can tell you today, we are still in war. It’s a year and a half now. We’re still in war with Hamas, but not just with Hamas, but also with Iran, so to speak, with Thethis. And there’s a ceasefire in Lebanon. We’ll see how long this will last. So we’re still in war. The situation in Israel has really changed in the last year and a half. It was, I can tell you that when the Hamas and Islamic chat attacked us, we were totally as chief of staff, our general said, we were asleep, we were blinded, and we were not prepared for what they were planning for years.

(05:06):
And basically every night we will see on the news funerals and people crying. And you have to understand when it happened, prime minister wi declared one called all the reserves, more than 300,000 reserves. I’m talking husbands living their families, their job, living everything to fight the war because we are fighting for survival, we’re fighting for our homes, for our families. And this has really changed Israel totally from a very proud in our IDF people. We became very broken people, wounded. And so in the midst of all this sadness and stress, so to speak, of the issues of life, and every day these rockets, even yesterday, they had a missile rocket from the ties ballistic missile. So every day still, we are used to run to the bomb shelters every day. That’s part of our life. It becomes part of our culture,

(06:17):
So to speak. The people are broken. So what has happened is, is that the people today, the Israelis, the 10 million people that live in Israel today are very, very open to the good news. And we have the message of hope. Yeshua. Jesus is the hope of glory. And we have seen so many, many open doors that God opened for us to share the good news in the army. And also with the people. Many people lost jobs. Tourism shut down. No, the tour guys didn’t have a job. They had to look for another job. So it really has changed Israel, and I believe God allowed this to happen, to wake us up and cry out to God. And people may not know this, but I’ll just give this example. When the world broke, all the kilo, all the congregations in Israel that somebody serving in the army reserves about almost 1000 Israeli believers born again, believers were fighting in this war, and it really affected the congregations. And we start reaching out to the people with the humanitarian aid, food supplies, and did supplies for the Army. And that opened so many doors, more than we ever dreamed. I mean, I can go on and on, but I’ll stop here.

Wayne (07:46):
Well, and there have been some that have given their lives right along with their fellow Israelis in this conflict,

Avi (07:52):
About five, as far as I remember, about five believers soldiers died in this war, and they were living testimony to their units. Definitely.

Wayne (08:05):
Well, and you even in your own family, you have sons-in-law and your daughter’s got an important military position, and you’re part of Tel Aviv and Right. So your family is very involved in

Avi (08:21):
Yeah, my son-in-law, Nati, which I handed over the congregation four years ago, I passed the baton to him. He was called in. He’s an officer in the tank. So he asked me back to lead the congregation while he was there for 400 days almost. We haven’t seen his family.

Wayne (08:42):
He was like a battalion commander of,

Avi (08:44):
He was promoted. He’s a major now. He’s a major.

Wayne (08:49):
So he is got multiple command units of tanks that he oversees in Gaza, primarily.

Avi (08:56):
Yeah, in Gaza.

Wayne (08:57):
Yeah.

Avi (08:58):
So thank God he is now at home with his family and kids. They missed him, and I’m so happy he’s back. So I gave him back the baton, but I’m saying,

Wayne (09:07):
But they could call him back up anytime, right?

Avi (09:09):
Oh, yeah, yeah, definitely. But it’s really affected all the congregations in Israel. It’s affected us because we partake part of the war fighting this war, and every family has been affected in Israel.

Wayne (09:26):
We hear that there’s quite a few people that are experiencing P PTs, D trauma.

Speaker 4 (09:34):
Yes. Oh, yes.

Wayne (09:35):
And in all of Israel, but even in the Messianic congregations. And so the question is how can we help them ride? How can we,

Avi (09:46):
Well, I can give you, for example, an example. We found out it’s a non-profitable organization that was formed by a mother who lost her daughter in the Gaza area. And she’s a very sweet lady and somebody connected to us and knowing that we are Messianic, they met with us and they asked, interrogated us and all those things. And after we explained them that we are part of the army, we’re part of Israel and we are doing, she was very impressed. And I said, how can we help? Well, they said, we need finances because we are hiring more and more psychiatrists to help the PSD, the post.

Speaker 5 (10:26):
And

Avi (10:28):
We said, well, we’ll try to help you financially. And we were able to give her a very nice amount to help her. And they acknowledged us as Messianic Jews living in the land, serving the army, helping the soldiers with the PSD. And now we are praying that God will open more doors for us in this way to reach out to all these soldiers who served. And we know that only Yeshua is the answer. And he can heal then and set them free. So

Wayne (11:02):
How do you feel the morale is even among Messianic believers? I mean, because of the trauma, losing friends being apart from families, I’m sure it’s got to add tremendous stress on marriages and just their own psyche. And

Avi (11:30):
I can tell you from my family, my son-in-law, when he will come home for 24 hours, the first 10 hours, he would just asleep. He was so exhausted, emotionally, physically, he would just took a shower and went to sleep. And of course then he just wanted to be with the kids and just spend time with his family. It’s very stressful. People have no clue what we have gone through.

(12:05):
But the good news is, if I may give you one example, I think he will love it. We started supplying all kinds of things, supplies for the army. We had one major called me. He said, we heard that you helped the soldiers, the reserves. I said, yes, what do you need? He said, well, it’s winter. And we had a few hundreds of coats for all the soldiers, but we still need another 300 coats. Can you help us? I said, sure. I called the factory where they’re making them. I called them, paid them, and I personally, the next day picked it up and went and brought it to them. And that general came and hugged me and thanked me for this. Then later on in December, which is, this is a miracle, the 25th of December, the Christian world celebrated Christmas, but it was also the same day that Hanukkah fell.

(12:58):
So Hanukkah and Christmas fell on the same day, on the 25th of December last year, a few months, six months ago. And they asked me along with others to do a special event for the soldiers Christmas, for the Arab Christians who serve in the army. We have Arab Christians who serve in the Army, Israeli and for the Jewish, for the Hanukah. So we got all those gifts, about 300 of them, all those special gifts with candies. And then they gave us a big hole of the base by Gani, by Gani Junction going to the north. And they gave me 12 minutes to speak on Hanukah and Christmas and the connection. And I prayed, and the Lord told me, talk about the light. So in Christmas, we believers, the Christians will celebrate the light of the world coming, the Jewish people, we celebrate Hanukah. It’s clearing the temple and the menorah and the light. What I say, I shared that only Yeshua is the light, and he can give us hope, and we can overcome the darkness because the darkness cannot overcome the light. And Yeshua is the light. They gave me 12 minutes to share this.

Wayne (14:12):
How did they receive that?

Avi (14:13):
Now I thought when I finished, they would throw stones at me. Guess what, Wayne? They all stood up and clapped, and I stood there, almost start crying. I never imagined in my life, I’m 64. I never imagined in my life, in 40 years being in ministry, never thought that I will see the day that I will share with 300 soldiers the good news, and they will clap and honor me. I never mentioned that this is what God is doing in Israel today. More and more people are searching, looking for answers. And only Yeshua can satisfy this, fulfill this all.

Wayne (15:00):
What is the feeling in Israel with these two young fine people that were just killed in Washington DC right? Yes. They’re very

Avi (15:11):
Tragic. They were Messianic, they were believers.

Wayne (15:13):
Yeah, they were believers. I mean, what’s the sentiment in Israel about this? Is that even talked about? Or is it

Avi (15:20):
Yes. I can tell you, Wayne, we live in a new day. Why am I saying this? There was a prayer of breakfast in Jerusalem and one of the Orthodox rabbis from the city of Ranana, okay? My daughter lives there, not far from me, just outside of Tel Aviv. He spoke there and he said, we celebrated Vu just few days ago, a fist of weeks, Pentecost. And you know what he said? As we read the book of Ruth during Vo Pentecost, we need to embrace all the Christian evangelicals who stand with us and we need to embrace the Messianic Jews. And he said, how much

Wayne (16:00):
You, the believers, I believe,

Avi (16:01):
Yeah, believe Messian Jews, believers. And he said this because he knew the couple, because of, he said their testimony. He met with the parents and he said, they are wonderful. They wish we’ll embrace them. I don’t remember ever for Orthodox rabbi to stand and speak like this in favor of Jewish believers in the land.

(16:25):
And I believe we live in a new day for years. The Orthodox Jews, the Orthodox rabbis, the Adri, the anti missionary societies, they’ve been persecuting us, persecuting us, and doing all kinds of things to us. But I tell you today, the people of Israel are searching and looking. And when they see Jewish Israeli part of them wonderful testimony serving in the army, which the religious don’t, we pay our taxes, we serve. We have a non-profit organization to help in humanitarian aid and help people and reaching out to people. It speaks volumes to the people. We are the people with the boots on the ground. And the Israelis recognize that because there was no Christians coming for a year and a half, no Christians came. Very few, very, very few. And I believe what’s happening now, since we are in the boots on the ground, they’re seeing Yeshua in us. And they ask, what do you have that I don’t have? How can you be still hoping in the midst of all this? And I believe we live in a new day in Israel today.

Wayne (17:39):
Well, we honor you, Avi. We honor, we love your country. Our hearts break for all the people of Israel. And the dilemma that

Speaker 4 (17:47):
The

Wayne (17:47):
Sadness, the people that have lost their lives. And so it’s interesting, Avi, the Lord, put a story on your heart. And your parents are Bulgarian Jews, Jews who made Aliyah. When did your grandparents and parents come over?

Avi (18:08):
My parents came in 1948.

Wayne (18:11):
Did your grandparents die in Bulgaria?

Avi (18:13):
Yes. My grandfather died in Bulgaria during the second World War. Never met my grandfather. He was beaten by the Nazis in Sophia, Sophia, Bulgaria. And he died. So I never met him.

Wayne (18:23):
So he was killed by the Nazis in Sophia?

Avi (18:25):
Yeah. Yeah. So my

Wayne (18:28):
On your father’s side, Ms. Rocky.

Avi (18:30):
Yeah. And my mother also was born in Bulgaria. But when the Nazis, the Second World War happened, the Nazis came to Bulgaria. Her family fled to Turkey, and then she immigrated, she made Aliya from Istanbul. But both of them were born in Bulgaria. And my father,

Wayne (18:49):
What was her family name?

Avi (18:50):
Baha. Baha.

Wayne (18:52):
And the Bulgarian Jews, by and large are

Avi (18:55):
Sephardic. Yes.

Wayne (18:56):
Right.

Avi (18:57):
Which

Wayne (18:57):
Means they’re more that came from Spain.

Avi (18:59):
And they spoke Ladino at home. Spanish Ladino. Ladino. Yeah. I speak, speak Ladino. I’m Spanish.

Wayne (19:05):
So in Ashkenazi homes, it’s very well known that in religious circles or in Teds, in Russia and so forth, they would speak Yiddish, right? That’s right. But in Sephardic, their language was

Avi (19:21):
Ladino. That’s right.

Wayne (19:22):
And it’s not spoken as much now, or they’re still among the Sephardic rabbis. Are they still speaking Ladino?

Speaker 4 (19:28):
Yeah.

Wayne (19:28):
Okay. And there’s unique traditions, right? Yes. Ladino traditions for the Seder and for Jewish life. So this was your family roots. So your parents both from Bulgaria fleeing the Holocaust, met in Israel?

Avi (19:49):
Yeah.

Wayne (19:50):
Okay.

Avi (19:51):
But I need to give some

Wayne (19:53):
Background.

Avi (19:53):
In 1947, my father, after the World War was over, second World War was over, he joined the Jewish Aliyah Jewish Youth Group. And he took a ship to Israel in 1947. At that time, it was illegal. The British mandate was there, and they didn’t let the Jews, they caught his ship coming to Israel, and they put him in Cyprus. So he was in Cyprus in detention camp for 11 months, almost a year. And all they could do is along the thousands of Jewish refugees there in Cyprus, all they could pray and say next year in Jerusalem.

Wayne (20:28):
What year was this?

Avi (20:29):
1947.

Wayne (20:30):
47.

Avi (20:31):
And then when Israel declared independence, May 14th, 1948, he was able to come in

Wayne (20:36):
Because it was still Palestine. It was a very volatile situation. The British controlled it, but they want it out. And so that’s why he got stuck in Cyprus. Yeah. Okay. So finally he was able to come in 48,

Avi (20:50):
And when he landed in the land of Israel, he kissed the land. He was so excited. The Jewish Agency said, welcome home, here’s a gun. Go and fight. And the same day he landed, he joined the IDF, the Israeli Defense Force and fought Independence War.

Wayne (21:05):
And where did he fight? Where was he fighting?

Avi (21:08):
He was fighting, I think in the south,

Wayne (21:10):
Up in the Gulf. Oh, in the south.

Avi (21:11):
In the south,

Wayne (21:12):
Yeah.

Avi (21:13):
And then when the war was over, he of course met my wife. They fell in love with

Wayne (21:17):
Marriage. Your

Avi (21:18):
Mother? My mother. Sorry. Yeah.

Wayne (21:20):
Yeah.

Avi (21:20):
So they got married and they lived in Jaffa, in Tel Aviv. And that’s where my sister was born. I was born and my brother, we all grew up in Jaffa, Tel Aviv. And years ago, Jaffa and Tel Aviv were two separate cities. But now it’s one city Tel it

Wayne (21:36):
Was back then you could stand in Jaffa and look toward Tel Aviv and it, it

Avi (21:41):
Wasn. Wasn’t much.

Wayne (21:41):
Wasn’t much there, right.

Avi (21:44):
That’s true. That’s

Wayne (21:45):
True. So you remember just running all over Jaffa. And so tell us the story is a family story, but how were your parents impacted by the chief rabbi of Bulgaria, talking about the chief rabbi of Bulgaria with about a 50,000 Jewish community

Speaker 4 (22:09):
Right

Wayne (22:10):
Before World War ii, rabbi Daniel Cone. So he’s a hero to your family, but tell us, how did your family, your part, your mother, but how did they get connected to the chief rabbi of Bulgaria?

Avi (22:27):
Well, how did I start? This is because we have, in the Israeli schools, they have a program called Roots. Roots. Roots. Sorry. Roots,

Wayne (22:40):
Yeah. Now forgive me. Yeah, not forgiving.

Avi (22:43):
And they had to write a report about the grandparents. So they start asking me questions I didn’t know because my parents never talked about the Holocaust. They never talked about it. So when they start asking me questions, I said, lemme take you to my parents, and you can ask them. And as my children start asking the grandparents questions about the Holocaust, they opened up and start telling stories. And then we realized there is a treasure here, because my father was born and raised in soa. And as a kid, he used to go to the synagogue in Sofia. Even today, you go, it’s a beautiful, one of the most,

Wayne (23:23):
The main synagogue.

Avi (23:24):
The main synagogue in SoFi where

Wayne (23:25):
Pastor or a Rabbi Etson was

Avi (23:28):
Rabbi Ion was the chief Rabbi. Yeah, he was the chief rabbi of Bulgaria. And there was another rabbi that was working with him, and he became a believer in Yeshua. How did he become believer in Yeshua? Well before the Second World War started in 1939, he became friends of the Metropolitans, like the bishop of the Church, of the Orthodox Church, metropolitan Stefan in Safi, Bulgaria. And they became friends, and they had discussions about Yeshua, about the Messiah. And one day metropolitan, Stefan gave him a Bible with the New Testament. So the rabbi took the Bible. He saw the Old Testament find, then he saw the New Testament, he tore the New Testament and threw it on the floor. He was so upset. So Metropol, Stefan looked at Rabbi Daniel, he said, looked to him and said, don’t do this. This is my Bible. And out of respect, because of the relationship. So Robert Danielson picked it from the floor and put it on a bookshelf. He said, let it stay there. He had no intentions to open it because as far as his concerns, forbidden book.

(24:42):
Anyhow, a few days later, one morning, Robert Ian gets up in the morning, he prays Shahar his morning prayer. And there is a vision of a person, a white person glowing with light, and he sees him, and then he disappeared and he’s totally shaken. What is that? So he asked his friends, nobody knew. So he went the next day to see the metropolitan Stefan. They were meeting, discussing things, and he told him what happened, and Stefan told him, that’s interesting. So Robert said, what shall I do? Who is this? So Stefan said, I tell you what, why don’t you tell him, hi, nanny, here I am. It’s a very good Jewish thing. Like,

Wayne (25:25):
Here I am

Avi (25:26):
Here, I’m Hini. Who are you? And Rabbi said, okay, if it happens again, I’ll do it next morning.

Wayne (25:33):
And that’s what Isaiah said, right when he would had this,

Avi (25:36):
Yeah,

Wayne (25:37):
Okay, so

Avi (25:38):
Here I am. So again, he sees this white person glowing, and he goes, Hini, who are you? And the person answers and says, Ani, yes, I am Yeshua, Messiah. And Robert Ion, the fear of God fell upon a minister crying. And I realized that Yeshua, Jesus is the Messiah. So he said, okay, where did I put the New Testament? So he went to the bookshelf.

(26:14):
He picked out the New Testament that he threw and started reading it from Matthew chapter one. And he saw the genealogies and he was in shock. He said, this is Jewish. All these genealogies are Jewish. How did I miss it? And he started reading it. To make a long story short, he became a believer. He ran to Stefan, to metropolitan Stefan, and told him what happened. So they hugged each other and prayed for one another. And then rabbis ask him a very important question, if Yeshua, if Jesus the Messiah, what shall I do? Shall I leave my position as the chief Rabbi Bulgaria, my synagogue and my people, and join the Orthodox church? And Stefan gave him a very wise suggestion. He said, don’t do that. I will continue as the bishop, as the metropolitan of the church, and I’m going to get all the churches and the Christians open their churches and open their arms to help the Jews. And we’re going to stand with the Jews. We’re not going to let the Jews be killed by the Nazis.

Wayne (27:25):
So what year was this when Daniel Cone had this encounter?

Avi (27:31):
It was a year or two before the war.

Wayne (27:32):
Okay.

Avi (27:33):
I’m talking,

Wayne (27:34):
But antisemitism is boiling.

Avi (27:36):
Oh, yes.

Wayne (27:37):
And the Nazis are on the rise.

Avi (27:39):
Oh, yes.

Wayne (27:40):
So Daniel Cone and the Metropolitan knew,

Avi (27:46):
Yeah, what’s happening?

Wayne (27:48):
We need to stand with the Jewish people.

Avi (27:49):
Exactly, exactly. Thank you. And then he told Rabbi Deni, no, you stay as the chief rabbi and prepare your community, prepare your synagogue and the people, because hot times are coming and Hitler is in power. And who knows, we may have a war soon. And it did in 1939, and the Nazis start conquering Europe and coming to Bulgaria as well. And then the Jews lost all their jobs, lost all their business. Like my father, my grandfather had a business in Sofia. He lost it, and they took it. And so it was a very important decision. They decided to stay in their position, the head of the church and the head of Jewish community, to work together against antisemitism, against Nazis, and not give in to Hitler,

Wayne (28:50):
Which has major implications for us today. But we’ll get back to that. So how did your family know Rabbi Daniel Cone? How did your mother, your father, they had not gone to Israel yet.

Avi (29:07):
That’s right. My father, as a boy went to the synagogue, to Shabbat, and also in the holidays, the Hakim, we call it the holidays, the feasts. So he knew Robert Danielson, and I think at the age of 13, he was supposed to do a Bar Mitzvah in the synagogue, but then it was Second World War. So everything changed.

Wayne (29:30):
And of course, it’s Orthodox, right? I mean, there’s not all these different brands of Judaism back then. I mean, this is a very conservative Orthodox community.

Avi (29:39):
So when the Nazi already came in and they start doing the laws against the Jews, and my father had to wear the Yellow Star as a boy, young boy. He was a teenager, and then they could not go to school. They were not allowed to go to school. They were treated like nothing, like rats. So he decided that he would join the partisans. He ran to the forest because he said they will take me and kill me. So he joined the partisans in Bulgaria to fight the Nazis. And then when the war was over, he came back and he was happy to see his mother. Of course, his father died, but his brothers and Rabbi and Elion, and then Robert Ion was very involved in the Zionist movement. They were very zionistic, and he basically told the people It’s time to go home.

(30:32):
And that’s where my father joined the youth Hallah, the youth movement for immigration to Israel. That’s how he took the ship in 1947 to Palestine. But he was, the British didn’t let him. He stayed in Cyprus. So when Israel declared independence in 1948, both my mom, she came from Istanbul, and my father from Cyprus, they met in in Jaffa, fell in love and got married. Now, after my sister was born, my mother was holding her this little baby in the early fifties, right after the war, she went to a deep Depression. At that time, it was hot years depression, years they call them. They had the vouchers for milk, for bread, for sugar. There was no food

Wayne (31:23):
In Jaffa,

Avi (31:24):
In Jaffa, Tel Aviv. But in the whole country, because within a year or two, the population doubled. Remember all these refugees, Jews from Europe and also from the Arab countries. So the population from 600, 700,000 Jews doubled 2 million and a half.

Speaker 5 (31:39):
Can

Avi (31:39):
You imagine?

Speaker 5 (31:40):
There

Avi (31:40):
Was not enough food, there was not enough houses. They had to put Jews who immigrated in tents

(31:46):
About what we call them. So it was very difficult, and my mother was very depressed, but she knew about Robert Danielson because he had a synagogue in Jaffa, and my father still used to go there. So she went to the synagogue with her baby in her arms. My father was working in construction, and she was so sad, and she waited for Robert and to finish his morning prayer. When he came out, he saw her very sad, depressed, and he talked to her in Spanish in Latino, okay, my daughter, why are you so sad? What happened? She said, I don’t want to live anymore. I’m fed up with life. She was depressed. He looked to her and he did very unorthodox. He took his hand, put it on her head and prayed for her. And then he said, wait, here he went, got her Bible and got her a new, I said, please read this and come back tomorrow. She took the New Testament, read it at home. She read it. She had many questions. She came the next day and he shared the gospel with her, and she prayed to accept Yeshua and depression left her, and she was a totally changed woman, so she became a believer. Then later on, my sister became a believer. Then I became a believer. Then my dad, and then my little brother,

Wayne (33:07):
The whole family. You remember Rabbi?

Avi (33:10):
Oh yes.

Wayne (33:10):
Daniel C. So he was a very, so just to recap, he and the metropolitan, the head of the Orthodox church in Bulgaria, Daniel ion, which is Zion in English, but pronounced ion, came together and considered, how do we save the Jews of Bulgaria? And they went to the King. King Boris. King Boris was a little reluctant. He had already even given some Jews over to the Nazis. But when those two came together, they persuaded Boris to stand up to the Nazis. And basically because of their intercession, 50,000 Bulgarian Jews were never given over to the Nazis. Correct?

Avi (34:04):
Correct. This is amazing because Rabbi Danson wrote a letter and they went to see the king birth without being invited. And in those days, you’re not invited. They’ll take you, put you in jail. But they had boldness. They said, we wanted to see the king. So the king accepted them, and they honored him and said, the king Boris, blah, blah, blah, blah. If you cooperate with the Nazis and you give the 50,000 Jews to Hitler, God will require their blood from your hands. And you be remembered as a king that gave the Jews of his own country, and the people will remember you, that the fear of God fell upon him, and he changed his heart. He was planning to give it incorporated with the Nazis. But not only that, both Robert Andon and Metropolis Stefan, they did meetings. They called metropolitan, called all the priests of the Orthodox Church, and he start quoting Romans nine, 10, and 11 and telling him such a time as this, we’re here to provoke nurture jealousy.

(35:02):
We are here to love them. We need to open the churches. Whenever Jews come, we embrace them. We are not going to push them and reject them, even said, if the Nazis will try to take them, we will issue baptism certificates that they’re part of the church because we are going to do everything we can to stop them. Meanwhile, Robert Ian called for prayer meetings and told the people to pray and fast, and we’re tell them that the churches are opening their churches to them. And then they wrote letters to the Parliament. They went to see all the people in the parliament, and they really people not to Cooper with the Nazis, because the Nazis were already working. They were already collecting the names and everything. They were putting the yellow star. And Jews lost their jobs. I mean, it was getting worse and worse. But those two were so brave and bold. They were willing to lay their life for the gospel and for the Jewish people, and they

Wayne (35:59):
Succeeded. And it’s really a picture that we need to take heart and really take notice for today, right? Because the metropolitan wasn’t coercing, manipulating, forcing Jewish people to convert, which we have a terrible history of in Christianity, right? But he was standing with a rabbi who just by chance had this encounter with Yeshua. He now is a believer. But Rabbi Daniel was just loving his flock and trying to preserve them. So here you have a gentile leader, Jewish leader. I think that’s our prayer, right? We want to see that more in the United States. I mean, we’re living in a crazy time, and I’m appalled by senior pastors who have been silent after October 7th. Maybe they didn’t know what to say, but it’s no excuse. It’s exactly the same in that day. How many churches, how many priests did not speak up? I mean, even all over Europe, right?

Avi (37:13):
I totally agree with you. And in fact, I want to give you a very short story here. While they were in 19 43, 3 times, Hitler sent the train to collect the Jews, all the 50 dozen

Wayne (37:25):
Jews to Sophia,

Avi (37:27):
Not just Sophia, but also other cities like

Wayne (37:29):
Iv in Bulgaria,

Avi (37:30):
In Bulgaria. Now listen to this. There was another metropolitan that is a friend of Stefan. Carol. Carol, and he is in, and the Nazis were collecting the Jews at night, and they were putting them in a school that was next to the trains. The Christians saw that they went, they wake up, the priest, Carol, he came with his pajamas. Listen to this. He came with his pajamas, run there and wanted to go to enter the school by the Nazis. And the Bulgarian soldiers refused to let him in. He got so angry. He said, watch me. He went over the fence and climbed and went over the fence, and he started telling all the Bulgarian Jews in those rooms of the school. He said, you are not alone. I’m going to stand here with you wherever you go. I go, wherever you lay down, I lay down

Wayne (38:19):
Wherever

Avi (38:20):
You sleep. I sleep. Your God is my God, and I’m not going to let this happen. And he spoke loudly and all the Nazis and the Bulgarian soldiers were like, they don’t want to touch this priest. He’s the head of the church in that city, pl. And then he came out, he saw the trains, he looked to all the soldiers and all the nuts. He said, I’m going to lay down right now on the train, train

Wayne (38:43):
Track

Avi (38:44):
Tracks. This train is not moving anywhere. It’ll have to go over me first.

Wayne (38:48):
Wow.

Avi (38:49):
He was willing to lay down his life. And then he sent a telegram at that time with a telegram, I think like facts to the King Boris, this is happening. And a few minutes later, or half an hour later, a telegram came and said to all the soldiers, release the Jews, let them go back home. He was willing to lay down his life and not allow them to touch any Jews and put them on the trains. This is a true story.

Wayne (39:20):
And we have pastors who don’t want to take a stand for Israel, for the Jewish people, for fear of some pro Hamas people.

Avi (39:31):
I tell you,

Wayne (39:32):
There’s lessons we need to learn from this.

Avi (39:34):
Yes,

Wayne (39:35):
There are lessons we need to learn.

Avi (39:36):
I believe that there’s the big deception in the world today, and I’ll explain myself, the Muslims that jihadi the extreme Muslims, I hear it on the Musk. Every morning at four 30 in the morning, they wake up and they call Awa in their loudspeakers of the mosque. And as they pray, you know what they’re praying, we’ll get, I heard it, and some of translate for me. First, we’ll go after the Jews who worship on Shabbat, but then we’ll go after those who worship on Sunday. Were they

Speaker 5 (40:08):
The

Avi (40:08):
Christians? Because for them, we are the infidels else. We’re in the same boat. If you like it or not, we’re in the same boat. So if you say, what’s happening in Israel has nothing to do with us, I pray that America will not experience another September 11 to wake you up because those Islamic, that is demonic. It’s evil. And we need to stop sugarcoat those things. Also, what happened in Colorado, it’s time to wake up to understand that we are in a spiritual war.

Wayne (40:41):
Yeah. It’s serious.

Avi (40:43):
It’s serious. And we need to stand together for righteousness for life.

Wayne (40:49):
Yeah. I don’t think there’s been a time since the Holocaust pre Nazi, the pre Nazi rise. There’s not been a time in the world since. Now that this is beginning to emerge, maybe what, like a hundred years later when it began to boil. So this great man stayed with his flock. His name was Zion. He was a Zionist,

Speaker 4 (41:23):
So

Wayne (41:23):
He knew the future. He knew it was no future staying in Bulgaria. So he encouraged the community. Now, let’s make Allah to Israel. And

Avi (41:36):
Most of the Jews, most of the 50,000 Jews that were rescued from being killed by the Nazis, most of them made Aliyah in the next year or two. And in the fifties, Jaffa, the old city was full of Bulgarian Jews who spoke Ladino.

Wayne (41:48):
So he went to Jaffa, and I think when he came, he was very respected among the Orthodox community, among the rabbinic community.

Avi (42:00):
They asked him to be in the rabbinical court in Jerusalem, and he went with a letter to be part of the rabbinical court in Jerusalem.

Wayne (42:07):
So what happened from there?

Avi (42:09):
Well, somebody told them that he believes in Yeshua,

Wayne (42:12):
And he was excluded at that point.

Avi (42:14):
They called him in and they said, is this true? You believe in that man? They won’t even say the name of Yeshua, the name of Jesus. Do you believe in that man? And he stood there boldly in front of all the rabbis in Jerusalem. He said, I’m not ashamed by Messiah. That’s what you’re talking about. No, you’re not the Messiah. And what did he stood there? He said, I’m not ashamed of your show, my Messiah. And he started worshiping the Lord, walking out, and they were angry, and they could not do nothing because he was so bold. He was willing to let his life. And they said, you’re not a rabbi anymore. He said, what God gave me you cannot take. And he walked out and he continued being a rabbi in the synagogue in Jaffa. He was offered to be,

Wayne (42:54):
But he was pretty much ostracized.

Avi (42:56):
Ostracized.

Wayne (42:56):
And he lived a very humble, humble, and I think he was a very poor man, right? Because he didn’t have other doors open. The community pretty much rejected him. It was a very difficult time. But

Avi (43:11):
I heard once one of the Christian missionaries from Europe came and gave him money, a lot of money, and he went the next day and distributed among the poor and gave it gone by food. That’s one of the stories. That

Wayne (43:23):
Was the kind of man he was.

Avi (43:25):
This is the man who was, he never thought about himself.

Wayne (43:28):
Yeah. So here he is. He died. What year does he die?

Avi (43:33):
I think in 1979,

Wayne (43:35):
He passed

Avi (43:36):
Away. This was the year that I went to the army.

Wayne (43:38):
So he passed away. God is awakening this book up in your heart, your daughter, Devora, who’s amazing. She’s got her master’s degree from Hebrew youth. So she really helped create an academic side to it, all the references, all the points. And so now this book, legacy of Hope in English is also in Hebrew citizen. Some other languages too, or just for

Avi (44:04):
Now, we’re translating into German and to Dutch Holland.

Wayne (44:08):
Wow, that’s great. But you’re having Israeli academics who are studying it and is gaining some traction because it’s quite a story. Because what happened to Rabbi Daniel Cone, basically, I want you to tell it, but basically you met with he and his family because his family was actually ashamed of him because they were told by rabbinic authorities that he was a traitor,

Speaker 4 (44:44):
Basically.

Wayne (44:45):
And so none of the good that he did was even highlighted. He was just like a bad guy, right?

Avi (44:51):
Yeah. This is so

Wayne (44:52):
Important. So tell about the connection with his family.

Avi (44:55):
This is unbelievable what happened here. When we wrote the book, also, of course in Hebrew, and we had the book event, we decided to do it at Christchurch in Jerusalem and the old city of Jerusalem. And the rector, Wayne Pegge invited us and we invited all the family. I’m talking the grandchildren and the grand grandchildren of Robert Danielson. Now, many of them came and we welcomed them. It was very nice. Many of them came, I’ve never been in a church. Why did you do it here? I said, you will hear why in a minute because you need to hear what your grandfather, rabbi ion did. So they all came. We had some nice music. And then I introduced my daughter and she gave academic report, which facts, what Rabbi Deion did when she finished, one of the grandson came and said, I have to say something.

(45:54):
He said, I’ve never been in a church. I never walked in a church. But I see this church really loves Israel. There’s a history here. Secondly, when you shared what my grandfather did, I totally a hundred percent behind this. And I want to honor you, Devora. I want to honor you, Avi, for doing this. Because for years, me and my children and my grandchildren, we’ve been ashamed because that’s what the rabbis, the Orthodox rabbis told us. But when you share what you shared, justice needs to be done because he was a great Jew. So yes, he believed that Yeshu is the Messa big deal. What’s the problem? He was a Jew and he needs to be honored. He’s a hero. And he thanked us. And then I asked him, what do you remember from the rabbi? He said, well, he always, when we were little, he lay hands on us and pray for us. And I said, well, they did this to me too. When I was a little boy. I went to the synagogue. He said, yes. And then he taught us a song. I said, what song? He said, well, it’s a Messianic song. I said, please tell us. And he stood there at Christchurch. He’s not a believer yet. He said, yes, trust in Yeshu. Trust in Yeshua. He taught us this and we are his grandchildren. And he was a wonderful man. Thank you for doing this.

Wayne (47:15):
They had no idea.

Avi (47:16):
No idea. And they all came and hardly the family.

Wayne (47:18):
And he shows you that he wasn’t even telling all the good he had done for Bulgaria.

Avi (47:22):
Exactly. And the whole family came and hugged us and thanked us for honoring their grandfather for what he did. And we are alive. All the grandchildren of the Bulgarian Jews are alive today because of him and metropolitan Stefan.

Wayne (47:39):
Wow. And this book is gaining traction. You’ve been invited even to some kibbutz and others to come and share this story. And so, wow. Legacy of hope. What a phenomenal book. Avi. We honor you.

Speaker 4 (47:58):
Thank you.

Wayne (47:59):
And we honor you in Devora and your family for taking the time and energy to record this important story. And we’re going to have available in the video how you can get this. You can of course get it on Amazon. It’s very easy. Legacy of hope. Avi Meraki. Avi, thank you for being with us today. Thank you. Why don’t we just, let’s close Avi by you saying a prayer, and particularly for Gentiles and members of the Jewish community to join together, to stand and fight antisemitism. And we don’t know the heroes God wants to raise up like Rabbi Daniel and the

Speaker 4 (48:53):
Metropolitan.

Wayne (48:55):
Stefan apparently was a very special man because we’ve known Orthodox communities that were very anti-Semitic, replacement theology and so forth. But he was unique.

Avi (49:06):
Anyway,

Wayne (49:07):
Pray. Pray. Just wrap us

Avi (49:08):
Up. By the way, metropolitan, Stefan was honored as the righteous gen in Jerusalem. Oh,

Wayne (49:13):
He was so here. He was honored. But Rabbi Daniel Cone was almost like a traitor. Yeah. Pray for us.

Avi (49:23):
Father, we thank you, Lord, that you hear our prayers. We come before in the name that is above all names, Yeshua, Jesus, our Messiah, savior, and Lord, I want to thank you, Lord, that throughout the ages you have been working through people, Jews, and non-Jews who loved you and serve you and willing to lay down their lives. Lord, I pray, especially now, that there is such a big deception covering this earth, this world that we need to stand as believers, followers of Yeshua, to stand for righteousness, to stand for the kingdom of God and not compromise with the gospel, not compromise what we believe. We need to stand against evil. And we will overcome this by the word of our testimony, by the blood of the lamb, and the willing to lay down our lives for the gospel. And I believe that as we’re entering to the end times, we’re going to see darkness and deception covering this earth.

(50:39):
But yet the light of Yeshua, the light that is within us, Jesus will shine bright and will overcome the darkness. And I pray for boldness among the believers, especially here in America, that they will stand for righteousness and stand with the Jewish people and stand against evil against the spiritual warfare and antisemitism and israelism that is happening right now. And stand with the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the Messiah of Israel, Yeshua the king of glory. Because I believe that we are entering to the end times, and there will be a lot of deception. And therefore, we must know the word of God and stand with the Word of God and the truth, and stand with the people of Israel in such a time as this. So Lord, I thank you and I give you all the glory and all the honor be Yeshua in the name that is above all names, Yeshua, Jesus, our Messiah, and Lord

Wayne (51:44):
Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Avi. Thank you for joining us. We’ll see you the next time on Covenant and Conflict Podcast.