by Naomi Ammon 
 
As we enter the new year, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem offers this look back at some of the ways we have been standing strong with Israel over the past twelve months, which was one of the nation’s most challenging years ever. Thanks to our many faithful Christian supporters worldwide, in 2025 we were able to bring hope and comfort to all sectors of Israeli society, help the Gaza border communities begin to rebuild, continue assisting thousands of Jewish immigrants to reach their ancestral homeland, stir multitudes of believers to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and host pro-Israel rallies in cities and nations around the world. Your steadfast partnership made all these activities possible, and here are just some of the highlights. 
 
JANUARY 
While the world was ringing in the New Year, the ICEJ was helping Israelis withstand the daily Hizbullah shelling along the volatile northern border by equipping and training community emergency teams and other first-responders operating on the front lines of this battle. Early in January 2025, the ICEJ AID team delivered 63 emergency vests, 15 special encrypted walkie-talkies, dozens of flashlights, two generators, and more lifesaving bomb shelters, while also sponsoring training sessions for civilian responders throughout the Upper Galilee region. 

Later in January, the street in front of the ICEJ’s Haifa Home for Holocaust survivors was filled with hundreds of elderly survivors and their family and friends, as they gathered on a sunny winter afternoon to mark the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation by the Red Army on 27 January 1945. Israeli cabinet minister Eli Cohen, the Ambassador of Guatemala, and ICEJ Senior Vice President David Parsons were among the speakers sharing messages of solidarity on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. 

FEBRUARY
With the war still raging on multiple fronts, the ICEJ hosted 77 pastors and ministry leaders from around the world at our Envision 2025 leaders conference in Jerusalem in early February. The conference served as a powerful solidarity mission to Israel as participants visited the Knesset and Foreign Ministry, heard informative, timely messages from local and international speakers, gained valuable insights from Israeli security analysts and hostage family members, and visited border communities deeply impacted by the fighting since the atrocities of October 7, 2023. The conference ended with a visit to the northern border and then a special gathering at Kehilat HaCarmel, with Jewish, Arab and Gentile believers worshipping, praying and fellowshipping together in a remarkable display of unity in the Body of Christ despite the ongoing war. 

MARCH
In March, the ICEJ hosted yet another Hands-On Serving Tour to assist Israelis in the war-torn Land. The Christian volunteers from around the globe visited several Gaza border communities and expressed solidarity in very practical ways. For example, they pruned mango orchards at an Agro-tech school in Sde Nitzan, sorted 3,400 kilos of clementines at the Leket logistics center, and helped harvest 16,000 kilos of oranges. “We were able to see the tangible fruit of our labour everywhere we went, and with each act of service, our connection to Israel deepened,” one participant explained. 
 
APRIL 
This year the ICEJ marked the Passover season once again by distributing gifts and grocery coupons to Jewish families across Israel. These gifts brought joy and relief to many in need, ensuring they could celebrate this significant Jewish holiday with dignity. 

In April, the ICEJ also marked Yom HaShoah – Israel’s annual Holocaust Remembrance Day – by laying a wreath during the official state ceremonies at Yad Vashem, celebrating 15 years of operations at the Haifa Home for Holocaust Survivors, and hosting special screenings of the award-winning documentary “Miss Holocaust Survivor: A Beauty Contest that Celebrates Life.”

The new film highlights the personal stories of two elderly contestants in the unique beauty pageant who are residents of our Haifa Home for survivors of the Nazi genocide – 95 year-old Rita Kasimov Brown and 102 year-old Tova Finger. 

MAY 
In May, the ICEJ welcomed over fifty global representatives to Jerusalem for our annual International Leadership Conference. Participants visited the site of the Nova music festival massacre, an Iron Dome battery, and an army base just fifty meters from the Gaza border fence which was overrun by Hamas terrorists on October 7. The group also toured the battered community of Kibbutz Be’eri and took part in a ground-breaking ceremony for the rebuilding of the village’s youth activity center, sponsored by the Christian Embassy. This is just one of a series of major construction projects the ICEJ is funding in Israeli communities along the Gaza border, which also includes an elderly trauma care and activity center in Kibbutz Be’eri, a children’s trauma center and a music therapy center in Kfar Aza, a greenhouse classroom at an agro-tech high school in Sde Nitzan, and a horse therapy ranch and therapeutic animal corner in Kibbutz Urim. 

Meanwhile, the ICEJ-Germany branch arranged a national speaking tour for Eva Erben to share in German public schools about her experiences in surviving the Holocaust and how to fight the current wave of antisemitism worldwide. Back in Israel, Eva was invited by German Ambassador Steffen Seibert to a ceremony honouring her with the Federal Cross of Merit award as one “whose voice has become a moral compass for generations.” 
 
JUNE 
During the 12-day war with Iran in June, barrages of Iranian ballistic missiles rained down on Israeli cities. One massive warhead devastated several blocks of apartment buildings in the coastal town of Bat Yam, killing seven people and leaving hundreds of families homeless. Visiting the blast site two days later, Nicole Yoder, ICEJ Vice President of AID and Aliyah, commented that “this level of devastation is something new for us to see in Israel.” In response, the ICEJ helped hundreds of families who lost their homes due to Iranian missile strikes, assisting them with clothing, food, medicines, diapers, and hygiene supplies, plus giving affected children sorely-needed trauma care. 

When the port city of Haifa was specifically targeted by Iran in the brief but intense war last June, the ICEJ also took special measures to secure our Haifa Home for Holocaust survivors by stocking up on food, reinforcing bomb shelters, acquiring an emergency generator, and donating an ambulance dedicated to serve the residents and other Holocaust survivors in the region. 
 
JULY 
The past year marked 1700 years since the landmark Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. The Christian Embassy called believers worldwide to join us for 100 days of prayer and fasting, from May 18 to August 24 – the approximate anniversary dates for the Council of Nicaea. During this time, we gave thanks for the good fruits of Nicaea, which birthed a unifying creed that still unites Christians today, but also interceded for the healing of the historic wounds it caused in deliberately severing the Christian faith from its roots in Israel and the Jewish people. Every week, our Global Prayer Gathering featured noted Christian scholars providing insights into Nicaea to help guide our prayers. 

In July, the ICEJ-UK branch held ground-breaking pro-Israel meetings in Edinburgh and Glasgow, the principal cities of Scotland, in hopes of countering the antisemitic atmosphere in the country. The historic gatherings started with a Christian conference in a church in Edinburgh and then moved to the ancient synagogue in Glasgow, where the Christian and Jewish communities came together to stand with Israel. The ICEJ’s branches in over 90 nations worldwide have been very active again in 2025 to support Israel by organising rallies, marches and prayer gatherings in cities worldwide. 

AUGUST 
In August, the ICEJ sponsored a flight of 50 British Jews immigrating to Israel, making it the largest Aliyah group to arrive from the United Kingdom in 15 years. The British olim (newcomers) received a warm welcome from ICEJ staff as they handed out gift cards to provide initial groceries and essentials for their first home in Israel. In 2025, the ICEJ assisted more than 3,000 Jewish people in coming home to Israel, including from Britain, France, Ethiopia, Ukraine, the Baltic states and other former Soviet republics. This included sponsoring Aliyah flights for over 725 new Jewish immigrants. 

The ICEJ also issued a major statement in August outlining the dangers and defects of the global campaign to recognise a Palestinian state to resolve the conflict in Gaza. The next month, the Christian Embassy released a second statement exposing the duplicitous nature of the growing accusations of ‘genocide’ against Israel, which also mask the true genocidal intent of Hamas. 

SEPTEMBER
In mid-September, Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka joined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in officially inaugurating the new Embassy of Fiji in Jerusalem. The ICEJ-Fiji branch had worked for decades towards this moment, and the ICEJ was well represented at the Embassy opening and other events during PM Rabuka’s historic visit to Israel. ICEJ’s Fijian staff members Fine Ditoka and Kelera Cirimaiwasa had the honour of placing traditional welcome wreaths on prime ministers Rabuka and Netanyahu. Dr. Jürgen Bühler also gave our prestigious Cyrus Award to PM Rabuka at a diplomatic banquet held in his honour. Fiji is now the seventh country to open an Embassy in Jerusalem. 

Meanwhile, the ICEJ also continued our outreach to the various minority communities in Israel. This included sponsoring co-existence projects to rebuild trust between Arabs and Jews, and supporting programs to help unemployed Arabs. In another example, in September, the Christian Embassy sponsored a field trip to the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo for Domari children from the Old City of Jerusalem. “This is the best day of my life! I saw my favourite animals in real life”, said six-year-old Hazem. 
 
OCTOBER 
The ICEJ’s Feast of Tabernacles celebration in October drew the largest solidarity mission to visit Israel of 2025, as over 1,700 Christians came from abroad to stand with the Jewish nation and people and worship the Lord in Jerusalem. The highlights included a warm welcome address by Israeli President Isaac Herzog and a mass prayer vigil in the Knesset Rose Garden just as Israeli cabinet members were gathering nearby to vote on accepting the Trump ceasefire deal for Gaza. Four days later, most of the Feast pilgrims were still in the country to witness the joyous return of the last 20 living hostages from Gaza on Simchat Torah – exactly two years after their abduction. 

Also in October, ICEJ staff were on hand at the agro-tech high school in Sde Nitzan for the official opening of its new technological greenhouse classroom, funded by the Christian Embassy. We also are sponsoring the construction of a learning center and three classrooms at the innovative farming school, which now has 50 students from across Israel enrolled in its unique program to rebuild the farming communities of the western Negev. 
 
NOVEMBER 
For the third year in a row, the ICEJ sponsored an “Isaiah 19 Conference” in Cyprus in November, which drew Arab, Jewish and Gentile believers from Israel, Egypt, Lebanon, and even from Iran. This year’s gathering focused on raising up a new generation of Arab and Jewish believers committed to seeing the efforts of reconciliation within the Body of Christ continue to grow in the Middle East region. 

Meanwhile, an ICEJ delegation attended a special dedication of two large bomb shelters recently donated by the Christian Embassy to serve a new resilience center in the Sadot Negev region near Gaza, which will provide trauma care and psychological help to the surrounding communities. The ICEJ has now placed over 240 new bomb shelters and renovated 174 existing shelters over the past 15 years to provide security to Israel’s vulnerable border communities. In addition, the Christian Embassy focused much effort this past year on providing trauma care services for all segments of Israeli societies, especially for children, the elderly and disabled, and medical and security personnel. 

DECEMBER
In December, the ICEJ committed to helping fund Aliyah flights for the next wave of immigrants from the Bnei Menashe community in India, after the Israeli government approved plans to bring the last 5,000 members of this ancient Israelite tribe home to Israel over coming years. The first flights should arrive early in 2026. Jewish immigration to Israel from around the world is expected to increase dramatically in the new year, and the Christian Embassy will be there assisting as many as we can to reach their ancestral homeland.