Founder Rabbi Pesach Wolicki Website blessingbethlehem.com | Type Charity | |
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Founded September 2016 (2016-09) Location PO Box 2294 Powder Springs, GA 30127 Mission Food giveaway program in an effort to help the persecuted Christians of Bethlehem. | ||
Blessing Bethlehem is a charity fundraising initiative with the purpose of helping the persecuted Christians living in the city of Bethlehem and its surrounding areas. It was launched in September 2016 by Rabbi Pesach Wolicki, of the Center for Jewish-Christian Understanding and Cooperation (CJCUC), at the LifeLight Festival in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Background
In 2015, Rabbi Pesach Wolicki traveled to Sioux Falls, as part of an educational effort on behalf of CJCUC, where he heard about a local food drive at Faith Temple. Later, upon meeting Minister Naim Khory of Jerusalem, a decision was made to extend the group's efforts in the direction of feeding Bethlehem’s poor.
In a September 2016 piece for the Argus Leader, Wolicki stated that in the Book of Moses, Jews are commanded by God to “care for the stranger in their midst” explaining that the Christian population of Bethlehem is "not in a country like Syria or Iraq where we don’t have access to them and can’t help them - We can help them". He also stated that the Jewish people are mainly concerned about the persecution of Christians throughout the world due to the history of persecution experienced by the Jews themselves.