Testimonials

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Israeli Embassy Official, Avi Granot

Beginning in 1992, all of the first Unity Coalition for Israel meetings gathering Jews and Christians together were held in the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC. UCI was fully supported by the Embassy with full cooperation of then Avi Granot, the first director of Israeli outreach to the Christian community. He is currently the Israeli Ambassador to Finland.

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Elwood McQuaid, Editor of Israel My Glory and CEO of Friends of Israel, one of the first partner organizations to join the Unity Coalition for Israel, wrote on July 22, 2009:

Dear Esther:

Hindsight can be a look at the past that identifies historical markers that were not clear when they were taking place.  Let me explain.

While on vacation I decided it would be a good time to go through my files and do some much needed sorting out.  Among the mountain of stuff I found was a great deal of material on the first Unity Conferences in the 90′s and the furor they raised with some of our friends who wanted to squash the events and kill the relationship between Jews and Zionist Christians.  All of the correspondence with the Embassy, Avi Granot (see above), Matt Brooks, and others reminded me of just how painful things became.

But what I discovered, which is information only available through hindsight, was that those conferences, and the struggles you and our friends endured, where actually a turning point in relationships with the Israeli government and key people in the American Jewish community.  I remember something our late friend Yehuda Levy told me years later.  “Elwood, in those first few meetings we met together with suspicion.  Today we sit together like a family.”  Thus the theme of the 95′ event, Breaking Barriers & Building Bridges, actually said much more than we realized at the time.

The fight was worth it Esther.  So why don’t you give yourself a well earned pat on the back.

Ever your friend,

Elwood McQuaid – CEO of Friends of Israel (NJ)

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Levens an example for Jewish leaders
A “powerhouse” in U.S.-Israel relations

John Altevogt, Guest Columnist, Metro Voice
Editorial – March 2007

By the time you read this The Gathering V an annual event designed to unite evangelical Christians and Jews in an effort to pray for the peace of Jerusalem will have occurred. If things go as they usually do, the one international powerhouse in the room, the one person who was 10 years ahead of the current effort, as it slowly begins to retrace her steps, will be virtually ignored. Her name is Esther Levens.

Strangers will ignore her simply because in appearance she would probably be the last one in the room that one would suspect of having any great influence. For many leaders of the local Jewish community she is often explicitly ignored because she has long since thrown the doors to such collaboration open far wider than they are comfortable with. For Esther, it’s simply a family tradition.

Bob Dole was fond of touting the importance of the values he learned in Russell, Kansas as providing the impetus for his political success, but insiders are aware that his success was also built on the support of Vrem Levens, Esther’s deceased husband.

Vrem was an activist whose main love was the creation and then the defense of Israel. Unlike many in the Jewish community who feared being too vocal in their support of Israel for fear of being seen as having divided loyalties, Vrem Levens was a highly motivated pragmatist. His support was open and went far beyond simply raising money, or joining local Jewish groups. Indeed, more than once, thinking and acting outside the box in support of the defense of Israel got him in a bit of trouble.

When Vrem fell ill Esther cared for him and then also her mother until she too passed. Then she picked up where her husband left off and started to think about how she could help to keep Israel safe and secure.

Her original intent was to build a discussion group, a salon if you will, of her neighbors and friends with the modest goal of raising money for Israel and informing themselves about the issues involved in Mideast politics while giving impetus to the formation of other chapters elsewhere.

Two things happened that led her to follow in her husband’s footsteps outside the box of orthodox thinking. First, other local Jewish groups charged with raising money for the defense of Israel were not crazy about dividing up the pie with someone new. Secondly, the folks who seemed to share Esther’s passion for Israel weren’t her neighbors from the mainline denominations, they were evangelical conservatives, many of them just beginning to become involved in politics themselves.

In order to avoid the turf wars at the local level, Esther decided to create a national group, and create it she did. Following the family tradition of thinking outside the box, 15 years ago Esther created the Unity Coalition for Israel. While other Jewish groups shunned Israel’s evangelical supporters in favor of trying to align themselves with leftist groups for whom they had a greater affinity, Esther opened her door and her heart to these enthusiastic evangelicals and, as they say, the rest is history.

With her new coalition Esther Levens demonstrated time and time again that she could rally significant public support – on a national level – to oppose the continual demands that Israel give up its territory in exchange for the false hope of the ever-present promise that “peace is at hand” or that Israel could have “peace in our time.”

Today, she is a phone call away from Israel’s Prime Minister. May 20 & 21 she will join Kay Arthur and Janet Parshall at a women’s conference in Jerusalem sponsored by the Women’s Council for the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus. She is the official liaison between Israel and the United States for the conference. An international powerhouse, indeed.

While I certainly join the prayers of Gathering V and wish it great success it’s hard to be too excited knowing how far they are behind Esther Levens and her Unity Coalition for Israel. For the best news on the Mideast contact HYPERLINK “http://www.israelunitycoalition.org/” http://www.israelunitycoalition.org/ and sign up for Esther’s daily updates. Blessings to you Esther, you’re one of my heroes.

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