Sid:  Now, my guest Shira Sorka-Ram is red hot for the Messiah, I’m speaking to her at Tel-Aviv Israel where she has been a citizen and lived in Israel for over forty years.  And Shira, I remember many many years ago and you just refreshed my memory that was back in 1973 just before the Yom Kippur War; you had your own Yom Kippur War tell me what happened.

Shira:  Well, I was living in Jerusalem and there was a gal, a Jewish gal from Britain who had come to know the Lord in Britain, so her parents sent her to Israel trusting that she would forget all this stuff about Yeshua if she lived in Israel.  So she came here and somehow, I don’t remember how I met her and she moved in with me and lived with me for some time.  Meanwhile, I went for a trip to the states and when I came back I found that she was engaged to young man also a Messianic Jew.  Well, when her family heard that their daughter was engaged to a Messianic Jew they absolutely blew their top.  And there were other relatives of her, aunts and uncles that were already in Israel besides her own family in Britain.  And so they went to the orthodox newspapers and they said, we have a missionary on the street and she is taking tracks to the western wall and passing them out there, she taking tracks to the University and passing out tracks there to the university students and that she’s got to be stopped.  Well, that appeared in one of the orthodox newspapers and it was an incitement to violence and a couple of days later I heard a big explosion, I was on the third floor of a building where I lived and I opened the door and the whole stairwell was very very badly on fire and I immediately thought I wonder if the place is going to burn down and that was the only way I could get out was through that stair well.  So I called the police and they got there very quickly and there happened to be a newspaper man that was walking by or in his car going by and he stopped. And after they put the fire out he came up in the stairs and said, “What in the world’s going on?”  And I said, “Well, I believe this has happened because of my faith in Yeshua the Messiah.”  Well, the next day in Yediah Denote, which is the #1 newspaper on the back of it it said, showed my picture and said, “I believe in the God of Israel and he speaks to me.” I don’t where he got that from, but something in my conversation and here it was you know that God is speaking to me, but it went from newspaper to newspaper.  I had not actually been to the Western Wall passing out tracks nor had I been to the university, but it got a lot of publicity; in fact it actually went all around the world.

Sid: I know, I read about it in the United States, it made the major newspapers, but “How in the world did your parents put up with their daughter in Israel and a bomb is put in her house to kill her; how could they let you stay there Shira?”

Shira:  Well, listen Sid; I was twenty-seven years old.

Sid:  I don’t care my daughters older than that right now and I want her, if someone’s trying to bomb her.

Shira:  Well, I don’t know I just felt that God would protect me; I felt I was there in His will, and I was there for a purpose.  I began to see this purpose little by little as I stayed in Israel, I certainly didn’t know it at the beginning.  But I simply felt that I was where I was supposed to be and that was it.

Sid:  Shira, you have been in Israel for forty years, but there are many people listening to us that don’t know the history of Israel from just a little bit just before you even got there, I wonder if you’d give us a synopsis?

Shira:  Well, the Holy Land is a Holy Land, everybody knows the Holy Land is a place that God gave to the Jewish people through Abraham, He says “ I give it to you and your descendants forever,” and so Israel had it, but Israel sinned and so the Lord said, “If you sin Israel you will be scattered throughout the whole world, but when you come back to the Lord then I will gather you from the four winds and I will bring you back to your own land.”  Well, if anybody ever wanted to know whether God could keep His promises, here after two thousand years of the Jewish people being tossed out of their own land, even though there were a few Jews always in the Holy Land, most were not here they were scattered around the world.  Now, the Turkish Empire had this land, it was called the Ottoman Empire; had it from 1453 to 1917, that’s over four hundred years.  They ruled all this area, they ruled Egypt, they ruled the Mediterranean area; they ruled all of this area.  But in World War I, Britain and as you know the allies won and so the Ottoman Empire disappeared and the Middle East was divided up between England and France.  And so we have the whole area of the Holy Land, so in 1922 the British wrote a letter to the Jewish people and said, we favor having the Holy Land as a homeland for the Jews, 1922.  However, it wasn’t long before those that came to power in Britain decided not to do that and they divided seventy-six percent of Jordan, of this Holy Land into an area called Jordan.  And then in 1946 folks, 1946 that the year after World War II Jordan became a nation taking seventy-six percent of the whole Holy Land leaving twenty-four percent and so Israel was hoping that the Jews were hoping that they would get land, but then the British decided that they would divide it up again and it became a very nasty messy place because the Arabs were saying we don’t want any Jews here.  The Jew were saying yes, but this is the land that God promises and that you promised it.  So in 1947 the British handed it over to the United Nations, the United Nations divided it up between Israel and the Arabs.  Israel accepted it, the Arabs did not accept it and that is when the wars started; 1948 Israel declared its Independence and we do accept what the United Nations said, the Arabs said “We do not accept what the United Nations said,” and from that time on there has been war over this area of the Holy Land.

Sid:  How in your mind will the Palestinian problem be settled?  In the mind of most of the people in the west, the only way it can be settled is a two state solution of the tiny sliver of land that Israel current has.

Shira:  Right, Sid I don’t think that there is any any solution to this; I just don’t see a solution coming.  I think that it’s going to go on and on and get worse and worse for Israel.  If you want to know what Israel is most afraid of besides Iran, it’s the United Nations because the United Nations pounds away at Israel.

Sid:  Why do they pound away at Israel?  It’s obvious they do it why?

Shira:  Well, it’s very simple.  Around, somewhere around fifty nations are in the Arab League, it’s not exactly that number but around that in the Arab league and they all vote as one group.  And there’s the Muslim countries that are another great huge group and when you put those two together; the Arab League and the Muslim countries they have in almost every situation a majority in the United Nations and they simply run the United Nations. 

Sid:  So what is going to happen in your opinion?

Shira:  Well, this September the Palestinians in the West Bank say that they are going to demand the country of their own country without negotiating with Israel.  Now what that means is their saying, were going to have our own country but we will not recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.  We will not accept Israel’s claim of defenses that she needs, like certain borders where she can defend herself and so we’re just going to declare our own state and then you know what can happen.  If Hamas takes over the West Bank, which it very likely will, then we will have rockets coming out of the West Bank, just like we have rockets coming out of Gaza all the time. 

Sid:  So what is going to happen, will the world just then legislate a two state solution to avoid this?  I mean the UN looks to me like they really want that state, a Palestinian State.

Shira:  The only person, the only country that could stop this is the United States.

Sid:  But with our current administration, I see that as little likelihood.

Sid:  Speaking about being red hot for the Messiah, I wish you could be a fly on the wall on some of my conversations with Jewish people that have received the Messiah.  I’m thinking of one man in particular; he’s an orthodox Jew, he’s Sephardic; he’s got Hispanic type of accent and he started watching our television show, it’s supernatural.  And he got up enough chutzpah, that’s nerve and he called the guest and the guest lead him to the Lord and prayed with him to be filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in supernatural languages and so then he called me.  And he calls me about once a month and he is so hungry for God.  At the same zeal that he had for Orthodox Judaism he now has for Messianic Judaism and I mean I have never met someone so hungry for God.  And this tells me the times and the seasons were in; we’re in the season in which God is having mercy on Israel once more so that individual Jewish people can have personal relationships with God; where they can hear His voice and fulfill their destiny.  And in the United States God has shown me that we have a window of opportunity and He’s told me; look its obvious and as you hear my guest Shira-Sorko-Ram, who is a living history of the nation Israel, will be talking to her in a moment.  He has shown me what the orthodox Jewish people are saying, “We are in the footsteps of Messiah.”  We can literally hear His steps; “They would say ready to come,” I would say, “Ready to return.”  And that’s why God wants to have mercy on Jewish people, and in the United States I obtained the names and addresses of two million Jewish households.  And God gave me a dream, He told me, “More Jewish people would come to know Him through this book,” He told me what book to do, I put it together and do you know what?  We have mailed 600,000; I wish I had time to tell you the stories of so many, especially Orthodox Jews that this book is affecting; and having an impact on…and then we will seven books to seven Jewish families in the United States.  We are seeding one of the greatest revivals in history.  There is just something special when a Jew and Gentle who know the Messiah come into the love of Messiah and the love for one another.  And there is nothing more exciting than a Muslim and a Jew coming to the Messiah and talk about having shalom on earth, peace on earth.   Shira-Sorka-Ram is there anything neater than a Muslim that has an encounter with the Lord and then loves the Jewish people?

Shira:  You know this is one of the most interesting things that’s happening in Israel for the Muslim people Israel is the freest place on the globe for people to preach and evangelize Muslims.  Because Israel is a Democracy and even the ultra orthodox would be pleased to know that Arabs have become Christians instead of Muslims because they, you know the Muslim fanatism is a worry to the whole world.  There is actually things going on that we can’t give details about, but there are Muslims in the territories that are coming to the Lord in a way that is just absolutely amazing.  In one place I know whole village has come; now what’s going to happen to them, we don’t know.  We had some Jewish people that were going up there and witnessing and teaching them and but now it’s too dangerous for them to go; but here’s a whole little village that has come to the Lord.  They call themselves, Muslims for Yeshua.  They don’t know anything else, what do you call yourself?  But they have truly come and said, “I believe that Yeshua is the Messiah, and I have given my life to Him.”  So, and then there’s works here in Israel also in Israel proper; we actually support one Pastor Yoseph Hadad; his wife came from Lebanon you know when Israel pulled out of Lebanon Sid, there was 7,000 Lebanese soldiers who came along and went with Israel back into our country.  So they’re not all here anymore, but there still a couple of thousand Lebanese Arabs that are here that are nominal Christians.  Okay that’s why they fought with Israel because they were nominal Christians and Yoseph Hadad this pastor has a congregation up in the North and is evangelizing these Lebanese soldiers.  And I think what greater gift could God give to these Lebanese soldiers who fought with Israel, gave up everything; lost their homes; lost their extended family; came here but they’re now getting the word of God here in Israel.

Sid:  This is such a strategic moment in history.

Shira: It is.

Sid:  With, I mean I know you read the Bible every year through, and you’ve done this for many years, I know you have godly parents that now in Heaven that instilled the love for the Jew in Israel in your heart.  And so you have this wonderful heritage, but what is going on right now in your opinion and where are we headed?

Shira:  Right, well I remember back when my Father was still alive in the early ‘70s, someone came to him and said, “What’s going to happen in Israel, what’s going to be the future?” This is early ‘70s and my Father said, “Well according to the Bible, according to the prophets all the prophets, it’s simply going to get worse and worse and worse and worse until Israel sees that there’s no hope outside of the God of Israel; and then God, as they draw near to God, God will show them the way to salvation.”  Now, I don’t think that He’ll do it by you know a puff of wind, I believe that He’s going to use the Body of born Again Messianic Jews in this country and that’s what we’re here for, that’s what we’re doing, the number is growing, but…

Sid:  But what was it like forty years ago when you came to Israel as far as the number of Jewish believers in the Messiah?

Shira:  When I arrived in this country in 1967 I don’t think that there were more than maybe one handful of Israeli, Israeli born believers here in this country.  They just didn’t exist.  There were a few immigrants that had come, some of them from the Holocaust, very traumatized people, but as far as any kind of strong body; there was one congregation in Jerusalem of faithful people; but I mean it was tiny, tiny, tiny there was almost no Jewish believers in the whole country. 

Sid:  Today, what is it like?

Shira:  Today the newspapers are right, that there’s around fifteen thousand Messianic Jews around the country.  And as you probably know, the Orthodox of the Ultra Orthodox do not let the Messianic Jewish people use radio or television; we have no television possibility stations or radio.  Whereas they have multiplied billions of shekels that the government gives them from every possible corner, but they are very afraid of us and they don’t give us the freedom to use TV.  But lately there are more and more items on the news itself that is talking about the Messianic Jews and it’s getting more let’s say objective, then it was in the past; when we were just considered a cult or a bunch of screwballs.  In fact just a week or so ago there was a long I think thirty minute or forty minute broadcast on station Channel #1 of Israel and they even used part of the footage that we ourselves, MAOZ had filmed and we filmed a protest of Ultra Orthodox Jews in Ashdod.  And in Ashdod it was in front of a Messianic Jewish Congregation and this Rabbi set himself up a platform, loud speakers and everything and he started yelling at his 1,000 guys, you know his Ultra Orthodox that they had bussed in.  And he said, “The Messianic Jews are like Hitler. Hitler wanted to destroy us; the Messianic Jews want to destroy us just like the Nazis.  Well, we filmed it.  We sent someone there and we filmed it and the Channel 1 took it and blasted it across the screen and of course Israeli’s were horrified.  So it really showed that we as Messianic Jews obeying the law, paying our taxes are people serving the army.  And while as the Ultra Orthodox do not serve in the army, they don’t pay taxes, they don’t work, they expect the government to give them money to live on so that they can study the rabbinical books.  And I think, I think the tide is slowly, its slow Sid, it’s slow, but it’s still turning.

Sid:  But there is some pretty ferrous persecution of Messianic Jews in the land of Israel.  It’s not as easy as they in the United States; we’ll pick up right here on tomorrow’s broadcast.

Sid:   My guest Shira-Sorko-Ram, I have known for many years, personally read her newsletter; I think that it’s the best newsletter from the Middle East.  And she is a walking history because forty years ago, in 1967 she went to Israel and she’s been there for forty years, it happened to be right at the Six Day war.  And then they had the Independence Day Celebration, I’ve been in Israel for Independence Day, everyone goes out in the streets and they act just a little Mischugah.  Is that right Shira-Sorko-Ram, a little crazy?

Shira:  Well, it’s completely Israel; it’s not like anything else.  You know the soldiers and the people get out in the streets and they dance in circles, especially up in Jerusalem; yeah it’s a happy time, but it’s not like a bad time; they’re not doing crazy things like you know, the carnivals.

Sid:  No, but what I’m saying is that they get so excited, I mean it’s a happening is what I’m saying. 

Shira:  Right.

Sid:  So, you were talking about that first celebration just after the Western Wall was in Jewish hands for the first time in how long?

Shira:  Well, since 70 AD.

Sid:  Wow.

Shira:  Jerusalem came back into the hands of the Jewish people, that’s a long, long time; nineteen hundred years.

Sid:  So the euphoria must have been over the top at that time!

Shira:  It was, it was and some of the things that people would say I couldn’t help but be excited about it even though I knew it wasn’t going to happen the way they thought.  They were saying things like this, “The Jewish people have now shown the Arabs that the Arab’s can’t win.  So this is going to be the last war; these are the days of the Messiah, this is the last war, there’s never going to be another war because Arabs know they can’t win.  And there were these little stickers that everybody had on their cars and it said, kol hakavod l’tsahal which means all the honor goes to the army and I knew that (HA) I knew that wasn’t a very smart thing to say; And let me jump six years ahead in 1973 when the terrible Yom Kippur surprise war came against Israel.  You didn’t see any more all honor to the army, the sign changed.  The stickers were different, they said, “Israel trust in God,” that was big difference.  But the euphoria lasted for six years, it lasted from ’67 to ’73 when the terrible Yom Kippur surprise war when the Arab countries attacked Israel.

Sid:  Were you living there, I know that you were living there, but were you there at the time of the ’73 war?

Shira:  I was not, my Father had passed away and so I was in the states with my family at that time.  Now when the war took place oh, I was absolutely stunned as everybody was because it was a complete surprise.  And I wanted to get back there; I wanted to get back into Israel, but my family asked me that I stay a little bit longer with them.  So I went back about three months later and the country was completely different Sid.

Sid:  In what way?

Shira:  People were depressed, stunned; from that time on even violence in the country went up.  And back in 1967; yeah there were sometimes somebody would break into a car and steal, but I mean you never heard of murder or violence; it just didn’t happen; it was remarkable.  And I came from Dallas where you couldn’t even walk down the street back in 1967 at night in certain parts of the city.  But in Jerusalem you could walk anywhere at any time, it was a really interesting change in culture.   But ‘73 happened and our country, Israel started going downhill, it’s never recovered since then.

Sid:  Now looking, remembering what Israel was like forty years ago and looking at Jerusalem, looking at Tel Aviv would you have ever thought it would make that kind of transition?

Shira:  No, it’s completely impossible to figure how this has happened.  Here is Israel surrounded completely by those who want to destroy the country and yet the economy booms, skyscrapers are going up; the shekel, our money is stronger than the dollar.  I mean can you imagine?

Sid:  Now, listen I wish all of my money was in shekels rather than dollars; I know what’s going on with the Israeli shekel.  With all of the deal with Iran and all these nations I mean nothing has changed; it’s still an impossible situation and yet Israel was prospering!

Shira:  It’s a start up nation; it’s a start up nation!  It has more start ups per a person than anything country in the world!  It’s a remarkable sign to me that God has not left the Jewish people; they, I know that the Jewish people are brilliant, but they’re not that brilliant!   I mean is amazing that this nation is growing, it is so much higher standard of living than any nation around it and yet it has to defend itself against total destruction every moment of every day.

Sid:  Now, going back to the Yom Kippur war in 1973, I have heard many accounts of miraculous things that occurred for Israel to have won that war!

Shira:  Oh, it is, it is! I think that the war lasted nineteen days.  And you know Syria was on its way into Northern Galilee.  The Jordanians actually stayed out of the war; that which was very smart of them by the way; but Egypt attacked and came up the Sinai and it could have gone either way.  It could have gone either way when you have those two large armies doing a pincher act against Israel; it is amazing and miraculous!  There’s many, many stories; there is one fellow that had a, that was in a tank going up the Golan Heights and his unit all the rest of the tanks were knocked out by the Syrians and he took this tank and zig zagged it up the Golan Heights.  And it was at night so that the Syrians thought it was several tanks you know; they couldn’t imagine that this is one tank it was finally blown out.  He found a couple of other tanks twice and he changed tanks and went zig zagging all over the place you know with his tank and knocking positions of the Syrians out and he is today one of the Israel’s greatest heroes.  I do not believe this man could have done this without the hand of God, because the Syrians were coming down the Golan Heights, they were ready to take over the Galilee.  And you know what that would have been, that would have been a slaughter of all the Jewish people in the Galilee area, which did not happen.

Sid:  To me, the greatest reality that our God is interested in us as individuals is the creation of modern day Israel and the survival of modern day Israel.

Shira:  Yes!

Sid:  I mean there is no other explanation to why Israel exists so that begs the question; here you have Iran; Iran wants to nuke, its very obvious wants to nuke Israel.  How do you live under that pressure?  As a believer I know how you live, but how does a nonbeliever live under that pressure?

Shira:  I want you to know that Israeli’s are very very fearful, they know what Iran is saying she’s going to do.  Iran, Ahmadinejad is talking exactly like Hitler did, exactly.  And back in Hitler’s day this is what Israel says, the nations did not take him seriously and their not taking Ahmadinejad seriously, when he says that he’s going to wipe Israel out; and so there’s great fear, there is great great fear over this.

Sid:  As a believer, you’re obviously concerned; do you believe he’s going to nuke Israel?

Shira:  Well, Israel is very tiny, so I don’t see that God is going to let Ahmadinejad nuke Israel; I just don’t see how that can happen because it would knock the country out you know with the radiation and everything else.

Sid:  You know Shira; I’m much more concerned about the United States than Israel, because the Bible does talk about what happens to nations that divide the land of Israel.  You know were out of time right now.

Sid:  Well, I have on the telephone from Tele Aviv, Israel Shira Sorko Ram.  As far as I’m concerned Shira and her husband Ari put out a newsletter from Israel.  There organization is called, Maoz.  Shira, Maoz means strength.

Shira:  That is correct.

Sid:  And I image a lots of people get your newsletter and don’t know even what Maoz means.

Shira:  No.

Sid:  Now what is behind, why would you pick Maoz, that word for your ministry?

Shira:  We took it from the scripture, the Lord is my strength.  And the word for strength is Maoz.  It means fortress or strength and so we said, “That’s what we’re going to have to have in order to make any type of impact in Israel.”

Sid:  Well, you should know because forty years ago in 1967 you emigrated from the United States to Israel.  Now let’s be candid, most American Jews haven’t even been to Israel let alone are thinking of Aliyah or becoming citizens of Israel.  And forty years ago there was probably even less talk about that.  What caused you to leave the wonderful American lifestyle and go to Israel?

Shira:  Well, we were getting ready, my family and I were going to have a tour here and so we were planning to get here in October 1967 and while we were planning that the six day war took place when in six days Jerusalem came back into the hands of the Jewish people.  Judea and Samaria, Gaza, the Golan Heights, even the Sinai Desert, they all came back into the hands of the Jewish people.  And so that raised an interest in my mind because I was saying this is a sign of the last days.  Jerusalem coming back into the hands of the Jewish people is a sign of the last days.  And so that’s when I began to think a little bit stronger about coming to Israel.  Now also I know that this a fact that when I got here many young Jewish men and woman from the United States immigrated at that time.  There was a big immigration of young people from the States.  I don’t know if it has ever been like that since, but there was just a number of thousands of American Jews who came at that time because of the excitement of Jerusalem coming back into the hands of the Jewish people. 

Sid:  But you went by yourself, am I right?

Shira:  Well, I came over on the tour and I was getting ready to go back on the tour and we were standing out in front of a hotel, that was it getting ready to get on the bus to go to the airport and the bus came late.  And meanwhile I was talking to my Father because I had been working in documentary films and my Father said, “You know this is remarkable what’s happening in Israel.  I mean, even the people themselves are saying “The days of Messiah are here,” people that did not know who the Messiah was, but they still said, “Something’s happening.”  So he said, “Why don’t you make a documentary film about what God is doing in Israel by bringing the land back into the hands of the Jewish people.  And so because that bus was late, I decided I would stay here for a few days and then I decided a few weeks, and then a few months and at that time I was hooked, I was here.

Sid:  But what did your parents think about you being, I mean that you’re young, your single, you’re there in Israel by yourself.  What did your parents think about that?

Shira:  My father is a man of prayer; he was a man of prayer he has gone on to his reward now.  But he loved Israel and he prayed for Israel all the time; wrote about Israel, and I do believe that I’m here.  My life is spent here in Israel, because of the prayers and the love that my Father had for Israel.  So yes I’m here,

Sid:  Okay what was it like forty years ago in Israel?

Shira:  Totally amazing, I can remember the first Independence Day after the Six Day War.

Sid:  Now at that time, they hit you on the head with those little funny hammers that were plastic?

Shira:  They had the hammers.

Sid:  I’ve been out there in the streets when that happens.

Shira:  Oh it’s terrible, but any way…

Sid:  It doesn’t hurt, but okay. 

Shira:  I was living in Jerusalem at that time, I lived in Jerusalem for six years after you know getting there in 1967 and everything is new to me.  Everything is new, I didn’t know what to expect.  But on the Independence Day, which was in the May of 1968 okay, so it’s the first Independence Day of Israel when Jerusalem was back in the hands of the Jewish people. 

Sid:  That had to be so exciting. 

Shira:  Well here’s what happened, I went out of my house and I saw people everywhere moving in a certain direction which was towards the Western Wall, you know, the new Western Wall as far as Israel is concerned.  So I followed and there were thousands of people, they were all making their way to the direction of the Western Wall.  Well it filled up very fast, but outside of the city gates of Jaffa around the old city there were, I don’t know maybe 50,000 people and I stood there and they all started singing this song which all Jewish people know, “Jerusalem of Gold,” And they started singing Jerusalem Jerusalem of Gold and you could image how it sounded for 50,000 people sponteously singing about Jerusalem, it was earthshaking I have to say.

Sid:  I can feel it as your saying that.  So you’re swept with this crowd, there looking at the Western Wall for the first time in Jewish possession, what a moment!  You had no doubt that you were suppose to be there at that point I’m sure. 

Shira:  Oh, it was a euphoria that lasted in Israel for about six years.  It lasted from 1967 six day war until 1973 the Yom Kippur War when the Arabs did a surprise attack on Israel and 2,000 soldiers were killed.

Sid:  I’ll tell you what, hold that thought, but there is so much history in Shira-Sorko-Ram that I want to get it out in this interview…