The Russian language is spoken natively by a considerable proportion of the population of Israel, mostly by immigrants who came from the former Soviet Union from 1989 onwards. It is a major foreign language in the country, and is used in many aspects of life. Russian is the third most common native language in Israel after Modern Hebrew and Arabic.
The Russian-speaking population of Israel is the world's third-largest population of Russian native-speakers living outside the former Soviet Union territories after Germany and the United States, and the highest as a proportion of the population. As of 2013, 1,231,003 residents of the Post-Soviet states have immigrated to Israel since the fall of the Soviet Union. As of 2017, there are up to 1.5 million Russian-speaking Israelis out of total population of 8,700,000 (17.25%).
In 1999, the number of Christian believers in Israel in total was approximately 5,000. Today, 5,000 is just the number of Christian believers in Russian-speaking congregations in Israel!
And of course, as observers of the Messianic scene in Israel are aware, the number of local ministries has also multiplied, with new initiatives constantly underway. The Russian-speaking population in Israel is perhaps the most open to the gospel. That is why our ministry has decided to do our best to reach out and disciple them.
Tony, leader of the Kvar Saba Jewish Messianic community, says that Derek Prince's teachings have left an indescribable mark on his life and ministry. In fact, the foundation of his community is the teachings of Derek Prince himself.
Today, there is a great thirst among the Russian-speaking population of Israel for the teachings of Derek Prince. The statistics of our YouTube page in Russian also testify to that.
In the future, we plan to broadcast Derek Prince's teachings on local Christian television channels, and we also plan to republish Derek's book, Appointment in Jerusalem, which is a favorite book among Russian-speaking Jews in Israel.
Olga (name changed) is a lecturer at one of the educational centers in Israel, where there are many Russian-speaking Jews. For some time, she took many copies of Appointment in Jerusalem from our office and distributed that book to his students. Olga also instructed to analyze it and retell it during the lesson. She tells how much excitement and interest there was in the students' eyes when they shared their impressions of that book.
It is a great privilege for us to have such an opportunity to reach and teach the Russian-speaking Jews of Israel with Derek’s Christian teachings.
Israel’s 75th Anniversary
Read more about our outreach to Israel with our special edition magazine, which you can download for free from our dedicated resources celebrating Israel's 75th anniversary.
