The Chosen People | JULY 2019 17
Dr. Mitch Glaser with staff at Ramat Gan Messianic Center
Jorge Sedaca speaking at a church in Canada
3 ARGENTINA
More than fifty years before the first Jewish settlers arrived
on the shores of Manhattan Island in 1654, there were
already Jewish people in the Southern Hemisphere. Today,
the Jews of Latin America reside mainly in Argentina
(250,000) and Brazil (130,000).
Chosen People Ministries has been active in reaching the
Jewish people of South America since 1943. Emmanuel
Lichtenstein, who served with the Mission in Nazi-occupied
Europe and barely escaped to Buenos Aires, began ministering
to other Jewish refugees there shortly after his arrival.
In the 1960s, Victor Sedaca, an Argentine Jewish believer,
took up the leadership torch. Sedaca emphasized reaching
out to the Argentine Sephardic Jews. Roberto Passo joined
the Mission in 1982 and served for twenty years. Under his
tenure, the work continued to expand its sphere of influence.
Today, we own two buildings in Buenos Aires. One of these
facilities, the Messianic Community Center (Centro Mesiánico
Comunitario) is located in the heart of the Jewish community
on Sarmiento 3726. Besides housing a congregation with more
than one hundred people attending regular services each week,
there are also studies in the Torah and Tanakh (Old Testament),
training events, special seminars, and an organized outreach
to the more than twenty thousand Israeli tourists that pass
through Buenos Aires each year. There are also a dozen beds to
house short-term mission teams. The other facility houses staff
and provides beds for Israeli tourists passing through.
Although Buenos Aires is the center of Jewish life in
Argentina, there are also Jewish communities in several other
cities. Groups of volunteers serve as a bridge between the
ministry center in Buenos Aires and other Jewish Argentine
communities by bringing special gospel-related activities to
other cities in Argentina and throughout Latin America on
a regular basis. And we have sent out thousands of Isaiah 53
Explained books in Spanish as part of our Isaiah 53 outreach
campaign.
2 CANADA
Canada has long been home to a significant population of
Jewish people, particularly in the Toronto, Montreal, and
Winnipeg areas. For this reason, Chosen People Ministries
has had a presence in Canada since the late 1930s. At that
time, our field representatives and missionaries began to
fulfill speaking engagements in churches and conferences
throughout Canada in cities such as Vancouver, Winnipeg,
Toronto, Hamilton, and Montreal. The Mission constituted
a Canadian board in the early 1940s and established the
headquarters for the Mission in Toronto, Ontario.
Today, Jorge Sedaca supervises the work in Canada. The
Mission has Messianic centers and congregations in Toronto
(led by Ben Volman) and Winnipeg (led by Michael
Wodlinger). Chosen People Ministries in Canada offers
Messianic services, campus outreach, Bible studies, home
visitation and special events designed to help Jewish seekers
and others encounter the life-giving message of the gospel.
Each fall, Chosen People Ministries hosts Haverim-Friends,
our annual Canadian Messianic retreat in Guelph, Ontario,
with special speakers and workshops designed to bring
seekers to faith and deepen the discipleship of already
committed believers.