To the Jew First
Advancement campaign to share the
Jewish Messiah, Jesus, with Jewish People
Your Mission to the Jewish People has experienced more than 125 years of the
Lord’s loyalty and love! We have enjoyed a wonderful year of joyous celebration.
On November 15, we concluded our year of gratitude with a banquet in Brooklyn,
the birthplace of our ministry. We heard from Jay Sekulow, founder of the American
Center for Law and Justice, and Janet Parshall of Moody Radio. Chosen People Ministries’
staff workers in Israel, former board members such as John Holbrook, as well
as friends of our ministry including Ken Barun of the Billy Graham Association and
Wayne Hilsden of the Fellowship of Israel Related Ministries (FIRM) gave testimonies
of God’s transforming power through Chosen People Ministries in the lives of Jewish
people worldwide. Finally, we “met” Leopold Cohn himself, our founder, through the
one-man dramatic presentation by staff member Alan Shore.
Very Humble Origins
Chosen People Ministries was founded by Rabbi Leopold Cohn, who came to
the United States from Hungary in 1892. Not long after he arrived, he heard a Polish
Presbyterian missionary and preacher on the Lower East Side of Manhattan proclaiming
the gospel inside a Dutch Reformed Church. Once the Lord captured the rabbi’s heart,
he committed himself to a lifelong ministry of reaching Jewish people with the gospel.
Years of reports indicate that Rabbi Cohn had baptized almost 1,000 Jewish people
before his death in 1937! His second eldest son, Joseph, led the Mission until his passing
in 1953. Harold Pretlove, Daniel Fuchs, Harold Sevener, and Sam Nadler all faithfully led
Chosen People Ministries, and in 1997, I became the mission’s seventh president.
Personally speaking, I know the significance of Chosen People Ministries. The
Mission discipled me, paid my way through Bible college, provided opportunities to
serve the Lord, and has equipped me with the skills to lead and enable others to share
Jesus with their Jewish friends and family.
My wife, Zhava, was raised in a Jewish home in Argentina and moved to Los Angeles
with her family as a young teenager. She came to faith through the work of a Chosen
People Ministries missionary. This missionary trained a group of Korean Christian
teens to proclaim the gospel to Jewish people, and they shared the good news with their
classmate, my wife.
As president of Chosen People Ministries for twenty-two years, I am excited as ever
about the growth and potential of the mission. The world is changing dramatically
and the Jewish community is too. Chosen People Ministries is changing as well, and its
relevance continues today.
2 The Chosen People | JANUARY 2020