Arutz Sheva brings you the following video with excerpts from Sunday’s special event featuring prominent residents of Judea and Samaria, who came to the Silver Springs Jewish Community Center in Silver Springs, Maryland and spoke to Jewish Americans about the heartland of Israel.
One of the evening’s speakers was Tommy Waller, a Christian who founded HaYovel, a volunteer organization helping Jewish farmers.
“For a long time Christianity wanted to believe that was the Promised Land,” said Waller. “And then we realized that the Promised Land was actually a real place. When that happened, we began to believe that the Bible is true. This started something within the Christian communities.”
Waller, who grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, where he never met any Jewish people, recalled his first visit to Israel eight years ago, during which he ended up on Mount Gerizim near Shechem.
“I ended up on that mountain with a man named Nir, a Jewish man, born in Israel, from Kfar Saba,” said Waller, adding that Nir showed him a vineyard in the area and spoke of his dreams, as described by the prophets in the Tanach, to build vineyards in Samaria. It was this encounter that inspired Waller to help Jewish farmers.
The evening’s other speakers included David Wilder, spokesman of the Hevron Jewish community, trauma expert Ron Jager. and David Ha’ivri, Executive Director of the Shomron Liaison Office.