Edward Kalish

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Edward-Ephraim Kalish.
I was born in a Jewish family. My Father’s name is Rudik, son of Moses. My mother’s name is Maria daughter of Joseph. My Father’s ancestors are from Poland, from the town Kalish, My surname Kalish confirms it. My Mother’s ancestors were rabies, her surname before her marriage was Rabinovich. But I was born in the center of Russia in the family, where my Father was an engineer and my Mother was a doctor. The only Grandfather, whom I knew personally, - Joseph Rabinovich, son of Samson Rabinovich, was very far from religion. He was a tailor, for whom earning money was the most important thing in his life.

In spite of the fact that from my childhood I knew that I am a Jew, I was brought up as a cosmopolitan.
My father, being a real communist, didn’t like any talks about our Jewish roots. His suggestion for the new at that time 1977 Constitution, was to proclaim a new nation – Soviet people, and to abolish any mentioning about nations.
But the word of God of Israel is stronger than any revolutionary communistic ideas. Jews of the former Soviet Union continued to be the Jews in the times when they were sent to prisons, when others tried to destroy them, and to delete from their minds any memories that they were the Jews. Even my father had already changed his mind and now he lives in Israel. Praise the Lord!

Event that changed my life.
At the age of 30 I was disappointed with communistic ideas. At that time I was standing at the trashold of the event that changed all my life. By accident I came to a lecture about Jewish culture, and there I’ve met with Jeshua. That lecture actually was an Evangelization, and I was the one who found his Messiah, or to be more exact, - the one who was found by the Messiah.
I was born again, and all my life was resurrected, including my “covered by dust” Jewish identity. It may sound strangely, but it was Christian Church “Cornerstone”, and not my parents , who made me to be a Jew. Before that time I had never been surrounded by so tremendous love and care of so many people, just because I was a Jew. I couldn’t imagine anything like that before. On the contrary, all my life I tried not to talk too much about my nationality in order not to get into a trouble. So step by step I began to understand, who I am, where I am from, and where I go to…

In a vision He showed me the land , which He had promised to our forefathers…
It’s amazing that they were Christians , who had explained to me, that my true homeland is Israel. It was a strange feeling. All my knowledge about Israel was formulated by the former Soviet propaganda. Zionist aggressors, colonizers, military clique – is what I had in my mind. I didn’t have any good feelings, no sentiments for this country. But when I turned to the Jewish Messiah, everything began to change very fastly. I received my roots, I got the soil where to be planted in, just by miracle. I was reading the Bible as my own genealogy. It became more and more close to me. Thus I began to understand and to love my own people. Thus I found the inheritance, which God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob demised to our fathers and to theirs children from generations to generations, which means including me. Thus I began to love the land , which I had never seen before. The land of Israel seemed to me magnificent just because God loves it. And He imparted to me a part of His love. Inside me He had awakened something hidden very deeply in one of the abandoned storerooms, storerooms that every Jew has in his soul.

One day God spoke to me. ”Now is the time”, -He said,-“ until this time You lived in a greenhouse of a strong Christian congregation. In a year I shall plant You into an open ground – the land of Israel”. It’s amazing that exactly the same day one year later we had landed at the airport Ben Gurion in Tel-Aviv. But before that back in Russia we had had a question, which city if Israel shall we live in?
Once in the time of praying I saw a vision, it was a map of Israel. I was never good in Geography, but in my spirit I could feel that it was Israel. To be more exact it was just a small part of Israel, a curve or a small peninsula stretched out into the Mediterranean sea. And I saw a circle on that peninsula, it was one of signs that are usually used on the maps to mark the cities. So my wife and I rushed to the map, and the only curve stretched out into the sea was mount Carmel, and the only city on it was Haifa. We didn’t know much about Haifa at that time , we also didn’t know much about any other city of Israel. My only Israeli friend with his family lived at that time in a small town Arad, which is quite far from Haifa, the place which God had suggested for us.
Well, You know to move to the unknown country, having money enough to pay for an apartment just for 3 months, to move to a city where we didn’t have anybody who could help us even by any advice, seemed to be risky. So we decided first to come to Arad, where our friends lived, and to move to Haifa later. Can You imagine what a strong confirmation we’ve got from God , when the next day we‘ve received a letter from my friend.
He wrote that they had moved to Haifa, because there he had found a good job. To us it was the sign, that God takes into account all the circumstances. He promised to lead us as our Father, keeping our hands in his own hand.