Post by Jakob Lundvall

I spent the past decade sitting at the intersection of Christian conviction and Israeli innovation and philanthropy, and one set of numbers keeps stopping me... There are roughly 60 to 80 million Evangelical Christians in the United States. 82 percent of them identify as pro-Israel. They are the single most reliable pro-Israel voting bloc in the world. They elect presidents. They move policy. They have shaped the U.S.-Israel relationship for decades. And yet...American Jews give approximately $3 billion to Israel every year. American Evangelicals, a community 10 times larger, give roughly $350 to $450 million. That is 10-12% of total foreign giving to Israel, from a community with vastly more people and vastly more resources. Here is the number that puts it in perspective. Christians in the United States give over $145 billion to charitable causes every year. Evangelical giving to Israel is a fraction of one percent of either figure. If Evangelical Christians in America gave to Israel at the same per-capita rate as American Jews, the annual total would not be $400 million... It would be somewhere north of $20 billion. That is more than five times the entire U.S. foreign aid package to Israel. Take a moment to chew on those numbers... The gap is not a generosity problem. Christians are among the most generous people on earth. It is an identity issue, a lack of understanding the core of the Christian identity. If we would dare to look past the institution of religion, to something deeper, beyond philanthropy and investments, we will find a biblical framework that will set in motion a future that the prophets foretold in the Bible.