From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Texas mega-church leader vows to fight antisemitism, head Holocaust commemoration delegations
Cnaan Lidor is The Times of Israel's Jewish World reporter
At the end of Holocaust commemoration events in Hungary and Poland, Pastor Larry Huch of the New Beginnings mega-church in Texas vows to fight antisemitic attacks on Jews in Israel and abroad.
“To those who wish to harm our Jewish brothers and sisters, we say: You’ve got to come through us first,” Pastor Huch tells The Times of Israel from Poland.
Huch is in Europe to attend events connected to the March of the Living commemoration ceremonies in Poland and Hungary, where the 80th anniversary of the Holocaust in that country is being commemorated.
Huch is heading the first Holocaust commemoration delegation by New Beginnings. The delegation comprises 25 community leaders affiliated with New Beginnings, which has thousands of followers, and which has raised roughly $2.5 million for Israel in the wake of the October 7 onslaught.
Amid surging antisemitism in the wake of October 7, the New Beginnings delegation sends “a very important message to Jews everywhere about how they are not isolated, even if it sometimes feel that way,” says Sam Grundwerg, the world chairman of the Keren Hayesod-United Israel Appeal.
Most of the money raised by New Beginnings is funding rehabilitation programs in Israel headed by Keren Hayesod.
