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By Donald H. Harrison
 SAN DIEGO—In the wake of the recent controversy over the cancellation of the Sept. 13 Walk for Israel, I received a telephone call from Pastor Greg Stephens, who is both the spiritual leader of Father's House in La Mesa and Southern California director for Christians United for Israel (CUFI).
Stephens explained to me that CUFI is a "non-conversionary" organization, meaning that it does not seek to use its support for Israel as a gateway for proselytizing Jews. The CUFI director said that independent of the now-cancelled walk being arranged by a group of Jewish organizations, CUFI is continuing with its own plans to hold an event on the evening of Sunday, September 13, to honor Israel. The featured speaker at the $18-per-person gathering will be Dennis Prager.
Stephens told me he is aware that some in the Jewish community are suspicious of CUFI, but he said he would like the community to be aware that he and like-thinking Christians believe they have a theological imperative to financially support Israel. "If you have received spiritual things, give of your material things to them," he paraphrased the apostle, Paul, from Christian Scriptures.
It is assumed that most of the people who will be in attendance at 7 p.m. in the Golden Ballroom of the Town & Country Hotel Sunday, September 13, will be Stephens' fellow Christians, but the organized Jewish community is also participating in the dinner, Stephens said.
All the money raised that night will be donated to the United Jewish Federation in support of its efforts to help underwrite a rocket-proof educational complex in Sha'ar Hanegev, UJF's Israeli partnership region which is located right next to Gaza.
Stephens said the receipts will be counted by a combined team from CUFI and the United Jewish Federation, and a check for 100 percent of the proceeds will be written to UJF that very evening.
I began a question by calling him "Reverend" and he asked me to call him by his first name, Greg. When I mistakenly pronounced the acronynm of his organization, CUFI- as "coo-fee," he gently told me that his membership prefers the pronunciation, "coo-fie," because the former sounds too similar to the Hebrew word for "monkey."
Stephens said that he began as the San Diego director of CUFI when the organization was started about four years ago, and later took on greater responsibility as the Southern California
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director. About three years go, he visited Sha'ar Hanegev in time for Yom HaZikaron (Israel's Memorial Day) and Yom HaAtzma'ut (Israel's Independence Day).
On that occasion Stephens presented to authorities in Sha'ar Hanegev a check for $30,000 which had been raised by congregations affiliated with CUFI. HE also laid a wreath in honor of Israel's war- and terror-dead. He said he saw the children of Sha'ar Hanegev playing in concrete bunkers, and said the fact that their safety required such precautions had an emotional impact upon him.
Last month, he said, he was among 5,000 Christians who attended a CUFI convention in Washington D.C. and who then visited the offices of members of Congress to urge them to support Israel.
"We told them 'land for peace' hasn't worked, that Israel has given back land--it gave up Gaza, and withdrew from Lebanon —and yet the attacks against Israel continue," Stephens recalled. "Peace would come if the neighbors would give up their destruction."
He said three Jewish officeholders of different political affiliations addressed the convention: Senator Joseph Lieberman (Independent, Connecticut), Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (Democrat, Nevada), and Congressman Eric Cantor (Republican, Virginia)
"It sounds like an AIPAC convention," I observed.
"We've been called the Christian AIPAC," he responded. "When I say I am a Christian standing up for Israel, this is real grass roots—this is not artificial turf."
The September 13 event will be a rally for Israel, "concentrating on what unites us," Stephens said. The event will include the singing of the American and Israeli national anthems, and singing of Hebrew songs by a Christian group known as Wild Branches.
Stephens added that
Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal of Tifereth Israel Synagogue is scheduled to deliver the invocation and Israel's Consul General in Los Angeles, Jacob Dayan, has indicated he will be in attendance. He said CUFI also plans to recognize Republican Assemblyman Joel Anderson for spearheading a successful resolution in the California Legislature for divestiture of state funds from businesses that support Iran.
He said that people should plan to eat before or after the event, as food is not being served. More information and reservations may be obtained via CUFI's website at www.cufisd.com
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