Interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s wife, Lihi, has a sister who is known to be a Messianic Jew (a Jew who believes in Jesus), as Israel Today previously reported.
With elections just days away, that connection to Messianic Judaism is again stirring up Israelis on social media, with some wondering if faith in Jesus extends to the Lapid household.
In a short video clip that went viral on Hebrew-language social media, a Messianic Jewish leader is seen telling a conference (in English) that record numbers of Israelis are coming to faith in Jesus, including Lihi Lapid.
“אנחנו חיים בזמנים מרגשים. אפילו אשתו של ראש ממשלת ישראל, ליהיא לפיד מאמינה בישו”
הללויה! pic.twitter.com/E3r3RhYTwV— Igal Malka – ???????????????????????? (@igal_malka) October 28, 2022
Whether or not that is true, Lihi has made positive remarks about Jesus in the past, as has her husband, Yair, who last year proudly proclaimed that as an Israeli Jew his heritage includes such august figures as Moses and Jesus.
בדיוק כשאתה בטוח שראית הכל, מגיע יאיר לפיד ואומר שהוא ציוני כמו ישו.
שה’ יעזור לנו, כי בשביל לפיד זה כבר מאוחר מדי. pic.twitter.com/BbopzQCvuT
— Guy Baruch (@Guy_Baruch) November 9, 2021
Lihi’s sister, Ilil Keren, faced a media firestorm back in November 2021 after her brother-in-law, who was then foreign minister, appointed her to the board of the Jewish National Fund.
While Lapid’s political opponents howled about nepotism, the media, and in particular the ultra-Orthodox media, was heavily focused on Keren’s faith in Jesus.
Jesus was a Jew, and Christianity is Jewish!
Lapid’s wife and sister-in-law aren’t the only high profile, government-connected Israelis to speak positively of Jesus in recent years.
In 2019, Yair Netanyahu, son of Benjamin Netanyahu, took to Twitter to defend Jesus’ true Jewish heritage when Palestinian activists tried to claim him as one of theirs.
Are you that stupid? On the cross above Jesus’ head was the sign “INRI”- “Iesvs Nazarenvs Rex Ivdaeorvm”, which means in Latin- Jesus of Nazareth king of the Jews! The Bible say that Jesus was born and raised in Judea! pic.twitter.com/oHPWk3vXRX
— Yair Netanyahu (@YairNetanyahu) July 6, 2019
You’ll notice that Netanyahu writes, “The Bible says that Jesus was born and raised in Judea!”
Of course, what non-Messianic Jews call “the Bible” does not include the New Testament and thus does not mention Jesus by name, nor does it recount his upbringing. When Yair Netanyahu wrote “the Bible” in this context he was referring to the New Testament.
A year later, in 2020, Yair posted to Twitter that he would like to see Europe again become a stronghold of Christianity.
And earlier this year, the young Netanyahu highlighted that Easter–which commemorates Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection–is a Jewish affair.
This year Easter and and Passover are celebrated on the same day. You might not know it, but the “last supper”, was actually the celebration of the “Passover Seder” by Jesus and his disciples (all of whom were Jewish) . The supper took place in Mount Zion in Jerusalem, the >> pic.twitter.com/N2mpVtmS37
— Yair Netanyahu (@YairNetanyahu) April 17, 2022
