Pages

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Kuwaiti man considers himself a religious Zionist Jew



In August, someone who calls himself Naftali Benya offered his first tweet. He wrote in Hebrew, "Good morning to all."



This was followed by a tweet in September which was much more interesting:



Yes I am Jewish
I am not ashamed
and not afraid
I have only fear of God
I am Jewish and I am proud
and if you think it is crazy
you should be ashamed
It turns out that Naftali is Youssef Al-Mebhanna from Kuwait. He grew up a Muslim but when he was twenty, after speaking with a friend from Qatar who asked him for proof Israelis are murderers, he realized that he was being told lies all his life. He became interested in Judaism and Zionism, and even though he never had a formal conversion he puts on a talit and tefillin every day, and he learned Hebrew from watching Israeli comedies.

Here is his interview and story, in Hebrew:



Last week he tweeted, in English:



Naftali is now in England where he hopes to convert to Judaism and then make aliyah to Israel.

He sounds like a remarkable young man.

(h/t Yoel)






We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.