50 Years of Maoz Israel

You’ve probably heard the word Jubilee before. A word that conjures up images of joyful celebration and festive fanfare. The Jubilee (Yovel in Hebrew) is a year of release and relief.

Every 50th year, God instructed His people to pause their normal rhythms and embrace a supernatural reset of society. Debts were forgiven. Land was restored to its rightful owners. Prisoners and captives were set free. The poor were given new opportunity. Families were reunited. The land itself was allowed to rest and breathe again.

Jubilee was God’s radical declaration that no story is ever too broken to be redeemed, no loss too deep to be restored, and no captivity too long for freedom to burst through.

No one really knows when the cycle of 50 years is supposed to happen. Most scholars agree that Israel never properly practiced or fully experienced it. But as a ministry planted in the soil of Israel and spread throughout the nations, Maoz Israel has always believed in the God who rewrites stories. And so for us, this is our year of Jubilee, and we are already watching how God is doing just that.

Maoz Israel’s Jubilee didn’t only arrive on our timeline. It arrived on His. There are moments when history feels choreographed by heaven, and this was one of them. According to the Bible, the year of Jubilee is ushered in during the high holidays.

Miraculous Timing

Call it a coincidence or providence, but the very week our Jubilee began—early October 2025—the world witnessed a moment we had prayed, wept, fasted, and interceded for: the final living hostages were returned home from Gaza after nearly two years in captivity.

To say that the release of captives is a theme of Jubilee is an understatement. It is its heartbeat. It is the promise God spoke thousands of years ago, fulfilled again before our very eyes. For the families who had suffered unimaginable anguish, for a nation still tender and traumatized, and for a world watching for signs of hope—this was the moment we began breathing again.

And for Maoz Israel, stepping into our 50th year just as captives were being released felt like God was saying:

“This is not only a year to remember what I’ve done—this is a season to watch what I will do next.”  

The Backstory

I wish I could just sit across from you in your living room and tell you story after crazy story. This seems like the only way I could do justice to the incredible backstory about Ari & Shira, the young couple with a tiny, scrappy little ministry and a dream to do something big in Israel. 

Since then, Maoz’s pioneering efforts have left a mark on virtually every major aspect of the Body in Israel today. 

Since coffee with everyone is not an option, you can find some of this journey at maozisrael.org under our “How it All Began” series. In the meantime, I’ll just share a few of the highlights.

Why Hebrew?

When Ari and Shira founded their first congregation in the 1970s, there were very few Jewish believers in Israel. Congregations were made up primarily of volunteers and tourists who only planned to spend a short time in the Promised Land. But Ari and Shira wanted a community of Jewish believers with deep roots who planned to have children and grandchildren in Israel. 

Hebrew is a frustratingly difficult language to learn, and only people who were committed would put in the effort to learn it. So, having services in Hebrew was a great way to separate the long-termers from the short-termers. 

At the time, preaching and worship in Hebrew and even celebration of Jewish holidays were not the norm amongst believers. After all, though they were Jewish, many had come to the Lord in a Gentile church culture.

Ari and Shira believed that in order to impact Israel, this had to change. Jewish believers needed to maintain their Jewish identity. It took time, and there was plenty of opposition, but today this is the new norm for every new Israeli congregation.

Thankfully, Ari and Shira were not alone. Soon after their arrival, a small wave of pioneer-minded Jews who had found the Lord began returning to the Land. They had come to take part in reestablishing the believing Jewish community in Israel after 2000 years of exile. These early days in the 1960-70s were not glamorous. But neither were 12 disciples (former fishermen and tax collectors) following a Rabbi around—and they were responsible for turning the world upside down. 

Knowing how difficult and complex it was to immigrate and get settled in Israel, Ari and Shira launched an organization designed to help others through the process. Helping believing Jews settle in Israel and begin new ministry works was the original reason Maoz Israel was established. 

Ari and Shira understood that no one organization could take on the massive task of facilitating the promised coming national revival. And so, the vision of Maoz was always to find potential leaders, sow into them and watch them bloom. That is why so many established ministries in Israel today can trace back to a time when Maoz stood with them, offered a helping hand, and cheered when they succeeded.

Pass It On

If there’s one thing Maoz has learned over the years, it’s how to try, fail, try again, and eventually discover what actually works when it comes to building God’s Kingdom here in Israel. We’ve had our fair share of experiments—some brilliant, some …well, let’s just say they taught us what doesn’t work.

And the truth is, the things that make the biggest impact aren’t usually the flashy ones. They’re not the stories that get headlines or viral videos. In fact, some of the most exciting breakthroughs are the ones we quietly hold onto because they involve real people, and sensitive moments we can’t share publicly.

But over time, we’ve noticed four core areas where our efforts consistently bear fruit—fruit we’re convinced will be evident even years from now. How do we know? Because we’re more than a generation into this and the seeds we planted decades ago are evident in the Body of believers across Israel today.

The Maoz Strategy to Impact Israel

When it comes to building a Messianic community from the very beginning, Maoz took a holistic approach. We wanted to cover all the pillars required for a healthy community. This complex approach can be visually summed up as: up, down, in and out.