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Winckler said his congregation has prayed weekly for Israelis and for those affected by antisemitism.
By Shula Rosen
Heinz Winckler, a former winner of Idols SA who is now a pastor, led a conference in Jerusalem to voice support for Israel and discuss ways to fight antisemitism.
The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem’s Envision Conference, which took place between Feb. 2 and 6, was intended to reinforce the participants’ commitment to Israel following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, he told the SA Jewish Report.
Since that date, Winckler said his congregation has prayed weekly for Israelis and for those affected by antisemitism.
He said attending the conference provided an opportunity to engage with leaders, theologians and scholars who share similar views on Israel’s role in Christian theology.
The conference, themed “Israel and Your Church,” focused on the relationship between Christianity and Israel and included briefings from Israeli experts on security and politics.
Participants met senior Israeli officials at the Knesset and Foreign Ministry, toured northern and southern border areas, and visited communities affected by the war, including Kibbutz Be’eri and the site of the Nova music festival.
“It was tough emotionally to see and try to imagine what it must have been like,” Winckler said of the visit to the south. “To see the destruction is overwhelming,” he told the SA Jewish Report.
Winckler also said discussions addressed antisemitism within Christian communities and what he described as “healthy Zionism,” stressing that opposition to antisemitism should not depend on agreement with Israeli government policies.
Separately, South African Christian leader Rachel Kalidass has called for a national day of prayer and fasting on March 2, coinciding with the Fast of Esther, observed on the day before Purim.
Kalidass leads the Prayer and Repentance Movement, a coalition encouraging collective prayer at what it views as critical moments.
“The story of Esther is about courage, but it is also about G-d’s faithfulness that He will always save Israel and the Jewish people,” Kalidass said.
Kalidass has previously organized public prayer gatherings across South Africa, including events held in Johannesburg, Sharpeville and on Table Mountain.
She urged participants from different faiths to join the upcoming observance, saying, “We have so much more in common than what divides us.”
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