Remembering Rabbi Chaim Dov Urbach

by | May / June 2023

Rabbi Chaim Dov Urbach was born in Ramat Gan, Israel, on February 16, 1951. At the age of three, his family moved to Brazil and for two years, they lived in a rural area, in a town called Americana, founded after the American Civil War by a group of confederate families from the southern United States. The Urbachs were known to the Brazilians as “the Germans,” despite Chaim’s father being a Holocaust survivor from Poland. They lived primarily on welfare, but to create income, Chaim’s father, Eliezer, learned how to make pork sausage, so for a time, he went into business making and selling sausages. However, still in financial need, Urbach found a more lucrative opportunity at a weaving factory. It was there that Eliezer met evangelical Christians who witnessed to him and shared the Gospel. He began to attend their meetings and became a believer in Yeshua.

Shortly thereafter, Chaim’s mother, Sara, became a believer through a direct vision from the L-rd. For a time, Eliezer left his family in Americana and went into the Brazilian jungle to hunt for diamonds. After recovering from malaria, he drove a taxi in a little jungle town until he was summoned back to his family in Americana. A short time later, the Urbach family returned to Israel.

Chaim’s parents raised their children as believers in Yeshua when there were only a few believers in the land. Their faith community was a blend of Arab, Christian (Plymouth Brethren), and Jewish Believers. The only children in the small congregation were Nechama and Chaim Urbach. They both remember kneeling on the stone floor to pray with the adults and having to adhere to the strict rules of the religious community—no music, no dancing, no make-up, no movies, long hair for women and girls, and short hair for men and boys.

*****
SUBSCRIBE to continue reading this article and access more content about Israel and the Messianic Community around the world.

The Rich Heritage of Persian Jews and the Festival of Purim

The Persian Jews hold a most special claim to the festival of Purim. The story of Mordechai, Queen Esther, ‘Setara’ in Persian, and the Jewish people in their fight against the evil Haman, took place in Babylon. This became the great Persian Empire and eventually...

IDF Sergeant Major Chaim Malespin: A Life of Service to G-d

Israeli Messianic Believer Chaim Malespin is not only the co-founder of the Aliyah Return Center, an Israel based non-profit organization that assists new Jewish immigrants, but is also a sergeant major in the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) Combat Engineering Corp’s...

Are the Jewish People REALLY Indigenous to the Land of Israel?

While the Jewish community in Israel, and across the Diaspora, are preparing and enjoying yet another year of commemorating the Passover, there are a growing number of people in the world who are falling into the same trap of the “holocaust deniers”. In this case,...

A Messianic View on the Israel-Hamas War

On that horrific Shabbat day of October 7th, Simcha Torah, a holiday of joy and celebration on the Jewish calendar, violence struck the Jewish people in Israel with a massacre of biblical proportions. Yes, there have been many wars in Israel but the onslaught was so...

Israel Experiences National Unity and Spiritual Revival During the War

It was the summer of 2023 that the words ’Civil War’ loomed at the forefront of almost every Israeli conversation. The country of Israel was, indeed, broken and ripped in pieces politically—left versus right. Judicial reform was promised by the right-wing government...

Antisemitism: History’s Oldest Hatred

The horrific events of October 7, 2023, now known as Black Saturday, were tragic. However, one only needs to tune into the local news for a moment to realize the massacre of Black Saturday has somehow triggered an open season on Jewish people around the world. But...

A Biblical View of Messiah’s Miraculous Birth

The Tanakh, also known as the Old Testament, prophecies of a Messiah who will come to usher in an era when the people of the world will live together in harmony and righteousness. The term Messiah (Mashiach in Hebrew) means “anointed one.” From the beginning, the...

Sukkot: The Jewish Thanksgiving

The Bible is filled with many references to thanksgiving and gratitude. The word ‘thanksgiving’ is found about thirty times, with nine references specifying being thankful toward G-d. The word gratitude is mentioned over one-hundred and fifty times. G-d is the...

Golden Anniversary for Jews for Jesus

Yovel, the Hebrew word for the “Jubilee Year”, means “blowing the ram’s horn of liberty.” It is a fitting word for the 50th anniversary celebration this year of Jews for Jesus, the ministry that brought a tsunami change to Jewish evangelism worldwide led by its...

A Messianic View of the High Holy Days

Over the last five decades, Messianic Judaism has evolved and developed, especially in the observances of Jewish holidays and practices, with most of these traditions originating from traditional Judaism, with the High Holy Days being no exception. The High Holy Days...