Isaac Solomon Ostrovsky 1902-2001

Isaac Solomon Ostrovsky was born in 1902 in the town of Tagancha in the Ukraine, to a traditional Jewish family. He survived the pogroms of his native Ukraine where at the age of 16 he saw his father murdered before his eyes. In that pogrom his eldest sister, 8 year old niece and 49 others were cruelly murdered.  He joined a group of relatives making their way to Israel (Palestine of those days) and in his travels, met Leon Averbach, a leader of a small group of Jewish believers, and heard the Gospel. He bought the New Testament and read it carefully. After a period of inner spiritual struggles he came to faith in the Messiah of Israel, at the age of 16. A year later he arrived in Israel, and began working for the Mount Carmel Bible School in Haifa.

From 1919-1923 Ostrovsky worked for the “Mount Carmel Bible School” in Haifa. From 1924 to 1929 he pursued a theological education in London. On his return to Israel he was commended to full-time work by the assembly at Haifa and a small printing press, purchased by Mr. Clapham, was set up in a small room adjoining the Bethesda Hall to print gospel literature in Hebrew and English.

In the year of 1932, when brother Ostrovsky was age 30, he married Sarah, who was his wife for the next 60 years.

In the early 1930’s Shlomo and Sarah Ostrovsky moved to Tel Aviv, the rapidly growing Jewish city. Because of the strong antagonism to Jews who turned to Christianity, they found it impossible to rent a house in the centre of the city and had to live on the outskirts. They found — as other missionaries did — that it was extremely difficult for converts from Judaism; such were liable to be boycotted, dismissed from employment and ostracized by the community.

Ostrovsky started to arrange meetings for local Jewish and Arab believers. He used a building that belonged to the German Templars and called this small fellowship “Peniel Hall”. The meetings were held in Hebrew and Russian. Often new immigrants from Russia attended the meetings, as well as British civil servants and soldiers.

The building next to the assembly hall was a clinic with a Christian doctor and nurses, who served Jew and Arab, believers and unbelievers. On the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, all properties belonging to the German Templars were auctioned off to the highest bidders. Ostrovsky was obliged to find a new home for the fellowship.

The Ostrovskys were obliged to leave Jaffa in 1948 because of wholesale massacres and evacuation, and at that time Solomon reported that a radical change had taken place in the work in Israel. Most of the members of the two assemblies in Jaffa had left the country. Eventually Professor Marcinkowski and Solomon Ostrovsky obtained permission from the Israeli military authorities to visit Jaffa and found only two elderly Arab ladies left.

In Tel Aviv about a dozen young Hebrew Christians also left the country. The clinic, which had been started in 1937, was broken into and ransacked. Alterations had to be made in the spacious premises where the meetings were held so that Dr. Yuke (in fellowship in the assembly but working under the auspices of an American mission) could continue his medical work.

Some time later Solomon Ostrovsky was given a press by the Finnish Mission in Jerusalem and under very able management the press developed into one of the best equipped presses in Jerusalem. He was also able to commence radio broadcasts from Monte Carlo which continued for about two years. By request some of the messages have been published and are still in circulation in Israel.

His was the kind of strength necessary to survive the hardships, the wars, and the opposition he faced all his life, but his was also the heart of a shepherd, gently guiding all who would follow, to the Shepherd of Israel, whom he served with single-hearted devotion.

Ostrovsky died in 2001 in Canada, aged 98.

Works

Израиль сегодня и завтра
Эта небольшая брошюра в краткой, но доступной форме повествует читателю о том, почему Израилю предстоит стать «уделом Бога», — тем средством, с помощью которого Святой Бог пожелал открыть Себя миру, чтобы, в конце концов, ввести человечество в Тысячелетнее царство.

Кто истинный еврей?
В брошюре разъясняется, что истинный еврей — это тот, кто по своему духовному положению является «сыном обетования», или «сыном Божьего избрания», кто лично откликнулся на Божий зов спасения через Голгофскую жертву Господа Иисуса Христа. Еврей, верующий в Мессию Иисуса, есть истинный еврей.

Человек из Назарета
Кто Он, Иешуа (Иисус) из Назарета? Хороший человек, великий учитель, пророк или же Некто, Кто больше всего этого? Зачем пришёл Он в этот мир? И что думаю о Нем я? Оттолкну ли Его или сделаю Его Царем своей жизни?

Moses on the Witness Stand.
By Solomon Ostrovsky. Toronto, Canada: Published by the author, 1991;
 

Sources

http://www.emmausnazareth.net/Assemblis.htm
http://www.baj.co.il/eng/ehistory 
 

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