Founded 1984.
In 1984, brothers John Van Stormbroek, Alfred Bouter and Gideon Levytam formed by God’s grace a ministry called The Holy Scriptures and Israel Bible Society of Canada. The purpose of the ministry was to reach our Jewish people with a copy of the Hebrew Scriptures. The Old Testament (The Tanach - התנ”ך) and the New Testament (The Brit Chadashah - הברית החדשה). Over the years, we've had the privilege of providing many copies of God's Word to the Jewish communities across Canada.
As time passed by, the Lord Yeshua took dear brother John Van Stormbroek to Himself. The ministry of Holy Scriptures and Israel continued with additional development. In the early 1990s, a weekly morning Bible class began which brother Gideon Levytam led regularly in the City of Toronto. This weekly open Bible class was held in the Willowdale assembly meeting hall. Eventually, a second mid-week evening Bible class was added. In April 2002, the need for an additional outreach Bible teaching meeting arose. We began a Saturday (Shabbat) ministry meeting in which a systematic teaching of God’s Word was presented to all who attended. Together we learned God’s Word, prayed for each need and the salvation of Israel, and sang songs of worship unto our God, praising Him and our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. That Shabbat rhythm continues to this day, as a new Bible teaching goes out every Saturday.
In mid-2004, a fifteen-minute radio broadcast called “The Holy Scriptures and Israel” with Gideon Levytam began to air. The broadcast teaches God’s Word from a Hebrew-Messianic perspective and has proved to be a blessing to many. Today the program airs each week on stations reaching the San Francisco Bay Area, Philadelphia, Buffalo and southwest Ontario, and on demand around the world.
In July 2025, the Lord Yeshua took dear brother Gideon Levytam to Himself. The teaching ministry continues just as he prepared it to: a new message from his archive premieres every Saturday, the radio broadcasts go out each week, and the work of sharing the Scriptures with the Jewish people goes on.
לְמַעַן צִיּוֹן לֹא אֶחֱשֶׁה וּלְמַעַן יְרוּשָׁלַםִ לֹא אֶשְׁקוֹט עַד־יֵצֵא כַנֹּגַהּ צִדְקָהּ וִישׁוּעָתָהּ כְּלַפִּיד יִבְעָר׃
“For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.”
