We’ve seen a meteoric rise in the number of subscribers to igod, our Hebrew channel on YouTube, but now we’re even reaching more than most of Israel’s news channels!
Those who follow ONE FOR ISRAEL in English will be familiar with the videos of Bible teaching, worship, testimonies and documentaries that we put out on our English YouTube channel, but did you know that we have separate channels in both Hebrew and in Arabic? The names are different and the audience is limited by language, but it seems the sky is the limit for our Hebrew language channel, igod at the moment.
With well over 42 million views of almost 600 Hebrew language videos that have been published since 20212, the igod.co.il channel has taken off since the start of the war at an astonishing trajectory. One minute we were celebrating a YouTube award for reaching 150,000 subscribers, then that soon doubled, but the number just keeps skyrocketing! In fact, the only Israeli news channel now with more subscribers than igod now is Kan News (channel 11) with 696,000,1 and the igod channel broadcast out of the Bible College campus in Netanya is fast catching up.
We were delighted to reach the half a million milestone a while back, but now we have more than 620,000 Hebrew-language subscribers!
What’s even more amazing is that, as any YouTuber will tell you, the number watching will always be about double the number of subscribers. That means even though not everyone has clicked to subscribe, we have about a million Israelis watching our Hebrew language videos.
As we ended the year 2024, Israel’s population just exceeded ten million people, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics in Israel2. Approximately 2 million of those are Arabic-speaking Israelis, and there are approximately 9 million Hebrew speakers in the whole world. Most Arab Israelis speak Hebrew as a second language as well. But these statistics, along with the fact that about a million are engaging with our channel, means a tenth of the entire population is watching our Hebrew language videos about Jesus!
With one in ten Israelis regularly watching our content, it’s not surprising that members of our team get recognized when they’re out and about. It happened just yesterday. Eli Haitov who lectures at our Bible College here at ONE FOR ISRAEL was spotted by someone who had been watching our videos.
“He suddenly turned to me and asked if I was from the igod channel. He was so excited and said that he has been following us for a long time and loves our content,” Eli shared. The conversation then turned into a long discussion about faith and our evidence for believing in Jesus.
Many, just like that man, have discovered the truth about Jesus through igod. When people are ready to reach out with questions or to start talking about their faith journey, our team is ready to help, addressing issues and connecting them with believers in their area. Three people came to faith recently, and we have seen many more come to faith over the past year. The war has been horrific in so many ways, but many Jews and Arabs in Israel are now open to seeking God in ways they weren’t before.
Please join us in praying for Israel!
- https://www.youtube.com/@KAN11NEWS
- The number given was 10.015 million from November 2024 https://www.cbs.gov.il/EN/Pages/default.aspx
