Art Katz

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York through the depression years and coming to adolescence during the turbulence of World War II, Art Katz, in his quest for the meaning of life, began a journey toward Truth that climaxed significantly and symbolically in Jerusalem.

Through the diversity of Marxist, pragmatist, and existentialist ideologies and philosophies, as well as merchant marine and military experiences, Art was brought to a final moral crisis as a teacher, able to raise, but not answer the groaning perplexities of the modern age and his own heart. During a leave of absence and on a hitch-hiking odyssey through North Africa, Western Europe and the Middle East, the cynical and unbelieving atheist, vehement anti-religionist and anti-Christian was radically apprehended by a God whom he was not seeking. The actual journal of that experience, Ben Israel - Odyssey of a Modern Jew, recounts the breaking into consciousness and ultimate apprehension of an unsuspecting and resistant 'son of Israel.' Other of his books published since include, Reality - The Hope of Glory; The Spirit of Truth; The Holocaust - Where was God?; Apostolic Foundations and True Fellowship.

Art attended Santa Monica City College, UCLA, and the University of California at Berkeley, earning B.A. and M.A. degrees in history as well as a M.A. degree in theology at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. Art's public ministry of nearly forty years is both anointed and conceptually challenging, reflecting such end-time themes as the significance of Israel and the Church. Art is also founder and elder of Ben Israel Fellowship, a community established in Minnesota, USA over thirty years ago at the felt direction of God. Among its purposes is to seek for a consciously biblical life-style and to witness the radical relevance of the Bible's message to contemporary societies throughout the world. With several of his books translated into major foreign languages, Art travels frequently and widely as a conference and Church speaker. Now 77 years old, Art and his wife Inger live at the community in Minnesota, and have 3 children and 6 grandchildren.