Autobiography By
Rosalind Hershkovitz

I was born in Sydney to a mother of strong faith, though for many years my father was agnostic. Our family is not Jewish but we lived in a part of Sydney with very large Jewish population and Jewish friends were a part of my childhood and youth. My mother always taught me to respect the Jewish people as "Our Lord was a Jew". From early childhood I learned stories from Old and New Testaments and our school, a Church of England school, was strong in Bible teaching . Consequently I grew up with a love for and some knowledge of the scriptures. I gave my life to Jesus on several occasions but at University was seduced by peer group pressure and turned my back on the Lord, never ceasing to believe in Him, but doing my "own thing".
Seven years later I had peritonitis of the intestines in a hospital in Spain, and began to turn back to the Lord, giving my life to Him again a few months later. My mother had become a spirit filled believer some years ago and through her and other witness I knew this was what I wanted, so I too received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and began to feed on the Word of God. My early love was revived and I have since read the Bible from beginning to end 7 times.
At this time after seeking the Lord earnestly for my direction, I was called to Brisbane to a large charismatic church there and after playing Esther in a musical at the church, and being suddenly again directionless, I heard music tapes from The Liberated Wailing Wall and received an unmistakable certainty of my call to Israel, combined with a deepening of my relationship with God. All my life I had had a sense that I was supposed to be joined to some other culture and language and had actually "tried it out" in Spain! But now I understood that it was Israel and Hebrew that was in my heart, but until I was one with God's will I couldn't get it quite right!
I studied a bit of Hebrew, bought a Hebrew/English Tenach, and was given a Brit Ha Hadashah at the same time. In the Lord's timing (not straight away!) I came to Israel, first as part of the Christian Embassy Worship Team at Succot in 1991 and later in 1993 on a one way ticket. I lived as a Metapelet with 2 elderly sisters where I became fluent in Hebrew, and 6 months after my arrival met my husband to be Avraham Hershkovitz, a sabra, at a home group attached to the Baptist House Jerusalem, and we were married shortly after.
The Lord had given me several assurances from His word and also in prophecy that I would marry an Israeli believer and become part of the people. Isaiah 14:1 is one such word, also the Book of Ruth. This dream from the Lord had been with me for several years and He brought it to pass

Bio
Ed Vinson

Ed has been a prolific poet and occasional song writer for 23 years. Ed and his wife Connie have lived out a miraculous “three-strand cord” of life-events connecting the to Israel and God’s covenants of amazing Love. It is a love that has been engraved on their hearts, made plain in the midst of joys and sorrows, in everyday life and through “impossible things”. On Yom Kippur 2005 Ed and his wife Connie stood at the end of the tracks in Auschwitz - Birkenau. There the Heavenly Voice spoke the words which became the title of this CD. “I Have Heard Your Cries”.
Quotes taken from “I Have Heard Your Cries” CD Jacket

Quote from Rosalind about the vision of this CD

The concept began with Ed Vinson from Virginia whom I met in Jerusalem as a vocal student and discovered his gift for writing poetry when he asked me to set some poems to music.  Over a period I set about 21 poems on the subject of grief and hope to music.
 
  Then suddenly Ed asked me to have them translated into Hebrew - no small task as they are not 4 line songs!  However I asked my sister-in-law Sarah Bachar if she would be willing, and she undertook the job with joy!  (I was with her for the purpose of keeping the translation close to the rhythm of the already existing music). We chose 17 of the songs.
 
  After the translation was complete, Ed said he would like to have a recording made.  As I had 2 CDs behind me now, he felt confident to ask me to produce and sing them for him.  Once the Hebrew CD was complete it made a lot of sense to do the original English one for the much wider audience of English speakers.