A $9 million donation to Israel was made at a recent gathering of evangelical Christians in San Antonio that was hosted by the John Hagee Ministries with Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel as its keynote speaker .

Hagee’s “28th Annual Night to Honor Israel” also featured Uzi Landau, Israel’s minister of National Infrastructure, and its consul general to the Southwestern U.S., Asher Yarden.

“Life is not made of years but of moments,” Wiesel told those in attendance according to a transcript of his talk. “Some are privileged moments, and tonight I realized that I had to come here also to live a privileged moment, to be with you. Never in the history of my people have we witnessed an event such as this.”

The $9 million raised for the evening in donations to Hagee’s organization is to be distributed to representatives of 29 Jewish and Israeli nonprofits, charities and humanitarian organizations.

Hagee, president and CEO of John Hagee Ministries, stressed his organization’s solidarity with Israel and the Jewish people, and encouraged the crowd to read Wiesel’s book, “Night.”

Hagee also is the founder and national chairman of Christians United for Israel, a Christian, pro-Israel organization. More than 6,000 Christians, according to news reports, attended the Night to Honor Israel, which was held at the pastor’s Cornerstone Church.

While Hagee’s group has raised millions of dollars for Israeli and Jewish charities since it was founded some three years ago, it also has been controversial. There are some Jews who are suspicious of Hagee’s brand of Christian theology because they believe it requires the eventual conversion of the Jews. Others cite a Hagee sermon that called the Holocaust part of God’s plan to lead to the creation of the state of Israel.

Ari Morgenstern, a spokesman for Christians United for Israel, took issue with such portrayals of the reverend’s theology – which had appeared in The Washington Post.

“The Post’s assertion that Pastor Hagee’s ‘brand of Christian theology’ deviates from mainstream Christianity, or somehow singles out Jews for conversion is flat wrong,” the newspaper has printed as a postscript. “On the contrary, as opposed to most Christian leaders, Pastor Hagee does not target Jews for conversion.

“In addition, proselytizing is strictly prohibited at CUFI events. Further, the Post’s characterization of Pastor Hagee’s interpretation of passages in the Book of Jeremiah ignores the context of those teachings. Pastor Hagee interpreted sections of the Book of Jeremiah as prophesying the message of Zionist leader Theodor Herzl, the rise of Adolf Hitler, and the eventual creation of the State of Israel; in making this analysis, Pastor Hagee was embracing the teachings of noted Jewish theologians Rabbi Yisachar Shlomo Teichtal and Eim Habanim Semaichah who put forth this interpretation as a part of their efforts to understand how a loving God could have allowed the Holocaust.”