Jews for Judaism has managed to get all of the bickering Jewish factions in the NY-Metro area to come together for a common cause: To tell the Jews For Jesus to go to hell. In a manner of speaking.
NEW YORK, July 9 (JTA) — There’s a holy war of sorts going on in New York City.
Jews for Jesus has been running campaigns here for 33 years, but the messianic group’s proselyting effort has never been as large as this summer — nor has it elicited such a united Jewish response.
[…] In a rare show of unity, all four major Jewish streams have banded together to launch a counter-campaign. The New York Board of Rabbis also has signed on, with the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York’s anti-missionary task force doing much of the heavy lifting.
Jews for Judaism, a Baltimore-based anti-missionary group, is serving as a consultant. The groups’ message is one of unity and community building: “Say ‘Yes’ to Judaism.â€
In roughly 60 newspaper ads, the coalition is asking Jews to affirm their commitment to Judaism by learning Torah, having Shabbat dinner or by giving tzedaka, among other things. Information on Judaism is being distributed to local camps, schools and synagogues, and is available online.
This is great. Those of you outside the Jewish community have no idea how incredible it is to get all the major Jewish organizations together on one issue. Congratulations, J4J, you have managed to get the Jews of New York to put aside their differences for the month of July in order to concentrate their forces on battling the idiots who would convert them.
Rabbi Michael Miller, executive vice president and CEO of the JCRC of New York, said the Jews for Jesus message doesn’t require a direct response, since “the vast majority of Jews have no interest whatsoever in the message the Hebrew Christians are promoting.â€
But, he said, “it provided us with an opportunity to reinvigorate Jewish practice. We are approaching this as a positive, educational learning experience for the Jewish community.
And apparently, the J4J campaign has given Jewish organizations the impetus to bring more little lost lambs back into the fold. Whoops, did I just borrow a Christian phrase there? No, wait, let me ask a J4J, who will assure me that it’s really a Jewish phrase.
And I just love how the J4Js play the victim card.
“I’m just mystified as to how we could be perceived as deceptive,†said Susan Perlman, Jews for Jesus’ director of communications, pointing out that all missionaries wear T-shirts with “Jews for Jesus†emblazoned across the front. “We tell people straight up front what we believe about Jesus.â€
Once again proving that deception is at the heart of the J4Js message:
Regardless of what anyone says, we are Jews in that we are physically descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. At the same time we are also Christians—those who believe in and follow Jesus, the Jewish Messiah. One classification does not cancel out the other, even though rabbis like to teach that Judaism and Christianity are mutually exclusive categories and hence are antithetical to one another.
Say, that sounds an awful lot like deception to me. Because why on earth would a rabbi know more about Judaism than an organization founded by Christian evangelicals with the sole purpose of converting Jews to Christianity? An organization whose funding comes from Christian evangelicals whose purpose is to convert Jews to Christianity?
David Brickner, the missionary group’s executive director, said Jewish leaders had a “kind of protective attitude, like this community is somehow not able to think for itself on these issues,†he said, “that somehow we’re Svengalis that can come in and mind-control.â€
Translation: We’re allowed to proselytize, but no fair you calling out the facts while we’re in the middle of lying to your people for converts!
“Look, we didn’t come to believe this in order to win a popularity contest,†he continued. “We understand that Jesus has been a controversial issue for the Jewish community for 2,000 years. But we sure would like to have a voice on this.â€
A voice in what? To be recognized as Jewish? I don’t think so, bub.
Marcia Eisenberg, the JCRC’s general counsel and director of its Jewish communal affairs and legal assistance program, said Jews for Jesus should not be afforded the luxury.
“They’re trying to define themselves into our community,†she said. “But we get to define our community, not you guys.â€
Yes, but wait for the howls of the evangelicals, sorry, I mean J4Js, now that the Jews have launched a counter-offensive.
There’s also a New York Times article (and video) on this, both worth the look.
Oh, and there’s been an influx of J4Js here. They have a news aggregator that grabs stories about them off the net, and it’s found me. Of course, they lie and say they’re not from J4J. But the truth will out.
Perhaps it’s time I started an idea I’ve been toying with: Launching an evangelical Jewish outreach, to find people who want to convert to Judaism. It’ll be just like their outreach, well, except that I intend to tell the truth.
Oooh, I wish I could be there. What fun to play with missionaries’ minds.
I think WE should be Mekerav THEM. Many of these people are Jews. We should reach out to them and turn it back on them. Remind them of their Pintele Yid.
I think maybe it’s about time Jews for Judaism started actually working on the JEWS over there. Afterall, they are still our brothers.
It’s so sad that we think of these people as lost souls. They are still Yidden.
The problem, Chaim, is that many of them are not Jewish. Only a small percentage of the J4Js are Jewish, or have Jewish roots. That’s one of the deceptions the J4Js practice. They send out people with Jewish names, but they’re not necessarily Jewish.
And, well, I spent four years in college with one of them, arguing again and again how you cannot be Jewish and Christian at the same time. He was utterly brainwashed and dead to his true heritage.
On the other hand, outreach is being done, and according to Jews for Judaism, the recovery rate is (going from memory here) 85% once you confront Jews with the truth that the J4Js cover up.
I think what that means is the remaining former Jews are pretty much beyond recovery.
What a great story! All movements putting aside their differences to work toward a common goal. Thanks, Meryl.
Remember that Christian missionaries throw a tantrum when definitions exclude them from the Jewish community, but they don’t have any problem inventing definitions (“Messianic Jew”) that exclude Jews like me who believe in the Messiah.
Oh, great. One of the things I like best about Jews is that the concept of an “evangelical Jew” is an oxymoron. Now, my own blogmother wants to become one.
Can someone point me towards some Zoroastrians? I think I need a new faith to respect from afar…
J.
The “outreach” approach may not work to bring the hard core apostates back – but it works very well as an on-the-spot tactic.
Many of the missionaries have been trained and prepared for angry responses – in fact it bolsters their virtuous notion of themselves as noble, misunderstood, suffering servants.
Inviting them to a Shabbat meal throws them off base – and their refusal can be used to expose just how non-Jewish their lifestyles really are.
Ben-David brings up a good point: these people are generally trained almost by rote and if you ask questions you will generally see that they have a certain number of stock responses. Varying your questions will generally produce the same response.
Also, as pointed out, they have some (former) Jews with Jewish names as front people but many of their street workers are not Jewish. I always ask the person what his Jewish education was. When they admit, as some do, that they are not of Jewish background (I don’t care what halachah says, I don’t consider them Jewish) I like to point out that honesty is supposed to be a Christian virtue and it’s dishonest to wear a shirt saying you’re a Jew for Jesus when you’re not Jewish in the first place.
At this point I like to say, “Judaism does not evangelize, as it were, but we welcome sincere converts. May I talk to you about real Judaism? You might find it interesting.” That usually shuts them up.
I don’t mind being hit up by honest to goodness Christians and by the way, when I am asked, “Are you born again?” my standard answer is, “I don’t need to be. I’m Jewish; I got it right the first time.” But these people are deceptive, duplicitous, and dishonest.
Jay, you know why Jews don’t proselytize?
Because we used to be killed for it.
There’s nothing in Torah that stops us from trying to get people to convert to Judaism.
Hey, here’s your friendly neighborhood Jews for Judaism representative checking in. Excellent post. For more info on the campaign and response:
http://www.jewsforjudaism.org/web/byg/NewYork2006.html
And here’s more info on what some people have received in the mail:
http://www.jewsforjudaism.org/web/byg/NYBYG2006/NYBYGMediaCampaignMemo.pdf
For background on this issue, just visit our website or email nybyg@jewsforjudaism.org.
On one hand they do tend to syphon off the simple minded, on the other hand, if they were 100% successful, that would leave a hole in the Passover Seder for the Four Questions. Simple Minded Son, Wicked Son, The One Who Does not Know How to Ask; take you choice.
I’m still waiting for my slick produced New Free DVD ‘Jews For Judaism’
Will Jews For Judaism be going round in Pairs knocking on peoples doors?
Just as I know so I don’t pretend not to be home like the others.
Lol
Aaron
A few years back, a fellow dressed like a conservative Jewish man asked me “Sir – are you Jewish”? I said “No – sorry.” Although I contemplated adding “Not that there’s anything wrong with that” I did not. He was standing on a street corner in a fairly Jewish part of town, but I didn’t think til afterwards he was a so-called “Jew for Jesus”.
I’m not Jewish, but this post leads me to think that fellow was as about as Jewish as I am.
It seems to me that no one posting on this site has actually had a conversation with someone in a Jews for Jesus t-shirt on the street. If you met someone with us who was not born Jewish they would be wearing a t-shirt that says goyim for Jesus or Not Just Jews for Jesus. You can disagree with our views but how about addressing the message and not just shooting the messenger? How about a bissel tolerance?
It isn’t a matter of disagreeing with a viewpoint. “Jews for Jesus” is an organization built on lies, that uses lies to try to persuade Jews to convert to Christianity.
So here’s my answer to that message:
I will give absolutely no tolerance to lying Christians who pretend to be Jews for the purpose of converting Jews to Christianity.
There is no other message of “Jews for Jesus” other than conversion from Judaism. They want me to accept Jesus as the Messiah. That would make me a Christian.
Are you getting my message yet, David? Zero tolerance for lying evangelists. You can put it on a t-shirt.
And keep your Yiddish. I don’t believe you are a Jew, either, and using it won’t persuade me of that.
Meryl, is that what you call keeping it civil? A Jew is one who is born of a Jewish mother.
You may believe me to be a bad Jew because I believe in Jesus but you can’t rob me of my heritage, unless ofcourse you have appointed yourself to be the Jewish pope.
Seriously though, if what I am saying is true, that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah promised by our prophets, then the most Jewish thing any Jew could do would be to believe in him. If he isn’t then neither Jews or Gentiles should believe in him. So let the debate continue please.
There will be no debate. You will not use my weblog to proselytze. You will not use my weblog to spread your lies.
A Jew is more than just what you are from birth, and you know it. To be a Jew religiously, you cannot accept Jesus as the Messiah. That makes you a Christian.
You know this, and yet, you lie about it. That makes you a liar. Incivility? No. It’s called “telling the truth.” You might try it sometime.
And by the way, here are all the requirements Jesus needed to have met in order to be the Jewish Messiah. Whoops, he missed a few. Color me unsurprised.
I never claimed to be representing Judaism Meryl. I am a Christian and don’t deny it. I am a Jewish Christian because I am ethnically Jewish and that doesn’t change when I become a follower of Jesus. Do you remember when in Hannah and her sisters Woody Allen considers converting to Christianity? He comes home with a shopping bag and proceeds to pull out a crucifix, rosary beads…finally a loaf of wonderbread and a jar of mayo. Very funny but so very typical of Jewish misunderstanding of Christianity. The word literally means a follower of Messiah. All the first Christians were ethnic Jews. Just because the rabbi’s rejected Jesus doesn’t mean all the rest of us have to. Maybe the rabbi’s are the svengali’s. As for me, I haven’t stopped eating cornbeef on rye and started eating ham on whitebread. I haven’t given back my circumcision and no one better try and take it back. I’ll sue.
I notice you didn’t respond to my link regarding the many ways Jesus did not meet the criteria for the Jewish messiah.
And by the way, it wasn’t just the rabbi’s who said he didn’t. It was the Jews of the time, and since the criteria remain unfullfilled 2,000 years later, I think it’s safe to say that you’re following a false god.
You do deny that you’re a Christian when you call yourself a Christian Jew. You are trying to pretend you are still Jewish when you go around trying to convert other Jews to your cause. You’re doing it here, linking to a J4J site in your name, which I keep editing to delete the link.
And now, we’re done here. Bored now. Liars annoy me.