Proselytization and counter-proselytization of Jews

Counter-missionary is a term used mainly but not exclusively to describe Jewish organizations who seek to help fellow Jews understand proselytizing of Christian and other religious groups and help them connect or reconnect to their Judaism. ^[1] ^[2]. These groups can be found within all Jewish denominations. The Jewish term is "Kiruv Rechokim" which translates to "Jewish Outreach."

Many Chrstian denominations target Jews for conversion. ^[3]. The JTA, a Jewish News Service, conducted an extensive analysis of Christian efforts to convert Jews to Christianity ^[4] and determined that the Southern Baptists (at 16 million the largest single Christian denomination in the United States ^[5] the Assemblies of God ^[6], and the Missouri-Synod Lutherans^[7] have all increased their efforts to convert Jews to Christianity in the recent past. The article states that "Jews for Jesus completed a five-year tour called “Behold Your God” that brought its message to 53 cities worldwide. Chosen People Ministries saw its income grow by 31 percent, to $7.9 million, between 2003 and 2006. The Phoenix-based Jewish Voice Ministries International says that since 1993 it has drawn 500,000 people to festivals and concerts aimed at evangelizing Jews in Eastern Europe, South America and India.

"Jews for Judaism, ^[8]which is a Jewish counter-missionary group, writes that there are over 900 Christian and Hebrew Christian groups in North America actively involved in missionizing the Jewish people. Jews for Judaism further states that these groups are currently spending over $250 million per year on efforts to convert Jews to Christianity. Jews for Jesus, the best known single ministry to the Jews, spent over $15 million in 2008. ^[9].

The Assemblies of God "The AOG is one of the oldest denominations to adopt the "Jewishness" approach of converting Jews to Christianity. What began in 1983 with only 18 "Jewish Centers" and a "Home Missions to the Jews Department," has culminated in the formation of the NJF or "The National Jewish Fellowship ." The NJF specifically targets Jews to "proclaim, educate, and encourage the furthering of the truth of Messiah (Jesus) among the world's Jewish community." Hebrew Christian "Rabbi" Felix Helpern, President of the Assemblies of God NJF, calls upon gentiles and Jews a like to "plant" more "synagogues" within their church framework. "I see the fellowship acting as a catalyst to planting more synagogues within the Assemblies of God and facilitating more (Hebrew Christian) Messianic fellowships within our churches," he stated. AG News." ^[10]

Israel has more than 100 Messianic congregations, per Yaakov Shalom Ariel, associate professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina and author of “Evangelizing The Chosen People.”"^[11].

A leading effort to convert Jews to Christianity is the "Jews for Jesus" Baptist cult. Jews for Jesus was founded by a Southern Baptist Minister (Martin Meyer Rosen),and still has close ties to the Baptists. Rosen was ordained as a Conservative Baptist minister in 1957. Rosen developed conversion techniques targeting Jews by overlaying Jewish symbols to Christian beliefs in an attempt to get more Jews to accept Christian theology, (e.g. celebrating the Jewish holiday of Passover with Christian overtones).^[12]. In 1973 Rosen left the employment of the American Board of Missions to the Jews (now called Chosen People Ministries) to incorporate a separate mission which became known as Jews for Jesus ministries. In 1986 he received a Doctor of Divinity Degree from Western Conservative Baptist Seminary in Portland, Oregon.

To better entice Jews Martin Meyer Rosen took a more "Jewish" sounding name (Moishe Rosen). Rosen was ordained as a Conservative Baptist minister in 1957. In 1986 he received a Doctor of Divinity Degree from Western Conservative Baptist Seminary in Portland, Oregon. The current director, David Brickner, is also a Baptist having graduated from the Moody Bible Institute^[13] and the Fuller School of World Mission ^[14].

Jews for Jesus is one of many sects established to missionize to Jews and convert them to Chrstianity. Jews for Jesus has a full-time staff of 150 employees running branch offices in nine cities across the United States.^[15] There are also branch offices in Australia, Brazil, Canada (in Montreal and Toronto), France, Germany (in Essen), Israel, Russia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Ukraine (in Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Kiev and Odessa). In addition to its English-language website, the group has websites in Hungarian, Persian, Italian, Spanish and Korean.^[16]

Counter-missionary organizations respond to the efforts of these and other evangelical Christians who target Jews for conversion away from Judaism via personal counseling, web sites with articles addressing often used missionary tactics and discussion forums where Jews who have questions about the differences between Judaism and other religions can be answered.^[17]/

Although most missionary efforts to convert Jews to other religions are sponsored by Christianity, Muslims have also targeted Jews for conversion. ^[18]

The Jewish response to the massive amounts of money and people directed at its 14 million worldwide population is in the form on one to one counseling (via phone or face to face), books, tapes, internet websites devoted to answering missionary "proofs" and discussion forums. This Jewish response is referred to as "counter-missionary" or "anti-missionary."

References

^ Cho, David, “Conversion Outreach Plan Stirs Outrage”;,
^ http://www.aishdas.org/torahnet/Counter-Missionary/ Aishdas Torahnet
^ http://www.jewsonfirst.org/evangelizing.aspx Jews on First, Evangelizing the Jews
^ http://jta.org/news/article/2007/11/15/104639/evangelicalpartI JTA, Inc.
^ http://www.sbc.net/ SBC
^ www.ag.org/ AG
^ www.lcms.org/ LCMS
^ http://jewsforjudaism.org Jews for Judaism
^ http://jewsforjudaism.org/faq-quick-links-157 Jews for Judaism
^ http://www.jewsforjudaism.org/who-are-the-assemblies-of-god-newest-content-443 Who are The Assemblies of God, and what do they have to do with the Jews?
^ http://jta.org/news/article/2007/11/15/104639/evangelicalpartI JTA, Inc.)
^ http://www.jewsforjudaism.org/library/library-primary-228/book-reviews/265-christ-in-the-passover-why-is-this-night-different- Christ in the Passover
^ http://www.moody.edu/ Moody
^ http://www.fuller.edu/academics/school-of-intercultural-studies/school-of-intercultural-studies.aspx Fuller
^ Cite error: The named reference RELTOL was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ About Us (Jews for Jesus)
^ http://messiahtruth.yuku.com/ Messiah Truth Forum
^ http://www.jews-for-allah.org/ Jews for All-ah

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Proselytization and counter-proselytization of Jews

See also

References

Further reading

External links

Groups which prompted this response