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Issue: #6
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September 2009 Elul 5769 | |
Modern Day 'Conversos'
Missionaries make struggling, unassuming immigrants their
targets By Maayan Jaffe Special to Jews for Judaism
"It's very easy to gain a following when you target people
who are arriving from a country where they had nothing and you offer them the world,"
said Steve Becerra, co-chair of Sha'arei Teshuva, a Florida-based organization
that researches cults and missionary groups such as Jews for Jesus.
Becerra has his finger on the pulse of what is happening
throughout his own region, in the rest of America
and even in Israel.
He said as new immigrants settle in their new communities, they are being
approached with "Christian love." However, the goal is not simply to help the
needy. The aim is to convert them to Christianity.
In Florida,
there is a large Latin American Jewish population. According to the most recent
studies, some 24,000 Jews of Latin American origins reside in Miami-Dade County
alone. According to Becerra, this population is "being targeted in alarming
numbers."
Over 36 congregations offer Hebrew Christian or Messianic
ministry to the Jews there. They entice them through financial and humanitarian aid, language classes and
community-building. They forge relationships by learning their language or
recruiting immigrants whom they have converted to reach out.
Most of the Latin American immigrants know they are Jewish, Becerra
explained. However, they are not knowledgeable about what that means.
"When they are told that Yeshua HaMashiach [Jesus Christ] is the Messiah, when
Christian concepts are given Hebrew names and repackaged as 'biblical Judaism,'
... it impresses very strongly upon them," he said.
Becerra has made it his mission to infiltrate these
Messianic centers, to get on their mailing lists and find ways to sabotage
their work. He knows it is the only choice.
"I see the way it tears apart families," he said, noting it
also harms true interfaith dialogue.
"It is a call for awareness I am making," he said. "It
doesn't matter if you are a secular Israeli or a chasid who grew up in Monsey -
be aware of the problem and talk to your community."
Russian Roulette
Rabbi Paysach Diskind has devoted his life to keeping
Russian immigrants Jewish. The director of Achim, based in Baltimore,
since 1989 he has served as "professional friend" to Baltimore's 15-20,000 Russian Jewish immigrants.
He said he "tries to show them what a Jew is."
Diskind said Russians are a primary target for Hebrew
Christians because, like those Jews from Latin America,
Russians have little understanding of Jewish traditions. However, Russians are
very connected to Judaism in the sense of identification.
"These are people with strong Jewish identities who know
nothing. Usually knowledge and identity make the same mark on a graph. For
Russians that rule does not count. Their Jewish identity is generated not from knowledge
or even Jewish experiences, but from anti-Semitism," Diskind explained.
Because of there is interest in learning more about Judaism,
the Russians - if not welcomed, embraced and educated by mainstream Jewish
society - will fall easily into the missionaries' hands.
"Just the other day an older Russian woman asked me, 'What is
the Messiah going to be - God or a man?' There is no question that thought came
from some interaction with a messianic," Diskind said.
Even in Israel
The messianic outreach to Russian Jews is even more
pronounced in Israel,
where a huge population was brought over 20 years ago and continues to trickle
in. In fact, next month, a Christian Russian TV station will begin broadcasting
in Israel.
The heads of the station, according to an article published by Israel National
News, hope to spread their message to over one million new-immigrant homes in Israel.
According to the article, the station, named "Rodnoy" or
"homeland," will offer Christian adult and children's programming. The fear is
that Russian Jews, with little or no knowledge of their Jewish heritage
following decades of Soviet oppression, will easily be convinced to believe in
Jesus.
Several years ago, an article by this reporter appeared on
the cover of the Jewish Observer. In that piece, Rabbi Ze'ev Shtigletz of Lev
L'Achim pointed out that missionaries know the Jewish state is so starved for
money and political support it is willing to turn a blind eye to the open
proselytizing of Messianic Jews ... especially of poor immigrants.
The effect of this outreach work is astounding. The
following excerpt from a letter sent to the American Jewish Committee speaks
for itself:
"[My family and I] moved from Kiev six years ago. ... Sometime after our
arrival, we were visited by some nice English-speaking representatives of
Bridges for peace, [a Christian aid group in Israel.] They offered to help us
financially. They started sending us food parcels. ... The packages would contain
a lot of Russian-language messianic literature about Christianity. This
literature maintained that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah..."
The letter goes on to explain that he and his family became
involved with and influenced by these Christians, visiting their holy sites on
Bridges for Peace-sponsored trips that took place on Shabbat.
The immigrant concludes: "This situation is very humiliating
for me. It is as if I was bought off by these gifts to accept the Christian
faith."
There are many more letters of this nature on file, with
this reporter, at the Knesset and the AJC.
Said Becerra: "They are achieving in one way what [Adolph]
Hitler tried to do with another. They are killing Jewish souls."
(Steve Becerra pictured above by Western Wall)
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ACTION ITEM
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Elul: Reaching Out, Reflecting
The month of Elul and the 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and
Yom Kippur are a time that all Jews can and should reach out to less-connected
or new members of their Jewish community. Rosh Hashanah is an excellent time to
invite newcomers to holiday meals.
Find out who is new in your community through:
This month we should also take some time to focus on the
Jewish concept of teshuva [lit. to return]. Though in most literature, teshuva is translated as repentance, by definition doing teshuva is returning to a spiritual relationship with God. In Judaism we understand that we are each
responsible for our personal connections with God and man. Though as humans we do wrong, we can and will be forgiven by God.
Our Rabbis explain that the acronym of the Hebrew month of Elul is "ani l'dodi v dodi li"
[I am to my beloved as my beloved is to me] from "Shir HaShirim/Song of Songs," written by King Solomon. It is a time to
get closer to God, to prepare ourselves for the Day of Judgment. As close a
want to be with God, he will be with us. As much as we want Him to be our
Father, He will act like a Father to us.
Each person, explains our Sages, should see oneself the
entire year as if one is precariously standing on a scale - balanced on one side
by one's merits and the other by one's transgressions. One has been equally as good
as bad. Likewise, one should see the entire world as half-meritorious and
half-culpable. Thus, if one commits one sin, one is capable of tilting his scale
and that of the entire world towards the side of transgression, resulting in
one's and the world's destruction. Likewise, if one performs one mitzvah one could
tilt his scale and that of the world to the side of merit, bringing about
salvation and deliverance.
True repentance, we learn, is always accepted.
Reflect on the following verses:
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"I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I
not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou
forgavest the iniquity of my sin" (Psalm 32:5)
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"He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever
confesses and renounces them finds mercy" (Proverbs 28:13)
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"But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath
committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he
shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath
committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he
hath done he shall live" (Ezekiel 18:21-22)
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"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble
themselves and pray ... and turn from their wicked ways, then will
I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land" (2
Chronicles 7:14)
From now until Yom Kippur, take time to spiritually prepare
yourself:
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Set aside time for introspection
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Recognize that you can change, realize God wants you to
change, and make small changes
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Identify the good you already do and appreciate what you
have
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