Arutz-7 has an article about the new campaign by Jews for Jesus, and it ties it in with the Bible Quiz boycott. I’ve heard that this month (which is the month of celebrating Israel’s 60th birthday) will be the most intensive ever with regard to advertisements about the faith. You can pray in that regard. As always, when covering stories of this nature, Arutz-7 is not to be trusted in all of its details. From the article:
The Christian missionary organization known as “Jews for Jesus” is about to launch a new proselytizing campaign in Israel. Their redoubled effort to gain Jewish converts comes on the heels of a controversy over the participation of an Israeli girl who worships Jesus in the annual International Bible Contest, to be held on Independence Day in Jerusalem.
The family of Bat-El Levy, 17, the winner of the Jerusalem District Bible contest for secular public schools, is known to be active in a group whose members call themselves “Messianic Jews.” Her success in the regional competition earned Bat-El a place among four students representing Israel in the Bible Contest finals on Independence Day, this Thursday. Dozens of Jewish youth come to Israel each year for the last leg of the Bible Contest….
Even as the Bible Contest controversy is reaching its apex, in a letter to supporters, the Jews for Jesus organization announced a series of new campaigns in Israel. “The campaigns are scheduled to begin in 2008 and continue through 2013,” the missionary organization announced. “These campaigns could be the most important thing we in Jews For Jesus have ever done….”
Claiming that “only one tenth of one percent (.001)” of the Jews in Israel “believe in Jesus,” the missionaries see a positive side in that Israel “is the only place in the world where – when we do street evangelism – we don’t need to wonder who is Jewish. All we have to do is walk outside and talk to everyone we meet!”
There are about 8,000 people who worship Jesus and who claim to be Jews in Israel. Yad L’Achim says that there are over 100 missionary, or “Messianic”, churches operating in Israel, representing various branches of Christianity.
Rabbi Tovia Singer, a leading lecturer countering the efforts of Christian missionaries, says that both the Messianic Judaism movement and Jews for Jesus have as their goal the elimination of Judaism and its replacement with Christianity as the faith of the Jewish people.
Jews for Jesus, Rabbi Singer explained, is in fact an international Baptist mission to the Jews. The organization “is trying to do to the Jews spiritually what Hamas is trying to do physically,” he said.
The article continues here.