Jewish religious leaders across the region are preparing and educating Jews for a planned evangelical conversion effort by a national group known as Jews for Jesus. The effort is, in part, being supported locally by McLean Bible Church.
Scott Hillman, the executive director of Jews for Judaism, is attempting to deflect the missionaries work by holding several Town Hall meetings in the metropolitan area this month aimed at giving Jews information on how to maintain their faith in light of conflicting viewpoints.
McLean Bible Church, with more than 10,000 members is led by pastor Lon Solomon, a converted Jew.
“This is something that’s been going on for 2000 years. We know what the score is,” said Hillman. The “campaign,” as Hillman refers to it, is called Behold Your God and based on Isaiah, chapter 40: 9 of the Bible:
“O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God.” (King James translation)
Hillman and other Jewish leaders addressed a standing room only crowd of more than 250 people on Monday night at the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia. Many in the audience expressed suspicion that evangelists were hiding in the crowd to gather information about them.
One attendee posed the question, “There are spies in the audience. Can you give them a message to take back to their church?” Another member replied, in a less imposing voice than Charlton Heston used as Moses, “Let my people go.”
THAT INTERACTION exemplifies the problem from the Jewish perspective. Hillman contends he would be willing to have a discussion with someone of another faith if that faith were fully disclosed. The Jews for Jesus campaign, asserts Hillman, are not able to engage in ethical conversions because the discussion is not based on both parties understanding the other's beliefs. “The problem is their dressing [Christianity] up in Jewish clothing,” Hillman said.
In a separate interview, Solomon, pastor of McLean Bible Church said, “This is really about the scientific method. You gather the facts, you analyze the facts and you make a decision.”
The Jewish leaders at the meeting stressed they are not disagreeing with the right of other faiths to spread the word about their beliefs. Their argument is based on their misgivings that Jews for Jesus is not offering complete disclosure on their beliefs. “We’re not Jews against Jesus, we’re Jews for Judaism,” said Hillman.
Washington D.C. Jews for Jesus Director Stephen Katz said the Town Hall presentation is exactly what his group is hoping to achieve. The fact that religious leaders are holding meetings attended by hundreds of Jews is something he sees positively. “Our campaigns are image-raising efforts. We want to get Jews talking about Jesus as the Messiah. If the issue of the Messiah becomes the hot issue and is being discussed, that’s what we are looking for. We think it’s fantastic [they are holding meetings] even though we disagree with the propaganda and one-sided view,” said Katz.
Jews for Jesus founder Moise Rosen also welcomes the conflict that arises from conversion work. In a letter to his followers he said, “First of all I want to thank God for opposition; if it hadn't been for organized opposition from the Jewish Community we would not have had the many opportunities to tell our message.”
Representatives from Jews for Jesus were not invited to attend the Town Hall meetings.
“The Jewish leaders have already come to a conclusion for their people. They don’t want them discussing this,” said Solomon. “I hope we get a lot of Jewish people engaged in a serious investigation and a number of Jews who embrace Jesus Christ.”
Jews for Jesus, also known as messianic Jews, believe they are able to remain Jewish and accept Jesus Christ as their savior. “This is just fundamentalist Christianity dressed in Jewish clothing,” said Hillman.
Ronald Halber, the executive director of the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington, said, “Lies, manipulation and deception. These are the tools of Jews for Jesus. They claim accepting Jesus is the true fulfillment of Judaism,” said Halber.
KATZ COUNTERED, “We are Jewish people who have come to believe in Jesus Christ as our Messiah. I know who I am and what I believe.” He admits that “it’s the majority view of people” that Jews do not believe Jesus is the Messiah. “The contemporary rabbis want to emphasize the things Jesus hasn’t done [to fulfill to biblical prophecy of the Messiah]. They say he can’t be the Messiah because of that. We do agree though that God promised our people a Messiah,” Katz said.
There are an estimated 400 Hebrew-Christian churches in North America. According to Hillman, in 1978 there were roughly 10,000 people associated with the messianic Jewish movement. In 1998 he said, “there were over 250,000 associated with the Hebrew Christian movement.”
Katz likens the debate to one of politics. “If I was a Democrat or a Republican, I might take offense at the other platform,” said Katz. “I think the offense here is the message I’m bringing.”
Halber said the Behold Your God campaign will target “the most vulnerable in our population” including the elderly, college students, recent Russian immigrants and the intermarried. Russian immigrants, according to Halber, are vulnerable because after years under repressive political regimes they are eager to explore religion.
Just being a Jew in America makes the religious members vulnerable, according to Hillman. “In America, just by osmosis we tend to know more about Christianity than our own religion,” said Hillman. For example, he said, the concept of burning in hell might be used as a conversion technique. In the Jewish faith there is no belief in hell but decades of movies and popular media have installed the concept in the Jewish unconsciousness.
Avi West, an education officer for Partnership for Jewish Life and Learning, said the meeting was “about being prepared, being wise and saying no.”
The Jews for Jesus campaign, could have several hundred missionaries stationed around the Washington D.C. area for the next four weeks. According to Katz, they have trained 600 missionaries in the area to evangelize on the streets. Many of the missionaries are from the McLean Bible Church. “We’ve worked closely with them and with Lon Solomon. He cares about evangelizing Jewish people as much as we do. They’ve helped us out with some finances, some personnel and administration,” said Katz.
“OUTREACH TO PEOPLE in Washington D.C. is what we do. Whether it’s Jew, gentile, Muslim, secular people that recycle. We want to impact secular Washington with the message of Jesus Christ,” Solomon said.
“We’ve trained 600 but they won’t all come out with us. In any given week we may have 20 to 30 but, we may have 100,” said Katz.
“What you can expect during this campaign … direct mail, you may receive phone calls, metro stations are very good for them, they go door-to-door where they can, street fairs our county fairs — those are the types of events they like to go to and it’s perfectly legal,” said Hillman.
Solomon said, “Somebody has to have the courage to stand up and do this — why not us. We are willing to go out on to the streets and respectfully share the truth with Jewish people and Gentiles alike.”
Darci Silver, of McLean, attended the meeting to get information about what to expect. “You hear a lot of things. I wanted to come and see for myself. It’s free country. They can say whatever they like but it seems to me they are a bit misguided,” Silver said.
Silver said she does not have any apprehension about being approached on the street by one of the evangelists. “I’ll just walk away,” said Silver.
Hillman warned, “They feel confrontational evangelism, street evangelism, is their forte.” He also said, “There are many ways to respond to missionaries. The best way is to just keep walking. Don’t spit on them, that’s no good.”