2 days ago

Yad L’Achim: Missionaries Targeting Jews Who Lost Their Homes in Missile Attacks

Yad L’Achim was shocked to discover that missionaries have been taking advantage of the recent 12-day war with Iran to preach the “gospel” to Jews who’d lost their homes in missile attacks • Full Story, Video

Yad L’Achim was shocked to discover that missionaries have been taking advantage of the recent 12-day war with Iran to preach the “gospel” to Jews who’d lost their homes in missile attacks.

“Ostensibly, they show up to offer support and encouragement, to demonstrate love and mercy, but they are actually exploiting a national emergency to ensnare Jewish souls, innocents desperate for the assistance they are offering,” one Yad L’Achim official said.

Missionaries visit hotels where thousands of evacuees have been put up, aiming to catch people in their most vulnerable moments and convince them to convert. The victims range from young people to Holocaust survivors.

A message sent out by one of the missionary organizations to its donors boasted that, in hard-hit Petach Tikvah, “our team is providing essential supplies to families that have been evacuated to hotels, and sharing the gospel with those who have lost everything.”

A flyer distributed among younger members of the messianic congregations detailed “Guidelines from the Faith Command,” urging them to not suffice with providing material assistance but to “spread the gospel, the messianic ‘revelation’ to as many groups as possible.”

In the wake of these startling developments, Yad L’Achim sent urgent appeals to the mayors of Bat Yam, Petach Tikva, Be’er Sheva, Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan and Haifa – cities where many homes were destroyed by missiles – warning them of the missionary danger.

“A number of missionary groups are exploiting the distress of your homeless residents, offering material and emotional assistance with the intent of converting Jews,” said the letter, signed by Rabbi Hanoch Gechtman, head of the counter-missionary department, and Rabbi Shmuel Lipschitz, one of the organization’s leaders.

“The assistance comes with dangerous strings attached: missionary propaganda materials and attempts to create personal connections that lead to religious discourse, which may confuse and negatively influence disadvantaged populations, young people and even children.

“We are asking for your immediate intervention to ensure that all humanitarian and financial assistance provided in your city will be under proper supervision, and in conjunction with official, recognized bodies that are not identified with goals alien to the Jewish character of the State of Israel and its residents.

“We have warned the public and even gone out into the field to prevent innocent people from falling into the trap of the missionaries,” Yad L’Achim added. “However, we are turning to you mayors to prevent people in difficult financial straits from falling under the influence of supposedly neutral organizations that are, in fact, manned by missionaries.

“We are asking you to work only with official bodies, which have no connection to missionaries. It is your public duty to warn residents and protect them from falling into a spiritually devastating honey trap.”