A number of religious groups, particularly

Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

and Muslims, are involved in

proselytization Proselytism () is the policy of attempting to convert people's religious or political beliefs. Proselytism is illegal in some countries. Some draw distinctions between ''evangelism'' or ''Da‘wah'' and proselytism regarding proselytism as involu ...

of Jews: Attempts to recruit or "missionize"

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

. In response, some Jewish groups have formed counter-missionary organizations to discourage missionary and messianic groups such as

Jews for Jesus Jews for Jesus is an international Messianic Jewish non-profit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California. The group is known for its proselytism to Jews and promotes the belief that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God. It was ...

from using practices that they say are deceptive.

Christian missions

According to Rabbi Tovia Singer, counter-missionary expert and director of Outreach Judaism, there are well over 1,000 messianic congregations and other missions to the Jews worldwide. A number of

Christian denominations Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words '' Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ ...

have programs to reach Jews. The JTA, a Jewish news service, conducted an extensive analysis of Christian efforts to convert Jews to Christianity and found that some of the largest

evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being " born again", in which an individual exp ...

denominations – the

Southern Baptists The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination, and the largest Protestant and second-largest Christian denomination in the United States. The word ...

, the

Assemblies of God The Assemblies of God (AG), officially the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, is a group of over 144 autonomous self-governing national groupings of churches that together form the world's largest Pentecostal denomination."Assemblies of God". ...

, and the

Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), also known as the Missouri Synod, is a traditional, confessional Lutheran denomination in the United States. With 1.8 million members, it is the second-largest Lutheran body in the United States. The L ...

– have all increased their efforts to evangelize Jews in the recent past. The article states that the Christian missionary organization

completed a five-year tour called "Behold Your God" that brought its message to 53 cities worldwide, and the Christian

Chosen People Ministries Chosen People Ministries (CPM) is a Messianic Jewish nonprofit organization which engages in Christian evangelism to Jews. It is headquartered in New York City and currently led by Mitch Glaser, who was raised Jewish and converted to Christian ...

saw its income grow by 31% to $7.9 million between 2003 and 2006.

Jews for Judaism Jews for Judaism is an international organization that focuses on preventing Jews from converting to other faiths and reclaiming those who have already converted. It provides counseling services, education, and outreach programs to all Jewish de ...

, a Jewish counter-missionary group, writes that there are over 900 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 each 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. The

has an extensive organization targeting Jews for conversion to Christianity. Israel has more than one hundred Messianic congregations according to Yaakov Shalom Ariel, an associate professor of religious studies at the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sys ...

and author of ''Evangelizing The Chosen People''. A prominent effort to convert Jews to Christianity is known as

. It was founded by Martin "Moishe" Rosen, a Jew who grew up in a non-observant home, converted to Christianity, and was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1957. In 1973, Rosen left the employment of the American Board of Missions to the Jews, now called

, to incorporate a separate mission which became known as Jews for Jesus. In 1986, he received an honorary Doctor of Divinity Degree from Western Conservative Baptist Seminary in Portland, Oregon. Jews for Jesus is now led by David Brickner, who has been working for the organization since 1977. The 19th century saw at least 250,000 Jews convert to Christianity according to existing records of various societies. Data from the Pew Research Center has it that, as of 2013, about 1.6 million adult

American Jews American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora J ...

identify themselves as

; most as

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

s. According to the same data, most of the Jews who identify themselves as some sort of Christian (1.6 million) were raised as Jews or are Jews by ancestry. According to a 2012 study, 17% of

Jews in Russia The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest pop ...

identify themselves as

.Arena - Atlas of Religions and Nationalities in Russia
Sreda.org2012 Survey Maps
"Ogonek", № 34 (5243), 27/08/2012. ''Retrieved 24-09-2012''. Efforts to convert Jews to Christianity are sometimes regarded as

antisemitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Ant ...

. Most

Progressive Christian Progressive Christianity represents a post-modern theological approach, and is not necessarily synonymous with progressive politics. It developed out of the liberal Christianity of the modern era, which was rooted in the Enlightenment's think ...

and Mainline Christian denominations have publicly declared that they no longer proselytize Jews. Most

and

conservative Christian Conservative Christianity, also known as conservative theology, theological conservatism, traditional Christianity, or biblical orthodoxy is a grouping of overlapping and denominationally diverse theological movements within Christianity that s ...

churches have said they will continue their efforts to evangelize among Jews and claim that proselytism is not antisemitic (even if Jews disagree) .

Muslim missions

Muslims have also targeted Jews for conversion. Rabbi Moshe Cohen, of '' Yad L'Achim'', an Israel-based counter-missionary organization, has identified Al Dawaa, an Israel-based Muslim group headed by Sheikh Abu Yassin of

Kafr Manda Kafr Manda or Kfar Menda ( ar, كفر مندا, he, כַּפְר מַנְדָא) is an Arab town in the Lower Galilee, on the slopes of Mount Atzmon in Israel's Northern District. Kafr Manda is northwest of the city of Nazareth. In its popul ...

Jewish response

Jewish counter-missionary organizations respond to these efforts by offering personal counseling, web sites with articles addressing common missionary tactics, and discussion forums where Jews who have questions about the differences between Judaism and other religions can be answered by observant Jews. Some Jewish resources are specifically aimed at countering the missionary efforts aimed at Jews. *

is an international organization that provides a wide variety of counseling services, along with education, and outreach programs that enable Jews of all ages to rediscover and strengthen their Jewish heritage. Jews for Judaism has offices in Baltimore, Toronto, Los Angeles, Australia and South Africa. On their website, Jews for Judaism offers many articles discussing missionary tactics towards Jews, approaches by Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and various "proof texts" and other arguments often used by missionaries as they evangelize Jews. * Outreach Judaism, a site run by Rabbi Tovia Singer. Outreach Judaism is an international organization that responds directly to the issues raised by missionaries and cults, by exploring Judaism in contradistinction to fundamentalist Christianity. Outreach Judaism provides full-time, multi-level informational resources. * Beyneynu - בינינו, is founded by former Evangelical missionary Shannon Nuszen. Beyneynu is a non-profit organization that monitors missionary activity in Israel and abroad. Based in Israel, Beyneynu works with government and community leaders to raise awareness of Jewish evangelism, its danger to the Jewish people, and encourage safe and consistent boundaries in the

interfaith Interfaith dialogue refers to cooperative, constructive, and positive interaction between people of different religious traditions (i.e. "faiths") and/or spiritual or humanistic beliefs, at both the individual and institutional levels. It is ...

relationships of Jewish communities worldwide. * Kiruv Organization (Mizrachi) - an outreach organization founded in 1995 by Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi in New York for the purpose of teaching

Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...

to both secular and religious Jews. Rabbi Moshe Shulman has responded to specific missionaries who target Jews, including Michael Brown, Rachmiel Frydland, Risto Santala, and David H. Stern (author of the

Complete Jewish Bible Messianic Bible translations are translations, or editions of translations, in English of the Christian Bible, some of which are widely used in the Messianic Judaism and Hebrew Roots communities. They are not the same as Jewish English Bible tra ...

). Rabbi Shulman's website offers scholarly articles on the mis-use of the Targums, Midrash and Talmud by non-Jews who quote from Jewish sources in an attempt to convert Jews. The leading counter-missionary organization in Israel is '' Yad L'Achim'', an organization focusing on

Orthodox Judaism outreach Orthodox Jewish outreach, often referred to as ''Kiruv'' or ''Qiruv'' ( he, קירוב "bringing close"), is the collective work or movement of Orthodox Judaism that reaches out to non-observant Jews to encourage belief in God and life accord ...

and counter-missionary activity. Yad L'Achim is made up of both paid staff and volunteers, and is largely supported by donations both from Israel and the diaspora.

References

External links

The Committee for Good Relations

Judaism's Answer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Proselytization and counter-proselytization of Jews Conversion of Jews to Christianity Jewish apologetics Jewish counter-missionaries Jewish outreach Anti-Judaism

Christian missions

Muslim missions

Jewish response

See also

References

Further reading

External links