Posted on 08/02/2004 5:12:15 PM PDT by missyme
Though officially illegal, the capital's last Messianic Youth Ministry continues to recruit local Jewish teens
When Jerusalem-born Daniel Cohen was 15-years-old, he wanted to become a professional drummer. So when a friend told him about free drum lessons at The Jamm he went straight to the Russian Compound to check it out.
"At first, the people at The Jamm were really nice to me. They even started to teach me how to play the drums," says Cohen.
After two months of hanging out at the coffee bar/youth center, one of Cohen's newfound friends gave him a copy of the New Testament in Hebrew and began to initiate discussions on the subject of Christ. An additional two months passed before Cohen was invited to participate in a youth trip to the Sea of Galilee, where he could join other Jamm youth in a mikveh ceremony.
"He asked me if I knew what Baptism is," recalls Cohen, who is now 17. "He said it wasn't a Christian thing, but a Jewish thing for Jews who knew the 'right way.'"
"I was shocked," he continues. "I was born a Jew and I want to be a Jew and I am not interested in converting away from Judaism. It is horrible when you think you have friends and then you find out that they are actually your enemies."
Cohen isn't alone. The Jamm (Jerusalem Artists, Musicians and Media) Center has been trapping Jewish teens in its messianic web since it was established in 1998. With open mike nights on Wednesdays and Punk concerts on Thursdays, including free coffee, chai tea and snacks, the non-smoking, alcohol-free Jamm provides a clean and tempting atmosphere for Jerusalem youth.
In one of the organization's pamphlets, The Jamm describes itself as "the first and only Israeli Messianic Youth ministry center of its kind in Israel," the main goal of which is "to serve as a safe place for young people to find out about the mercies of the true and living God."
According to Aaron Rubin at Yad L'Achim (Hands to Our Brothers), a Jerusalem-based organization dedicated to helping Jewish brethren escape from the clutches of cults and missionaries, The Jamm is among 100 so-called Messianic Jewish movements across Israel, 20 congregations of which are headquartered in Jerusalem.
Rubin lists the Baptists, the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC) and Caspari near Ben Yehuda Street, where Christians from Norway offer literature and courses to augment the effectiveness of English, Russian, Hebrew and French-speaking missionaries, among the larger missionary communities in the capital city.
Although he estimates the total number of missionaries currently operating in the country at around 4,000, Rubin says their numbers have increased by 100 percent over the past decade and that they continue to grow at an even more rapid pace today.
"The number of congregations are growing," says Rubin, who attributes the boom to several factors: the successful conversion to Christianity of new immigrants from the Former Soviet Union and Ethiopia; an increased number of dissidents who reject the theology of their church in favor of establishing their own individually-run institutions; the circumvention of the Law of Return, which according to a Supreme Court ruling in September 1992 stipulates that "openly-professed belief in Jesus is enough to render a born-Jew a member of another religion and thereby not eligible under Israel's immigration law for automatic citizenship in the Jewish State"; and a general expansion of messianic activity.
Messianic Jews share a belief in the idea that Judaism is the source of Christianity. The New Testament (so-called New Covenant) represents a unified extension of the Old Testament. Main tenets include regarding God as a compound unity of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and belief in Jesus' virgin birth, sinless life, atoning death, bodily resurrection and ascension to the right hand of God the Father. They await the personal, bodily return of Jesus and believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost - the former to everlasting life, the latter to everlasting judgment and condemnation. It is in this Christian philosophy that the objective of conversion and "soul-saving" originates.
According to Rubin, the most common point of confusion for Jews who are approached by Messianic Jews is their self-definition as Jews. "They say they are Jews, not Christians and that their beliefs have nothing to do with Christianity."
This approach is deceptive, explains Rubin, since one-quarter of Messianic Jewish congregations in Israel are led by Christian-educated leaders.
In addition to their deceiving self-description, initial methods to entice new congregants usually include putting up posters and websites and going to festivals and public places to distribute pamphlets and books bearing Jewish symbols.
The difference between The Jamm and other organizations of its kind is that currently, it is the only active missionary body whose target audience are minors.
"Some movements send their children to speak with Jewish children because it's more delicate," says Rubin, "but most Jewish missionaries try to stay away from kids because it is illegal."
Article 368 of the Israeli Penal Code awards a maximum six-month incarceration for attempting to convert minors under the age of 18. Article 174(A) prohibits the offering and receiving of material benefits as an inducement to conversion of anyone, including those above and below the age of 18. Anyone who gives material benefits in exchange for a commitment to change one's religion can be sentenced up to 5 years in prison and fined a maximum of NIS 50,000.
According to Yoram Sheftel, a Ramat Gan-based criminal lawyer who volunteers on behalf of Yad L'Achim, the problem is that both the prosecution and the law enforcement authorities do not enforce the law.
"They rarely enforce the laws pertaining to missionary crimes," says Sheftel, who estimates that only one or two cases are actually brought to court every year.
No legal precedent exists because both crimes are dealt with at the lowest level, the Magistrate's Court, with appeals going to the District Court.
"There is no practical chance that a case like this would make it to the Supreme Court," adds Sheftel, who in 2000 drafted a bill that to date has neither been accepted nor rejected by the Knesset, which would make any attempt to persuade anyone to change his religion an offense against the law. "As it stands, the issue is not a priority in the eyes of the Jerusalem Police and the prosecution. These cases, therefore, are generally neither investigated nor prosecuted."
Rivka Cohen, Daniel's mother, who conditioned her interview on the changing of both her and her son's names, testifies to that fact.
Once she found out what was really going on at The Jamm in April 2003, she filed a report with the Jerusalem Police, who closed the case about a month later. They reopened the file in December 2003 after she filed a letter of complaint to the minister of justice.
"I have not heard anything about it since the case was reopened eight months ago," says Rivka. "From the very beginning, the police didn't want to take me seriously."
Besides the testimony of her son and the publications he was given at The Jamm that included a copy of the New Testament, a workbook about Jesus, a CD with Christian songs and a copy of the coffee house's publication 'Youth Speak ' a collection of personal stories by Israeli youth who became 'believers' in the Messianic movement, her report consisted of a video depicting incriminating discussions between Jamm members, shot by 18-year-old Yossi Levinson, a volunteer for Yad L'Achim who went undercover to investigate the place.
"It was disgusting. The place is dedicated to making Israeli youth believe in Yeshua," says Levinson, who disguised himself as a believer looking to make a video for fundraising purposes in America, in order to unveil the true philosophy behind The Jamm. "It's not maybe yes, maybe no. It's black and white. The best thing a believer can do is to make a non-believer believe in Christ. It's an even bigger 'mitzvah' if they convert a Jew."
Levinson reveals that two days after he handed the video over to the Jerusalem Police, he got a call from friends at The Jamm inquiring how the video got into the wrong hands. "I was shocked. Until now, I don't know how they found out about the video so quickly."
The police didn't call him in for questioning until three weeks later. At the same time, Richard Ayal Frieden, owner of The Jamm, was approached by police immediately.
Frieden is proud to define himself as a Jewish believer in Yeshua, but denies that the purpose of his establishment is to convert Israeli youth.
"The Jamm," says Frieden, a former narcotics detective at the Jerusalem precinct who left his job in 1994, "is a non-profit organization that exists to promote local arts and to encourage youth and young adults in their respective musical talents. There is nothing illegal going on at The Jamm. We are not actively proselytizing young people."
"There is a witch-hunt going on," continues Frieden who, in addition to The Jamm, runs an annual week-long music camp for messianic kids and oversees the Jamm Academy of Arts, which holds after-school fine arts, multimedia and computer graphics classes taught by believing professionals and Heart Rock TV (HRTV), which produces TVY2, a 30-minute Hebrew music video program for central public access channel Tevel (Arutz Mekomi Merkaz), national public access channel 25 (Arutz Zahav Artzi), Matav Digitali and Yes 90 (Artzi Arutz Hapatuach).
"If I've committed a crime in sharing the love of God through the good work that we are doing at the Jamm," says Frieden, "then put me on the stand."
On the HRTV website, Frieden writes: "The youth of Israel are key to the future of Israel and to the expansion of the indigenous body of believers. Many Israeli youth are walking in darkness. We are here to inform them of 'the one whom they have not believed ' and introduce them to 'the one whom they have not heard' (Romans 10:14)."
Frieden explains that The Jamm holds one faith-based worship service per week, meant exclusively for members of the Jerusalem Youth Cell Group. "Each person under the age of 18 who comes on Monday night needs permission from their parents."
Minors, claims Frieden, are given a waiver that clearly indicates what the service is about, for parents to sign. "This is something that we're quite strict about."
Shmulik Ben-Rubi, spokesman for the Jerusalem Police, concurs. "We have talked to both kids and their parents and we have found that parents allow their kids to be in this place."
Ben-Rubi notes that the investigation surrounding The Jam is still open. "If we find any sign of conversion, we will act according to the law. But as far as we know, they are not trying to convert kids."
The police might have missed Cohen, who says he was invited to a worship night without being given a waiver. "I was never asked to have my parents sign a permission form. I just came on a Thursday night and they invited me to come on Monday. They invite all the people who come on Thursday to the prayer meeting. That's how I got there. I wouldn't have known about it otherwise."
According to Cohen, believer meetings are the prime time for circulating missionary literature.
"I personally don't hand out anything," says K., a 28-year-old Jamm volunteer from Germany. "I cannot hide what I believe in, but I would never force it on anybody or give someone a pamphlet."
Cohen has a different version. "They gave me workbooks and the New Testament and said that Jesus gave his life for us and we need to give our lives to Him."
Cohen, whose parents divorced a couple of years before he started spending time at The Jamm, realizes in retrospect that he was the perfect candidate for missionary activity. "It was a very rough time in my life. I needed friends and the people at The Jamm were nice. They listened and talked to me."
The believers, he says, also offered him a place to stay at their shared boys' house. "They go to the weak people and they try to take them in."
Rubin says that Cohen's assessment is accurate. "It is very difficult to change the mind of someone who doesn't have any problems in his life. That's why they are going to lonely people or people with financial or family problems. There are a lot of people out there who are in trouble and these missionaries give them hope."
Levinson asserts that awarding hope is The Jamm's most cherished technique.
"They act nice to people who don't have someone who will listen to them at home, or who don't have a nice home," he says. "The Jamm is a nice, warm place for people who don't have a nice, warm place to go."
Rubin claims that the current economic crisis in Israel and in the capital in particular, provides the missionaries with more opportunities than usual, since many Israelis are particularly needy at this time.
"It's a business," says Rubin and emphasizes that all of the messianic congregations in Israel receive money from Christian churches abroad to help them conduct their activities. "When they are speaking with Jews, they are Jews. When they try to get money from Christians, they are Christians. Basically, they are liars."
The Jamm fits the mold. Not only does the organization have affiliates in both Franklin, Tennessee and the Netherlands, it is sponsored in part by Gratefully Grafted Ministries International, headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which offers financial support to some 40 messianic ministries in Israel, including congregations, worship centers and "outreach programs" like The Jamm.
Says Rubin, "The Jamm aims to target youth in the street and they don't have a problem getting the money to do it from abroad."
"The Jamm is a Christian fundamentalist group and nothing more than that," adds Binyamin Kluger, head of advocacy for the anti-missionary department at Yad L'Achim.
"Why are Israeli authorities doing nothing to stop them?" asks Rivka. "I just don't understand. If the law clearly says that what they are doing is wrong, why isn't anything being done about it?
"I just try to imagine what would happen if a couple of religious Jews started trying to convert Christian boys to stop believing in Yeshua. I'm sure it wouldn't hold for one week."
She then offers one reason the Israeli justice system has neglected to deal with the issue. "Perhaps Christians in America have a very big influence here, but unless we are willing to sacrifice our own Jewish kids for the donations and tourism money of Christians, our first obligation is to protect our own youth."
A letter written by then-Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in which he expressed his disagreemet with the 1997 Proposed Bill on the Prohibition of Inducement for Religious Conversion, supports Cohen's suggestion.
"It has come to my attention that a bill before the Israeli parliament concerning possession of missionary literature has created a stir among our many Christian friends," wrote Netanyahu in response to the private member bill proposed by then-Labor Party opposition member Nissim Zvilli and Rabbi Moshe Gafni of the Yahadut HaTorah Party, which would have made the printing, distribution and possession of missionary material a crime punishable by up to one year in prison. "I would like to assure you that this bill does not have the support of the Israeli government...the government strenuously objects to this bill and will act to ensure that it does not pass. Israel deeply values your support, and we appreciate your friendship and commitment."
The reason for the legal authorities' lack of action against missionary organizations remains obscure. In the meantime, The Jamm, which has a link on the Jerusalem Municipality website, has plans to expand its horizons to include an indoor skateboarding park on Ben Yehuda Street, a project their pamphlet describes as "a [potential] harvest field for the Lord."
"There are few cases that are as black and white as The Jamm," says Rubin. "The case is very clear. Why aren't they being properly investigated or prosecuted? It's a very good question."
One thing about your N'oachide laws and why that concept would of never worked for human beings is because there was no consequences for their actions, there was no prayers for the gentile world to adhere to there was no celebrations to honor the one true Living GOD of the world.
There was no reconciliation for continual law breakers of TORAH. There was no commandments on tithing or helping the poor the sinners the hopeless, the hungry.
If someone has just the N-oachide laws nothing else how do they reach to prostitute on crack hopelss could care less if she died where is the hope in giving them just a Noachide law?
How many people perished when Noah built his ark? how many people laughed at him and died, if that would of happened in this day and age I beg to say more than half the world would be gone...
Sorry I cannot do that. I will not hurt, insult, or be mean, but you will never stop me from sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ to any JEW or Gentile who does not know him. If they say I don't want to hear about Jesus so go away that's fine. I know what GOD commanded of me and now it's up to GOD in what he will do with that individual.
I share the gift of salvation you don't want slavation I am not trying to convince you otherwise.
I would not attempt yo speak to either of you, WHY because your have both made up your minds that you don't care or want to know anything about Jesus the "Messiah" that's fine GOD gave us FREE WILL, but don't try and speak for anyone else, family friends or the public, it is there CHOICE to want to hear of Jesus or not.
You are not going to die in a group you die ALONE just the way to came into the world and you will answer to GOD alone just as I will...
Whatever the failings of Julius Caesar, Napolean and Rev. Moon, putting them on the same list as Hitler and Stalin is nutty.
I said they all hide behind the pre-tense GOD ALMIGHTY.
Rev Moon has said he is the "Messiah" does it get much worse trying to fool the world your the Messiah?
Beware of False Prophets?
By targetting them for "conversion" you are essentially saying that God is a liar and that he does not keep his promises.
The Vatican has already decided that the Jews are already saved by virtue of their covenent with God, os conversion is unneccessary. Eastern Orthodoxy has adopted the same position.
I just need to close with both of you on a very honest note.
As a human being some of your posts really ticked me off, the sinful part of myself says "Who cares about them they can drop dead for all I care, get sick with cancer and die, who cares let them be there all by themselves to fight the ARABS that hate them . I am an American I only care about my country my family my friends, my faith.
YET Knowing JESUS CHRIST those thoughts are very ANTI-CHRIST and I would be letting the Devil in but Jesus pours his gift upon on me so that I concentrate on what he says Loving my neighbor as myself forgiving my enemies, and through prayer I do not let HATE consume me that would in essence destroy me or destroy you.
ISLAM is consumed with HATE and that is why they will continue to try and destroy Israel and the world.
I will pray for you and wish you happiness because I want that for myself, I guess in a way that is selfish, but I guess I am still learning to accept people because for the most part people get on my nerves. JESUS helps me daily to be more tolerant....
So the Jews that are in jail for murder? or rape? or stealing what happens to them? What happens to all the Jewish Liberals? or Jews that do not practice their faith?by what you just posted?
Knowledgeable Jews have no problems refuting them. The problem is most Israelis are secular. If they made ba'al teshuvah and became religious, the missionaries wouldn't stand a chance and no law would be needed.
That was an intelligent reply.
But I do have an opinion I would like to ask you if you don't mind.
Why would GOD who give the Jewish people laws to live by so that they might have eternal life, and permit a Messiah to come thrught the JEWS as a JEW let the JEWISH people beleive for the most part he was a fraud and a liar while letting the rest of the GENTILE world think that he is the PROMISHED MESSIAH? the SON OF GOD for all time?.
ALMIGHTY GOD ALL KNOWING ALL GOOD in your opinion why would GOD let that happen and what is the benefit for the world?
Of course they were. Judaism and Christianity are different religions.
Great Answer, I was trying to imagine our world just having Judaism and N'oachide laws? WHAT A scarry thought I can't imagine how much more evil people could be than they are now, but with just N'oachide laws it appears that the world might not even have exsisted today....
Hi Malakhi!
Was wondering where you were, missed alot of heated posts on this thread....
I don't know I was thinking okay maybe ALL Christians should leave Israel and not speak of Jesus there.
Treat Israel like we treat any other country that would be part of NATO, would that be the right thing to do?
This is your Christian perspective. It is impossible to discuss anything with you as you refuse to look at anything from any other perspective other than your own.
However, as I am bored at work today, I'll play along.
No Jew in his or her right mind believes that Jesus was the messiah. It has been explained to you at least 30 times, by many Jews on FR why.
G-d does not 'let' people believe in lies of frauds. This is also your Christian perspective talking. Judaism teaches that lies, fraud, greed, etc., come from people not keeping mitzvot; their own weaknesses and failings. We don't blame G-d for our own failings. Nor do we assign them to some made up demon called satan. We take on our own failings as just that.
Great posts.
Also what was the punishment for Nazarenes? If the JEWS had looked down on Samaritans and Lepors were they just jailed or killed? How was the N-oachide laws preached to gentiles before Jesus's arrival? is this info in the Talmud? It appears all SINNERS who did not obey TORAH were usually killed is that correct? as GOD had no place for them?
What about Safisoft? he has more HONEST knowledge about Christianity and JUDAISM than anybody on FR??
You can't possibly be this obtuse ... can you?
Why would Jewish liberals automatically be going to hell? What a dumb question.
Anyway, individual Jews are required to keep up their end of their covenent with God. If they do not, I imagine there will be some punishment for them in the afterlife.
I'll ask you the question again: When God promised the Jews salvation if they upheld their end of the covenent, was he lying?
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