I certainly did not defend any violent or coercive forms of proselytizing by any religion, but that's not what this JAMM group is doing. Any religious Jewish parent who cares about raising their children in the Jewish faith would do well not to let their 15 year olds run around a big city unsupervised. There are plenty of non-religious challenges to Jewish faith which are just as readily available as these missionary outfits. I suspect a lot more Jewish young people in Israel are abandoning the religion they were raised in for secularism, than for another religion.
If I were a parent in Jerusalem and my son told me that he went to a coffeehouse and played the drums there, but didn't smoke or drink there, it wouldn't occur to me (or at least it wouldn't have occured to me before I read this article) that it was a subterfuge to lure Jewish children to Christianity.
Given the choice, I would prefer that my child (I have two daughters) become utterly irreligious rather than embrace another faith. At least if they become irreligious I can hope that when they again feel the spark of their Jewishness they will not transfer it to their newfound faith and be lost to Judaism forever.
Sort of like the Amish letting their kids run wild for a year or two between their teen-age years and their re-acceptance of their faith as adults (if there are any Amish here in cyberspace I would welcome your feedback).
If I were a parent in Jerusalem and my son told me that he went to a coffeehouse and played the drums there, but didn't smoke or drink there, it wouldn't occur to me (or at least it wouldn't have occured to me before I read this article) that it was a subterfuge to lure Jewish children to Christianity.
Given the choice, I would prefer that my child (I have two daughters) become utterly irreligious rather than embrace another faith. At least if they become irreligious I can hope that when they again feel the spark of their Jewishness they will not transfer it to their newfound faith and be lost to Judaism forever.
Sort of like the Amish letting their kids run wild for a year or two between their teen-age years and their re-acceptance of their faith as adults (if there are any Amish here in cyberspace I would welcome your feedback).