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West Palm Beach, FL - State Circuit Court Judge Edward Fine has dismissed all claims filed by Edith Rapp against Jews for Jesus. The entire suit was dismissed with prejudice, meaning that none of the claims can be refiled. Judge Fine also ordered Mrs. Rapp and her attorney, Barry Silver, to pay attorney's fees and costs. Judge Catherine Brunson had twice dismissed similar variations of the same lawsuit. Jews for Jesus is represented by Mathew D. Staver, President and General Counsel for Liberty Counsel, Erik Stanley, Chief Counsel, and Anita Staver, Litigation Counsel. In July 2002, Jews for Jesus sent...

To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor Contact: Bryan Rudnick, 561-499-3201 News Advisory: WHAT: Jews for "It's OK to Say Merry Christmas" press conference WHEN: Thursday, Dec. 1, 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. at The National Press Club (529 14th St. N.W., Washington, D.C.) in the Murrow Room. WHY: To speak out against the War on Christmas -- ongoing efforts to purge Christmas from our schools, public events, retail establishments and the culture, and why this should concern Americans of all faiths. WHO: Don Feder -- president, Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation Michael Horowitz -- senior fellow, Hudson Institute Rabbi Daniel Lapin --...

From Jews For JESUS: CONTROVERSY IN WASHINGTON Stevphen Katz Jews For Jesus I just got off a call with Jon Moeller, chapel leader for the Washington Nationals baseball team. He volunteers with a ministry called Baseball Chapel. Jon called me because he and Baseball Chapel are facing a challenge from the Jewish community, which has caught them offguard. THEY NEED OUR HELP. Here is the link to a 4-page article from Sunday's Washington Post. (If you must register to read it, it's free so go ahead and do it. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/17/AR2005091701522.html?sub=AR The article descibes how Baseball Chapel works, but there...

RETURN TO PUBLICATIONS HOME ISSUES Kabbalah: Fact or Fiction? by Lev Leigh -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This article originally appeared in ISSUES 12:2 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, emissary of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, has a reputation of presenting Judaism as a vibrant, spiritual experience and not merely as a set of laws and prohibitions. Carlebach tells the story of his visit to an Israeli army unit during the Lebanese War: "I met the I.D.F. chaplain and asked him 'How is everything?' And he responded, 'Fine. The meat is kosher…' "So I said, 'If I wanted good salami, I wouldn't come to Lebanon for...

Orthodox Rapper Embraces Jesus Forward, NY 50 Shekel, the Jewish rapper who dubbed himself the “The World’s Most Kosher MC,” is now calling himself “The Jewish Jesus Freak.”. ...

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, interested in shoring up his standing in the influential US Evangelical Christian community, met eight leading Evangelical figures Tuesday, including Jay Sekulow, a high profile Messianic Jew. Sekulow, who runs a conservative civil liberties group called the American Center for Law & Justice that was set up by evangelist Pat Robertson, is considered close to US President George W. Bush and was one of three strategists charged by the White House with the task of getting Bush's controversial court nominees through the Senate.

I came to the courtroom early, before the proceedings began. The podium was adjustable, right? I lowered it. I'm five feet, seven and a half inches tall and the last thing I needed was to be standing up on the tips of my toes to reach the podium! When I came back later, for the proceedings, I looked in the back row and there, sitting all together, were my good friends, Moishe Rosen (founder of Jews for Jesus, and at the time, executive director), Tuvya Zaretsky, Susan Perlman and Russ Reed (three of Jews for Jesus' board members), plus my...

Linda LeBoon's case against the Lancaster (Pa.) Jewish Community Center (LJCC) hasn't received much press, but it's a case that should probably get much more attention. In one sense, you'd expect this headline to be bad news for the evangelical community: "'Jews for Jesus' Concertgoer Loses Employment Suit Against Jewish Center." The LJCC argued that their firing of evangelical Christian bookkeeper Linda LeBoon had everything to do with economics, and nothing whatsoever to do with her attending a Jews for Jesus concert at her church, where she ran into a Jewish counter-missionary who had conducted a seminar at the center....

Dozens of evangelists with Jews for Jesus will hit the streets of Washington starting next week for a monthlong campaign at Metro stops, downtown areas and college campuses aimed at the Washington area's 215,000 Jews. More than 600 people took an evangelism-training course last month at the 10,000-member McLean Bible Church to prepare for the "Behold Your God" campaign. The blitz also will involve radio and newspaper ads. "We want to make the messiahship of Jesus an unavoidable issue to Jewish people in the Washington area," said Stephen Katz, Washington director of Jews for Jesus. "We want to ask them:...

When the Rev. Lon Solomon says he aims to persuade every soul in Washington to believe that "Jesus is the only ticket to heaven," it is a vow not to be taken lightly. From the wealthy of McLean to the poor of Southeast Washington -- all are in his sights, especially the area's Jews, whose conversion Solomon considers his God-given calling. While other Christian leaders might have similar goals, none has the advantage of Solomon's perch as pastor of McLean Bible Church, a glitzy megachurch with an evangelical mission that might seem an unlikely fit for Washington's most affluent suburb....

To say that the crucifixion of Jesus as depicted in passion plays has been bad for the Jews is more than a gross understatement. These plays, which in years past often cast our people as devils with horns and as sinister characters, have given rise to accusations that we were not only collectively responsible for the death of Christ, but we killed Christian babies, we poisoned wells, we spread the Black Plague and so on. It is no wonder then that Mel Gibson's film, The Passion of the Christ, which depicts the last 12 hours of Jesus' life, has elecited...

A Messianic Jewish ministry is warning Evangelical Christians not to let attempts to prevent evangelism of Jews keep believers from sharing the gospel with the Jewish community.San Francisco-based Jews for Jesus (JFJ) is the largest Messianic Jewish ministry in the world. Recently JFJ's executive director, David Brickner, wrote a six-page letter titled "The War on Jewish Evangelism" and sent it out to more than 110,000 JFJ donors. In the letter, he warned that many Christian churches are being turned away from Jewish evangelism."The Jewish community is trying to change the perspective that Christians have on evangelism to the Jews to...

<p>The nation's largest Messianic Jewish organization is criticizing leading evangelical Christians -- including the Rev. Billy Graham -- of caving into Jewish pressure to downplay the Gospel.</p> <p>"There are those who have worked both overtly and subtly to demonize Jewish believers in Jesus and to make the work of Jewish evangelism seem unacceptable," David Brickner, president of Jews for Jesus, wrote in a six-page letter titled "The War on Jewish Evangelism" sent to 110,000 donors.</p>

Competing Jewish outreach and Christian messianic organizations waged separate battles over the weekend to win over the followers of Judaism. About 250 supporters of Jews For Jesus gathered Friday night at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton for a religious concert that began with a Hebrew prayer and the lighting of Sabbath candles. They clapped, sang and danced as they affirmed their claim that one can be Jewish and believe in Jesus at the same time. To blunt their message, about 75 backers of the American Jewish Committee heard speakers Sunday night at Temple Beth El of Boca Raton reject...

A Delray Beach [Florida] woman sued the religious movement Jews for Jesus, claiming its members fraudulently reported that she converted to the organization's beliefs. Edith Rapp says her stepson Bruce Rapp wrote in a 2002 Jews for Jesus newsletter that he watched while she tearfully and spontaneously converted to the movement at her husband's bedside. She said the account is "completely fictitious" and invented to bolster Bruce Rapp's credentials among Jews for Jesus. "She is humiliated, shocked, appalled," said her attorney, Barry Silver. The suit was filed Thursday. Bruce Rapp said Thursday from the organization's office in New York that...

With the Jews for Jesus gathering like a dark cloud of locusts, it is no wonder that Jews across the county flipped out when The Post used a picture of a Messianic congregation celebrating "Tashlich," the ceremony of casting one's sins upon the waters. Nor were they much comforted by the column that acknowledged the use of the picture as a mistake for a Rosh Hashana story. It was more than a mistake; it missed the point. It was not a picture about Jews celebrating Judaism. It was a picture of Christians playing at being Jews. While that is a...

B'nai Brith Canada today announced the launch of a campaign to inform members of Toronto's Jewish community about the activities of "Jews for Jesus." Calling it the "Proud to be Jewish" Campaign," B'nai Brith's goal is to warn members of the Toronto Jewish community about the presence and methods of the missionary group and to advise them of their rights. "This isn't about free speech," said Rochelle Wilner, president of B'nai Brith Canada. "Targeted missionizing, especially when done in a manner calculated to deceive the unsuspecting, is offensive to our community. Christianity is not a branch of Judaism it's a...

Recently, I had a conversation with the pastor of a large church in California. This church has long been a friend and supporter of Jews for Jesus, giving more than $150,000 each year to all sorts of missions. The pastor called to discuss the merits of an organization his church is supporting called the Holy Land Fellowship of Christians and Jews. The pastor had received an email from one of his congregants who had seen an article on our web site that was critical of this organization. He knew that Jews for Jesus is not in the habit of criticizing...

Countering Christian Missionaries and Messianists Jews for Judaism's Counselors Help Bring the People of the Book Back Into the Fold By MAX GROSS Scott Hillman was in the lobby of a Virginia Beach hotel that was hosting a convention for messianic Jews when a woman approached him. "You're a nice Jewish boy; don't you know Yeshua HaMashiach [Jesus the Messiah] was predicted in the Tanakh?" she said in a thick Israeli accent. Hillman — executive director of the countermissionary group Jews for Judaism, started in 1985 in response to Jews for Jesus — was prepared. He asked the woman which...