Farmington Hills. Deceptive, unin-
formed, its appeal based on emotional
nostalgia rather than substance and
ignoring even the basic- fact that
deification of a human being is the
antithesis of Judaism, the movement
constitutes, he says, an attempt at
"destruction of Judaism's basic
tenets!"
A major concern of critics of
Hebrew Christianity, says Batya
Schreiber, is that its missionaries
"make their strongest appeals to
those who are most defenseless; the
young, the elderly, the sick!"
"When I was in the movement, we
were told to watch our (non-believing)
friends for signs of weakness which
might make them potential converts,"
says Lawrence Levey, a former
member of Jews for Jesus who is now
East Coast director of the countermis-
sionary Jews for Judaism. "College
students, senior citizens, Soviet im-
migrants, Jewish prisoners — any
group likely to be in transition or at
a time of crisis or vulnerability were
prime missionary targets," he says.
Most Messianic missionaries,
Levey argues, are very sincere in their
beliefs. "They truly believe that every
'unsaved' Jewish person is going to
burn in Hell forever. And therefore
they are willing to do whatever they
have to do to bring them to the faith!'
Many of them were converted, as he
was, when they were young and sear-
ching for answers, he says, and are
armed with a formidable combination
of youth, zeal, expert missionary
training and blissful ignorance of
traditional Judaism.
Though most Jews in the Detroit
community might regard Hebrew
Christianity adversely, many do not
consider it a pressing problem. Jews
for Jesus, its most prominent
organization, has no official head-
quarters in Detroit. Its missionaries
have made frequent incursions in the
area, particularly around the college
campuses, but neither these forays
nor the two local missions seem to
have been spectacularly successful,
reports Miriam Schey, community af-
fairs associate for the Jewish Com-
munity Council. Over the years the
Council has monitored Messianic ac-
tivity in the area and has sometimes
taken counter-measures, successfully
objecting to the telephone listing of
Hope of Israel as a synagogue, for
example.
"But a strong sense of communi-
ty" in an area with a relatively stable
Jewish population which has main-
tained strong family ties has kept the
number of converts low, says Schey.
"Though it is obviously still a matter
of concern!' she adds.
"It is sometimes perceived as a
small problem," says Rabbi Bergtein.
"It is not. It is a large problem which
affects small numbers. And it should
be addressed. One child taken under
this guise of Christianity is one too
"Belief in Christ is
not the issue here
. . . Distortion
of Judaism is."
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
25