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Ideas is Issues
Movie Ad Misleading
Jewish papers, TV audiences duped by ad for messianic movie.
JULIE WIENER and BRIANNE KORN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
New York
A
n advertisement appearing
in 80 American Jewish
newspapers last week,
including the Jewish News,
looks fairly innocuous.
The title of a film, The Rabbi,
appears in Hebrew-style lettering,
above a close-up shot of a
bearded, yarmulka-wearing
man praying at the Western
Wall in Jerusalem.
"The unforgettable story
of an Israeli rabbi and his
struggles in modern soci-
ety," the ad says. "The
drama of this family rela-
tionship will move and
inspire you."
What it does not men-
tion is that The Rabbi, a one-
hour, made-for-television film
broadcast on stations through-
out the country last weekend,
including on Channel 20 Saturday
night in metro Detroit,
is about a "messianic
Jew" who gradually convinces his
Orthodox family that he did not aban-
don Judaism when he embraced
"Yeshua" — the name "messianic Jews"
use for Jesus.
Also omitted from the advertise-
ment is the fact that The Rabbi was
produced by Morris Cerullo, a San
Diego-based Christian missionary who
describes himself as a "servant of God."
With this misleading ad and a
Jewish-owned firm as his unwitting
accomplice, Cerullo managed to infil-
trate a world generally beyond the
grips of "messianic Jews" and mission-
aries: the Jewish press.
Cerullo did not return phone calls
from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
His strategy of going through the
Jewish media indicates a departure
from missionaries' traditional focus on
Jews on the fringes and instead a
desire to reach a highly affiliated
group of Jews.
"The ads for The Rabbi placed in
Jewish papers around the country are
an example of the deceptive tactics
used by messianic groups to lure
unsuspecting members of the Jewish
community. The movie is an insult-
ing, caricatured portrayal of Jews, and
shamefully deceives viewers about its
real agenda," said Rabbi Marla
Feldman, assistant director of the
Jewish Community
At the end of the film, Cerullo
appears on the Mount of Olives in
Jerusalem explaining that "the purpose
of this drama is to demonstrate why
we need to trust Yeshua as the messiah.
We're not betraying our Jewishness,
but we're becoming better Jews."
Cerullo signs off with a "Shalom,"
and the program is followed by a special
offer, promoted in a Yiddish-accented
voiceover, for a free blessing plaque.
Cerullo Tracked
According to Mark Sanders, out-
reach director for the Los Angeles-
based anti-missionary group Jews for
Judaism, Cerullo previously sent
copies of his books to 1 million
Jewish homes in Israel. Now an
observant Jew, Sanders is a for-
mer Christian minister who
spent four years in Israel as a
missionary.
Alerted on March 23 to the
content of the film, the Joseph
Jacobs firm — which links
prospective advertisers to Jewish
publications — said it was
contacting all the newspapers
to let them know about it,
but
that
by
the time it learned the
Morris Cerullo
truth about The Rabbi most of the
papers had already been printed.
Council of Metropolitan Detroit.
"If we had known the contents of
The movie, which resembles a day-
the movie, we would not have accept-
time soap opera, conveys the idea,
ed the ad," said Robert A. Sklar, edi-
rejected by all streams of Judaism, that
tor of the Jewish News. "I apologize to
one can remain a committed Jew
our readers who were, properly,
while believing in Jesus.
offended to see 'this on our pages." He
It shows the yarmulka-wearing
noted the Jewish News follows stan-
"messianic Jewish" son, Yochanan,
dards of advertising acceptability that
enjoying a Passover seder with his
preclude using the pages as spring-
family, where his young son, Ya'akov,
boards for messianic efforts aimed at
sings the Four Questions and talks
the conversion of Jews.
about attending synagogue. Yochanan
"In the future, if something comes
cites texts from the Hebrew Bible that
through a little like this we will delve
he claims prove Jesus is the messiah,
into it a bit further," said Eli
and his reasoning wins over his atheist
Rosenfeld, vice president of sales for
Holocaust survivor uncle, his sister
the New York firm.
and even his rabbi father.
Rosenfeld said the ad had come
"I couldn't blindly accept the rab-
through an agency, Walter Bennett
bis' interpretation," says Yochanan,
Communications in suburban
later noting, "the moment Yeshua
Philadelphia, which had said the
came into my heart I stopped hating."
client wished to remain anonymous,
From the pages of the Jewish News for
this week 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50
years ago.
-
St,4%
The Jewish National Fund can-
celled its spring fund-raising cam-
paign and June dinner so as not to
conflict with the Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit's
Operation Exodus Drive.
The Variety Club of Detroit
selected Jewish News columnist
Danny Raskin to receive its Heart
Award for Print Media.
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem
Begin finished sixth in a list of 12
foreign leaders most recognized by
the British public.
Dr. Leonard Demak was
installed as president of
Congregation B'nai Moshe.
V47Z
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Itzhak Rabin, Israel ambassador to
the United States, was slated to talk
at Temple Israel at the Daniel M.
and Sophie Haas Memorial
Lecture.
Mr. and Mrs. David Weiner,
among the founders of the Pinsker
Aid Society, were slated to be hon-
ored by the organization.
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V,,AAVVitkom
Joe Balberor became the first presi-
dent of Congregation Shaarey -
Shomayim.
The chief rabbinate of Jerusalem
announced opposition to the pro-
jected Jerusalem Sculpture Garden
designed for the million dollar col-
lection from Billy Rose.
1464 .
Abolition of a special minority sta-
tus for welfare institutions main-
tained by the Jewish community
was demanded by Moise Cohen,
the only Jewish member of the
Istanbul Municipal Council.
A Hollywood food concern that
markets chow mein hired a rabbi to
supervise the manufacture of kosher
chow mein, which is in great demand
by the movie star community
— Compiled by Sy Manello,
Editorial Assistant
3/31
2000