group that can be fraught with confusion and pressure.
"It's the pressure to succeed, plus a need for accept-
ance, that makes teens a key target for 'messianic'
groups," said Alexis Konigsberg, 16, a student at the
Dreyfoos School of the Arts in West Palm Beach,
adding that she knows "kids who have been to one o
these services and they've gotten letters asking them
back. They're kids who I went to Jewish day school
with and you'd never expect to be in this position,
but they're teen-agers and they're vulnerable."

Just Regular Jews?

Seeking

1

Jewish community combats gathering of "messianic Jews."

TOM BRODIGAN and JOYCE MOED CHARMAN

T

Palm Beach Jewish News

Glaser from the group's New York City offices.

Small Demonstrations

West Palm Beach, Fl a .
But it was a message that troubled local Jewish lead-
he steeple at West Palm Beach's First
ers, who worried that conference organizers were tar-
Baptist Church lit up like a beacon in the
geting them for conversion to Christianity In recent
newly darkened sky, while the doors were
weeks, Jewish groups have blitzed local high schools
kept invitingly open.
and community groups with presentations that take
But for the 60 Jews gathered outside, the sight of
issue with the belief that people can be Jewish and
such a disarmingly friendly setting only brought home
accept Jesus as their messiah.
the warnings about "messianic Jews" they'd been bom-
"It's a spiritual Holocaust," said Robin Isaacson, co-
barded with in recent weeks.
director of the Palm Beach branch of
"Now we understand why we
Torah Life & Living.
Standing in front of the church
have to do something," said Mike
Jewish community leaders had
site of a conference on Jewish
Salomon, 17. "We can't just sit
agreed
not to call more attention to
evangelism, Hyla Levine, left, of
back and just let this go on."
the
conference
with massive protests
the anti-cult and messianic
Salomon was objecting to last
and
newspaper
tirades. Instead, they
organization Torah Life er Living,
weekend's conference that drew
staged
the
small
demonstration
speaks with Steve Mussman of
hundreds of "messianic Jews" and
Saturday
outside
the conference's clos-
Boca Raton, an attendee at last
Southern Baptists to Palm Beach
ing event, a concert and candlelight
weekend's conference.
County
vigil for peace in the Middle East.
Hosted by the Chosen People
"We decided to leave the face-to-
Ministries, the Feb. 8-10 event, "To the Jew First in
face encounter for the people who were trained, such
the New Millennium: A Three-Day Conference on
as Torah Life & Living," said William Rothschild,
Jewish Evangelism," was designed to make Jewish
director of the Palm Beach office of the Anti-
evangelism a priority of the millennium, according
Defamation League. Boca Raton-based Torah Life &
to a flier. It featured testimonies from "messianics"
Living works to educate people about "messianic
about why they accepted Jesus.
Jews," cults and missionaries.
"Messianic Jews" follow many of the basic tenets of
Outside the conference, Jewish protesters sang Jewish
Judaism, but accept Jesus as the messiah.
songs and passed out fliers that emphasized the differ-
"The conference was designed to encourage and
ences between "messianic Jews" and Judaism.
exhort the church to become a more active participant
Scattered throughout the group were more than 40
in the mandate of Romans 1:16, which states that the
teen-agers who had spent the night at a Shabbat-long
gospel message is 'to the Jew first, and also to the gen-
workshop at Temple Emanu-El in Palm Beach designed
tile,"' said Chosen People Ministries President Mitch
to combat the effects of the weekend-long conference.
Isaacson said groups like Chosen People Ministries
Related commentary: page 5
often prey upon teens for conversion, targeting an age

2/16
2001

18

Isaacson said it is not the message of Jesus but the
messianics' way of wrapping him in a Jewish cloak
that concerns her and. other Jewish leaders. To her,
the most disturbing part of the conference was its
Jewish ambience.
Inside the church, speakers donned kipot, showed
videos of Israel and referred to Jesus as Yeshua, the
Hebrew word for salvation. The crowd danced and
sang Hebrew songs, including Israel's national
anthem, Hatikvah.
"They basically talked as if they were proud Jews,"
said Luis Fleischman, director of the Jewish
Community Relations Council of the Jewish
Federation of Palm Beach County
"They were offended that we called them non-
Jews. They run their lives as regular Jews, participat-
ing in the Jewish Community Center and feeling
connected to Israel," Fleischman said.
"They have every right to their beliefs and to pro-
mote them in the public arena because of freedom of
speech. Our concern is that they do so deceptively by
creating the impression they are part of the Jewish
community when they are not," said Rabbi Marla
Feldman, assistant director of the Jewish Community
Council of Metropolitan Detroit.
"Our defense against incorrect information is correct
information. We need to ensure that our young people
are educated and have the self-esteem about their
Jewishness not to be led astray.
"In Detroit, there is a presence from several mes-
sianic synagogues and Detroit is one of the cities tar-
geted by the Jews for Jesus initiative, 'Behold Your
God,"' Rabbi Feldman said. "It's likely we'll contin-
ue to see an increase."
Speaking of the conference, Fleischman character-
ized the attendees as "naive" and the speakers as
"shrewd and misleading."
He said only Al Mohler, president of the Southern
Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., clearly
explained that he was delivering a Christian message.
But Chosen People's Glaser insists that the confer-
ence was not designed to blur the line between Judaism
and Christianity. He said participants simply wanted to
share their belief that Jesus is the Jewish messiah.
"When I look at the news and see an Israeli
motorist ambushed and two Palestinians killed in
the West Bank, I am even more convinced that
the world must know that true and lasting peace
can only come when the world knows that Jesus is
the messiah for all people — Jews, Arabs and gen-
tiles," he said.
Konigsberg says she wasn't fooled by the handshakes
and warm words offered by the Chosen People
Ministries staff "They're not torturing people," she
said. "They're going straight for their souls." ❑

