L'shanah Tovah
Munger but decided against
their participation when hear-
ing what the JN learned.
Allan Gale of the Jewish
Community Council of
Metropolitan Detroit and
Sharona Shapiro of the
Michigan office of the American
Jewish Committee had both met
with Munger, but withheld their
support seeking more informa-
tion.
"I told him that I might
attend with a board member to
see what they are doing, but I
would not urge others to attend
and did not want to be recog-
nized from the stage or be por-
trayed as supporting the event:'
Shapiro said.
"I honestly feel their love for
Israel is real, just as real as their
lack of respect for Jews and
Judaism:' says David Blewett,
executive director of the
Southfield-based Dove Institute
and the Novi-based National
Christian Leadership
Conference for Israel (NCLCI),
an interdenominational group
of Christians that supports
Israel within the Christian com-
munity.
"The Jewish community must
decide if they accept and work
with them in support of Israel,
knowing there is a hidden agen-
da, and that agenda is quite
critical of Jews and Judaism,"
Blewett said.
Alan Respler, executive direc-
tor of the Jewish Community
Relations Council of Southern
New Jersey, has a close working
relationship and personal
friendship with William Sutter,
executive director of Friends of
Israel. He was very surprised to
learn about Munger's sermons.
"I'm very disturbed:' said
Respler. "Based on my knowl-
edge of Friends of Israel and my
experience, it doesn't represent
what I know of the organiza-
tion!'
Respler had been wary of the
group under its previous execu-
tive director Elwood McQuaid,
who wrote the book Zvi: The
Miraculous Story of Triumph
Over the Holocaust, which tells
of a Jewish Holocaust survivor
who found Jesus and seeks to
convert Israeli Jews to his
beliefs. The real Zvi has a regu-
lar column in FOI's free Israel
324%
September 29 2005
My Glory newsletter sent to
hundreds of thousands of
churches and households.
McQuaid also gained notori-
ety when the counter-mission-
ary education and counseling
organization, Jews for Judaism,
publicized a March 22, 1995, let-
ter from McQuaid seeking to
raise funds for FOI missionaries
to share the gospel with Jewish
teenagers visiting the German
death camps as part of the
March of the Living.
Respler says things changed
after Sutter took the helm in
May 2001.
"Bill is here all the time as
part of the Jewish community:'
says Respler.
His Jewish Community
Relations Council has co-spon-
sored an interfaith trip to Israel
with FOI. "He made a point that
there would be no Christians on
the trip who would say anything
to offend Jews. He has made it
clear that they are not out to
convert Jews."
The Jewish Community
Relations Bureau-American
Jewish Committee of Kansas
City is planning an interfaith
trip to Israel with FOI.
Reached both at his home
and at his office, Sutter said he
was troubled by Munger's ser-
mons but, in a written state-
ment to the Detroit Jewish
News, he did not specifically
disassociate his organization
from them nor challenge
Munger's characterization of
Friends of Israel as evangelizing
Jews.
Sutter wrote: "The Friends of
Israel supports Israel uncondi-
tionally. Our Christian Zionism
is rooted in God's promises to
the Jewish people through
Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3), Isaac
and Jacob. We actively oppose
anti-Semitism, including the
injurious teaching that the
church has replaced Israel as the
recipient of God's favor.
"For us as evangelical
Christians, our Savior's com-
mission to make Him known to
all people everywhere must not
serve as an occasion for offense,
certainly not to the Jewish peo-
ple whom God tells, "I have
loved you with an everlasting
love (Jeremiah 31:3)."0
Waling aft of tun etotamem a
Medd* and tItapp New. Yea% Pumn
49:14 . 4t
and Dcwid 113eatt cC amaciato
The Full Service Mortgage Lender
Perfect or Less than perfect Credit
Purchases • Refinancing • Construction • Renovation
• Conventional • FHA • Jumbo • Bill Consolidation
• Investment • 2nd Homes • Zero Down Puchases
• Reverse Mortgages
• Commercial Mortgages
FIRST ALLIANCE MORTGAGE
32100 Telegraph Rd. • Suite 205
Bingham Farms, MI 48025
1 -87 7-FIRST-YES
(347-7893)
Ct
www.firstalliance.com
1024240
i
10
i ii (36 Rsi e 4n
%Ill SENIOR LIVING RESIDENCES
Thejzimericanflouse
staff -wishes
all our residents,
and all our friends
a very healthy and
fiappy
Xeir sear
WEST BLOOMFIELD
248-538-5283
SOUTHFIELD
248-353-5835
5859 W. Maple Rd.
West Bloomfield, MI 48322
(West of Orchard Lake Rd)
27577 Lahser Rd.
Southfield, MI 48034
(North of 1-696)
69