28 | NOVEMBER 12 • 2020 

Jerusalem 
W

hen Dr. Glenn R. Plummer, 
an African American pastor, 
moved to Israel from Detroit 
with his wife, Dr. Pauline Plummer, in early 
September, he wasn’
t expecting a large wel-
coming committee.
But Plummer, who holds the title of 
first-ever Bishop of Israel for the Pentecostal 
denomination Church of God in Christ 
(COGIC), also didn’
t anticipate that their 
lives would be threatened after anti-mis-
sionary activists said the couple moved to 
Israel to proselytize. 
“I was not prepared for the kind of attack 
we experienced and, as a result, have decid-
ed to address the matter,
” Plummer told 
the Jewish News. “We’
ve had to contact the 
police to discuss this. They gave us some 
advice, which we’
ve followed.
”
He did not elaborate on the nature of the 
attacks or on their contacts with the police. 
The Plummers’
 experience reflects 
longstanding Israeli fears that evangelical 
Christians are interested in Israel for just 

one reason: to convert Jews to Christianity. 
Under Israeli law, missionary activity in 
Israel is illegal only if a missionary targets 
a minor or offers money or something 
of financial value to another person. 
Missionaries often place Christian-centered 
written materials in the mailboxes of private 
homes, and some quietly hand out New 
Testaments translated into Russian, Hebrew 
and Amharic, an Ethiopian language. 
Plummer, a prominent Christian media 
personality who served as the first and only 
African American chairman and CEO of 
the National Religious Broadcasters, told 
the JN that he and his wife are not mis-
sionaries. He said he learned of the accu-
sations soon after arriving in Mevaseret, a 
Jerusalem suburb. 
“Our only purpose here is to build a rela-
tionship with an even broader group than 
our church and establish a bridge between 
Black America and Israel,
” Plummer said 
of COGIC — the largest African American 
church in the U.S., boasting 6.5 million 
members domestically and millions more 

in 100-plus other countries. 
In addition to Glenn Plummer’
s title of 
“Bishop of Israel,
” COGIC has granted Ruth 
Pauline Plummer the title of “First Lady of 
Israel,
” saying in a 2019 press release that 
the title had been left “vacant” after the 
death of Nechama Rivlin, wife of Israeli 
President Reuven Rivlin. 

MISSIONARY CONCERNS
Ethiopian Chief Rabbi Reuven Wabashat, 
in a Nov. 1 letter addressed to the Ethiopian 
community, said the Plummers are in Israel 
to missionize. 
While the Plummers “speak about build-
ing bridges between Israel in general and 
between Ethiopian Jews and the African 
American community in the U.S., their true 
intent is to pave the road for missionary 
activities,
” Wabashat wrote in the letter, 
which was also sent to Prime Minister 
Benjamin Netanyahu and the Ashkenazi 
and Sephardi chief rabbis, according to a 
report in the Times of Israel. 
Wabashat urged his community to “use 
every possible platform” to avoid the alleged 
missionizing activity. 
Rabbi Tovia Singer, founder and director 
of Outreach Judaism, a Jewish counter-mis-
sionary organization, also insists that the 
relationship-building is an attempt to con-
vert Jews to Christianity. 
“They’
re here for the same reason so 
many other Christian groups come to 
Israel: to evangelize Jews in Israel,
” Singer 
said. 
Singer created and shared videos contain-
ing recent and not-so-recent footage of the 
couple discussing their move to Israel — 
the Plummers refer to it as “making aliyah” 
— on their TV show, as well as the impor-
tance of evangelism to their church’
s follow-
ers. Singer interspersed the videos with his 
own commentary on their motives. 
In one spliced segment, Plummer says 
COGIC’
s purpose is “to win souls and 
second, to make disciples.
” In another, the 
pastor declares, “We have work to do. The 
time has come to go to Israel … to lift up a 
nation for the Lord Jesus Christ.
” 
In another segment, Plummer says, 
“The Ethiopian community now in Israel 
becomes a great door of connection for 
those of us who are African American. Now 
we see people who look like us and us like 
them. That’
s opened all kinds of dialogue.
” 
Singer claimed that the Plummers moved 

ERETZ

MICHELE CHABIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Glenn and Pauline Plummer deny their goal 
is evangelizing, say they’ve been targeted.

Drs. Pauline 

and Glenn R. 

Plummer sent Rosh 

Hashanah greetingS 

from Israel to the 

Coalition for Black 

and Jewish Unity.

Glenn and Pauline Plummer deny their goal
Glenn and Pauline Plummer deny their goal

Detroit Pastor 
Addresses Controversy 
Over His Move to Israel

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