Bentzi Gopshtain
Bentzi GopshtainMiriam Alster/Flash 90

Bentzi Gopshtain, director of the anti-assimilation organization Lehava, told Arutz Sheva on Wednesday that ahead of the start of the school year Lehava has placed activist groups in all the schools in Jerusalem - including the secular state schools - in order to fight assimilation.

"Most of our activities are 'preventative medicine,' to reach (Jewish) girls before they meet Arab men, mostly in hangouts and pubs in Jerusalem," Gopshtain said. He explained his organization's work to prevent the dissipation of the Jewish people as is stipulated by Jewish law, in activities that have been vindicated by the state and courts as being completely legal.

The Lehava director said, "our activists go around to all the hangouts and pubs in Jerusalem, they meet the young girls and explain to them that we are Jews and they are daughters of a King (i.e. G-d - ed.), and the success is great."

Gopshtain said that while the mainstream media tends to present his group's activities negatively, Israeli youth don't buy it and instead are very receptive to the anti-assimilation message.

"They get to know us on Facebook, on the internet and at (Jerusalem's central) Zion Square, half of our activities are (for) secular Jews who opened Lehava groups at every school. Every article they (the media) publish against us brings more and more recruits, it passes by word of mouth."

He said that the group is achieving great success despite efforts of the establishment to put road blocks in its path.

"Despite the fact that there is no legal problem with our activities, they don't let me enter schools so that G-d forbid I won't bring them (the children) closer to Judaism," Gopshtain said sarcastically. "But we have people running groups at all the schools, including Torah classes at the secular schools that are very thirsty for Judaism."