Gopshtain and Lehava activists protest missionary event
Gopshtain and Lehava activists protest missionary eventYehiel Gorfein

Bentzi Gopshtain and members of his anti-assimilation organization Lehava protested at the entry to Immanuel Church, located adjacent to Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem's Old City, which was opened to the public this week at the peak of the Jerusalem Light Festival.

Gopshtain told Arutz Sheva that the opening of the church to the wider public was meant to lead Jews astray and into the trap of the missionaries, as he termed it.

"We got a report from a resident of Ofra who arrived at the festival and unintentionally walked into Immanuel Church, they placed lights there as if it was part of the festival," revealed the Lehava head.

"A lot of religious Jews thought that it was part of the festival and went in there, and were exposed to films about 'that guy,'" he said, in a reference to Jesus.

Gopshtain and members of his organization have stood guard at the entrance to the church and they are to do so again on Friday, wearing shirts with a "no entry" traffic symbol and the words "warning: missionaries."

"On Sunday we stood with signs, the police arrested some (of our) members. So we decided instead of holding signs to print 'warning: missionaries' on shirts, and we stood there like this every evening," he said.

"I estimate that we succeeded in preventing hundreds of people from entering the church," added Gopshtain.

He warned that members of the church are trying to lead the public astray, saying, "inside Immanuel Church, which is also called Christ Church, there are models of the Holy Temple and also a letter of the Lubavitcher Rebbe; these are materials of 'that guy' in a Jewish disguise."

"Unfortunately they are doing all they can so that (Jews) will go inside there, including coffee, cookies and restrooms. We must be careful."