Bentzi Gopstein
Bentzi GopsteinChannel 2

Bentzi Gopstein, the head of the anti-assimilation organization Lehava, successfully stopped Christian missionaries from holding a mass conversion ceremony in Rishon Leziyon on Saturday.

"My family and I, together with 50 Lehava activists from across the country, spent Shabbat in Rishon Leziyon. We walked about 40 minutes to the cultural center where one of the worst missionary cults was holding its ceremony," he told Arutz Sheva.

"We set up for prayers at 8:30 a.m. with all of the city's official rabbis and Yad L'achim," he said, referring to the Jewish counter-missionary organization. "More than a thousand people were there. But we didn't settle for prayers alone - that is to say, if we hadn't come there would have been prayers on one side and the missionaries on the other. We came to ensure that the event would not take place.

"We entered the hall, the police kicked us out, and we entered again. At the same time, we closed off all the entrances so that no one could get in. In response, the district police commander decided to close the event. That's how the ceremony was canceled."

According to Gopstein, "The interesting, sad and dangerous thing is that during the activities we met six women who came with their Filipino caretakers in order to convert to Christianity. One caretaker promised her charge medicine in exchange, one elderly woman was told that it was an event with Tzipi Livni. This needs to be investigated. How can these caretakers take Jewish women for Christian baptisms?"

So what can be done? Gopstein says that people need to think carefully. "There are missionaries with lots of money and tools that they may be providing for the caretakers. My wife wrote a post on Facebook called "Watch Out for Your Mothers." Up till now, we thought that we only need to watch out for our daughters - now you need to be careful about who is treating your mother, to make sure that she doesn't do anything except provide medical care."