WMCA 570 AM, "New York's Christian Radio," has canceled a show designed to "directly address the malicious, distorted, anti-Israel bias in the world media" - because its host is too closely associated with anti-missionary efforts.
Prominent New York Rabbi Tovia Singer has long been engaged in reaching out to Jews who have been targeted and converted by evangelical groups such as Jews for Jesus - but his WMCA show did not touch on this topic. Instead, the weekly call-in program focused on the "common ground that both Christian and Jews share," such as Israel's precarious position in the world arena. He featured such guests as Arutz-7’s Jay Shapiro, Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, Holocaust scholar Deborah Libstadt, counter-terrorist expert Steven Emerson, and more.
WMCA General Manager Carl J. Miller, explaining the decision to terminate the show, said that the "feedback [against the show] from our core listeners and leaders in the Christian community is too strong... Our core listeners' knowledge of his anti-missionary efforts causes too large an inconsistency to our primary program format.”
Rabbi Singer, however, was more to the point:
“Jews for Jesus immediately went on a full court press to have the show canceled. Complaints were orchestrated by other prominent missionaries such as the leaders of Chosen People Ministries, one of America’s oldest Christian missions to the Jews… With all the breast-beating and loud ‘We love the Jews and Israel’ slogans emanating from the conservative Christian world these days, I didn’t want to believe that this could happen - at least not now... If the Reverend Graham gets it [a reference to Graham's public shunning of evangelism that specifically targets Jews for conversion], why doesn’t WMCA understand that rabbis must have the right to protect their own flock from aggressive evangelism without the fear of retribution from Christian media?”
Rabbi Singer expressed confidence that his show would be back on other airwaves shortly - possibly even within a week. He said the new show "will directly address those who are committed to annihilate our nation physically, as well as those who wish to destroy us spiritually."
Prominent New York Rabbi Tovia Singer has long been engaged in reaching out to Jews who have been targeted and converted by evangelical groups such as Jews for Jesus - but his WMCA show did not touch on this topic. Instead, the weekly call-in program focused on the "common ground that both Christian and Jews share," such as Israel's precarious position in the world arena. He featured such guests as Arutz-7’s Jay Shapiro, Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, Holocaust scholar Deborah Libstadt, counter-terrorist expert Steven Emerson, and more.
WMCA General Manager Carl J. Miller, explaining the decision to terminate the show, said that the "feedback [against the show] from our core listeners and leaders in the Christian community is too strong... Our core listeners' knowledge of his anti-missionary efforts causes too large an inconsistency to our primary program format.”
Rabbi Singer, however, was more to the point:
“Jews for Jesus immediately went on a full court press to have the show canceled. Complaints were orchestrated by other prominent missionaries such as the leaders of Chosen People Ministries, one of America’s oldest Christian missions to the Jews… With all the breast-beating and loud ‘We love the Jews and Israel’ slogans emanating from the conservative Christian world these days, I didn’t want to believe that this could happen - at least not now... If the Reverend Graham gets it [a reference to Graham's public shunning of evangelism that specifically targets Jews for conversion], why doesn’t WMCA understand that rabbis must have the right to protect their own flock from aggressive evangelism without the fear of retribution from Christian media?”
Rabbi Singer expressed confidence that his show would be back on other airwaves shortly - possibly even within a week. He said the new show "will directly address those who are committed to annihilate our nation physically, as well as those who wish to destroy us spiritually."