Over 40 Jews extricated from the clutches of missionaries will be taking part in a special seminar organized by the anti-missionary Yad L'Achim [Hand to Brothers] organization over the course of the Sukkot holiday.
The seminar is designed, says Yad L'Achim, to "tighten the bonds with these survivors, who left their missionary groups and cults as a result of our efforts in showing them the lies and deceptions they had been fed by people who wished to mislead and entrap them." Eight seminars have been held this year for new immigrants from the former Soviet Union, as well as for Israelis, who were nearly entrapped by missionary elements.
Yad L'Achim says that many of the "survivors" have become an intrinsic part of several hareidi [religious] neighborhoods in many areas of the country. "These seminars have been shown to be the best way to cement their way back to a life of Torah," says Rabbi Yosef Ganz, Director of Yad L'Achim.
Yad L'Achim has been contacted about a possible missionary threat to the hareidi town of Kiryat Ye'arim (Telz Stone), 15 minutes west of Jerusalem. Just this past Yom Kippur, eight young members of nearby Yad HaShmonah - a "missionary village," according to Yad L'Achim - made their way to a synagogue in the neighborhood, and were invited into the home of a well-meaning resident in the mistaken belief that they wished to learn more about their "Jewishness." She later related that she had to interrupt them several times when they began to speak about Christianity. "Don't try to change us," she said. "Our Torah is perfect." Just a few days earlier, a group of over 100 people walked provocatively past the religious community, singing Biblical songs, blowing shofars, and even standing outside the community gates in a briefly successful effort to attract children from the town; so state residents and eyewitnesses to the event.
Local residents were in contact with Yad L'Achim following these events, and are trying to formulate a strategy - educational and otherwise - to fight this threat. "I would like to ask the community to please begin to be involved," the woman of the first incident writes. "The guards at the gate of our community must be alert, our children must know how to respond if they are approached, and we need people with suggestions to get involved."
The seminar is designed, says Yad L'Achim, to "tighten the bonds with these survivors, who left their missionary groups and cults as a result of our efforts in showing them the lies and deceptions they had been fed by people who wished to mislead and entrap them." Eight seminars have been held this year for new immigrants from the former Soviet Union, as well as for Israelis, who were nearly entrapped by missionary elements.
Yad L'Achim says that many of the "survivors" have become an intrinsic part of several hareidi [religious] neighborhoods in many areas of the country. "These seminars have been shown to be the best way to cement their way back to a life of Torah," says Rabbi Yosef Ganz, Director of Yad L'Achim.
Yad L'Achim has been contacted about a possible missionary threat to the hareidi town of Kiryat Ye'arim (Telz Stone), 15 minutes west of Jerusalem. Just this past Yom Kippur, eight young members of nearby Yad HaShmonah - a "missionary village," according to Yad L'Achim - made their way to a synagogue in the neighborhood, and were invited into the home of a well-meaning resident in the mistaken belief that they wished to learn more about their "Jewishness." She later related that she had to interrupt them several times when they began to speak about Christianity. "Don't try to change us," she said. "Our Torah is perfect." Just a few days earlier, a group of over 100 people walked provocatively past the religious community, singing Biblical songs, blowing shofars, and even standing outside the community gates in a briefly successful effort to attract children from the town; so state residents and eyewitnesses to the event.
Local residents were in contact with Yad L'Achim following these events, and are trying to formulate a strategy - educational and otherwise - to fight this threat. "I would like to ask the community to please begin to be involved," the woman of the first incident writes. "The guards at the gate of our community must be alert, our children must know how to respond if they are approached, and we need people with suggestions to get involved."