Moishe Rosen, the founder of Jews for Jesus, is dead at the age of 78. On May 19th he succumbed to prostate disease that had metastasized into bone cancer. Charisma Magazine called him "the godfather of Jewish evangelism".
Rosen was an ordained Baptist minister who founded Jews for Jesus in 1973. Jews for Jesus is notorious for their aggressive proselytizing campaigns targeting Jews for conversion.
In a farewell letter posted after his death on the JFJ Web site, Rosen expressed dismay at born-again Christians who support “the efforts of rabbis who, frankly, not only don't know Christ, but don't want to know Him” and he urged those people to think very seriously before they “support any ‘ministry’ that involves Jewish people and doesn't actually bring the gospel to the Jews.” He goes on to cite Romans and states that “… Jewishness never saved anybody. Judaism never saved anybody, no matter how sincere."
When it comes to Jews for Jesus, the varying and divergent religious and political sectors of the Jewish community enjoy rare consensus - they unanimously reject and despise the efforts of the organization.
An ADL report censures Jews for Jesus, “the leading organization dedicated to converting Jews to Christianity …because of its aggressive proselytizing with a deceptive message: that Jews who accept Jesus as the son of God and their savior remain Jewish.”
That report also notes that, “the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington, an umbrella organization that includes Roman Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran and Presbyterian church groups, has condemned Jews for Jesus as promoting activities “harmful to the spirit of interreligious respect and tolerance.” The conference also denounces the group’s “deceptive proselytizing efforts,” adding that when they are practiced on “vulnerable populations” such as the young or the elderly, these efforts are “tantamount to coerced conversions.”
The Board of Governors of The Long Island Council of Churches voiced similar sentiments in a statement about three groups, including Jews for Jesus, that “noted with alarm” the “subterfuge and dishonesty” inherent in the “mixing [of] religious symbols in ways which distort their essential meaning.”
UPDATE: Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz of Jews for Judaism has an excellent oped posted on Arutz 7:
a close look at "Jews for Jesus"
(Excerpts):
Sadly, as a direct result of Rosen’s pioneering efforts, today there are over 1,000 missionary groups targeting Jews for conversion worldwide. With an annual budget exceeding $275 million, these groups have succeeded in converting hundreds-of-thousands of Jews in recent decades...Related posts and videos on Jewish Israel:
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Started by Miriam Harpaz in Member Feedback Nov 18, 2013.
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