"The Quiet Holocaust"

I was emailed a copy of The Quiet Holocaust: The Perfidious Plot to Convert Jews, by Meira Bat Avraham. Personally, I think the term "quiet holocaust" is exploiting a monstrous historical occurrence to provoke emotions, instead of simply presenting the facts. Either way, it is an interesting read, and will copy and paste (emphasis on "copy and paste"...I don't hyphenate God)a few introductory paragraphs. To keep reading, click the link for the entire article (it's long).

"However, perhaps the most insidious, dangerous, and hateful anti-Semitism is more subtle, less easy to spot, less provoking of criticism. This type of anti-Semitism is societally condoned. It can be characterized as "affectionate, compassionate anti-Semitism". I am speaking of the evangelical Christians, particularly the Baptists, who are attempting to LOVE US TO DEATH.

While a determination to "save" the Jews has always been among the cornerstones of the evangelical movement, only recently have churches and ministries upgraded their mission to a more active status. In 1996, the Southern Baptist Convention not only passed a resolution calling on all Baptists to "direct their energies and resources toward the proclamation of the Gospel to the Jewish people", but directed $100,000 toward the cost of hiring a full-time missionary to the Jews. Individual churches have also directed funds toward this effort. (It is of note that the Southern Baptists were the propounders of the statement "G-d does not hear the prayer of a Jew.")

Committed Jews, of course, will have nothing to do with this effort. Those of us who are Judaically educated, secure in our relationship with G-d, or Israel, or our community, are immune to the preachings and teachings of a missionary whose own beliefs are fundamentally contrary to our own. However, our community is not invulnerable; there are many young Jews, in particular, who have been poorly or incompletely educated as to the principles of our faith, feel unwelcomed in their search for meaning and G-d, and, as a result, may be easily misled by the missionaries.

Even those vulnerable ones, however, are unlikely to be persuaded to join a Christian church. Within most Jews, regardless of affiliation or lack thereof, is a bond to our history which is repelled at the thought of actual conversion to the Christian religion. The evangelicals know this. They are not stupid, they are not blind; they are crafty.

What's the Difference?

To that end, the Baptists, in particular, have developed an interesting strategy that they hold will allow a Jew to worship Jesus (and be "saved," of course) without relinquishing their Judaism. Messianic Jews claim to be Torah-following Jews who obey the commandments; however, they fail to obey the first commandment, to not follow anyone other than G-d. They believe Jesus was the messiah, and will go to an extreme point to brainwash their beliefs into other unsuspecting Jews. They have "synagogues," which incorporate traditional Jewish prayer services with some worship of Jesus. They celebrate the holidays, and consider themselves "biblical," rather than "rabbinic," Jews. (i.e., they don't buy into the Talmud). Perhaps one of the most abundantly evident approaches of Messianic "Jews" is their non-stop attempts to sound Jewish. They, therefore, use Jewish symbols with a twist of Christianity added to them."