Published: 11/14/07, 1:31 PM
Missionary Activity in Sderot
by Hillel Fendel
Increased pro-Jesus missionary activity has been initiated in Kassam-besieged Sderot over the past two weeks, local residents say.
On the backdrop of Kassams exploding into the small city of Sderot, the mostly working-class population is now facing yet another danger: missionary activity. Local residents say, "They are taking advantage of the difficulties here and trying to convert us to their beliefs."
Herzl Shayubi, who served until recently as Deputy Mayor of Sderot, told Arutz-7, "You can see that they have become very active here of late, with large signs about repentance and door-to-door activity with their Bibles and materials... In one case, I physically stopped one of them when I saw what he was giving out."
Around the country they give out cheap editions of the New Testament, but here in Sderot they have been giving out a very fancy edition, with a very beautiful gold and black binding and gold-edged pages.
Moshe Malka, an activist of the Yad L'Achim anti-missionary organization who has family living in Sderot, said, "The missionaries - most of them 'Messianic Jews' - often show up to the weekly market day, marketing their destructive wares... Many of the residents say that the missionaries are taking advantage of their difficult situation to try to entice them to join their services - and it really appears that they have targeted Sderot. For instance, around the country they give out cheap editions of the New Testament, but here in Sderot they have been giving out a very fancy edition, with a very beautiful gold and black binding and gold-edged pages. I went into some houses to show them the book and ask if they've ever seen one like it - and they say, 'Sure, someone once gave us this' and they pull it out of their libraries. The missionaries simply prey on the ignorant and the weak."
"They have two houses here in Sderot, one on Natan Elbaz Street and one on Shivat Tzion [Return to Zion] Street In one of them, they have a weekly class in Russian on Friday evenings, and in the other they have Sabbath prayer services - featuring Jesus, of course... We have found that a 60-year-old man named Peter from nearby Bror Hayil comes and gives out literature."
Malka says the plight of the residents is very much in evidence: "For instance, on the weekly market day, there used to be four or five rows of people selling their stuff, and now there's only one row. On every street you see many houses for rent or for sale. It looks like a ghost town."
Yad L'Achim has stepped up its anti-missionary activity in Sderot, Malka says: "We have been going door-to-door ourselves, and we're in contact with the yeshivat hesder there, and with the local Beit Chabad, and we stand at intersections, etc. We would like to hold a public session in some protected building in order to explain the dangers..."
Avi Ben-Abu, a local grocery store owner, told Yad L'Achim, "It is unacceptable for missionaries to take advantage of our difficult plight and put salt on our wounds by leading innocent Jews astray."
(IsraelNationalNews.com)
On the backdrop of Kassams exploding into the small city of Sderot, the mostly working-class population is now facing yet another danger: missionary activity. Local residents say, "They are taking advantage of the difficulties here and trying to convert us to their beliefs."
Around the country they give out cheap editions of the New Testament, but here in Sderot they have been giving out a very fancy edition, with a very beautiful gold and black binding and gold-edged pages.
Moshe Malka, an activist of the Yad L'Achim anti-missionary organization who has family living in Sderot, said, "The missionaries - most of them 'Messianic Jews' - often show up to the weekly market day, marketing their destructive wares... Many of the residents say that the missionaries are taking advantage of their difficult situation to try to entice them to join their services - and it really appears that they have targeted Sderot. For instance, around the country they give out cheap editions of the New Testament, but here in Sderot they have been giving out a very fancy edition, with a very beautiful gold and black binding and gold-edged pages. I went into some houses to show them the book and ask if they've ever seen one like it - and they say, 'Sure, someone once gave us this' and they pull it out of their libraries. The missionaries simply prey on the ignorant and the weak."
"They have two houses here in Sderot, one on Natan Elbaz Street and one on Shivat Tzion [Return to Zion] Street In one of them, they have a weekly class in Russian on Friday evenings, and in the other they have Sabbath prayer services - featuring Jesus, of course... We have found that a 60-year-old man named Peter from nearby Bror Hayil comes and gives out literature."
Malka says the plight of the residents is very much in evidence: "For instance, on the weekly market day, there used to be four or five rows of people selling their stuff, and now there's only one row. On every street you see many houses for rent or for sale. It looks like a ghost town."
Yad L'Achim has stepped up its anti-missionary activity in Sderot, Malka says: "We have been going door-to-door ourselves, and we're in contact with the yeshivat hesder there, and with the local Beit Chabad, and we stand at intersections, etc. We would like to hold a public session in some protected building in order to explain the dangers..."
Avi Ben-Abu, a local grocery store owner, told Yad L'Achim, "It is unacceptable for missionaries to take advantage of our difficult plight and put salt on our wounds by leading innocent Jews astray."
(IsraelNationalNews.com)
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/124254
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