Introduction

NEW YORK SUMMER 2006

Summer in New York- the heat, the tourists... and the missionaries. Stopping you on street corners, heading you off at the subway, disturbing your lunch in the park. Those who live and work in Manhattan are used to this annual ritual. However, this summer is going to be different...

Jews for Jesus is planning, in their words, "the grand finale of [their] evangelistic outreach Behold Your God (BYG)"

What is BYG? In 2001, Jews for Jesus launched the largest evangelistic outreach in the history of their ministry, committing 5 years and $22 million to this aggressive effort to convert Jews. Teams of trained missionaries and volunteers have hit 66 cities around the world, outside of Israel, with a Jewish population of 25,000 or more.

Jews for Jesus, in literature sent to its supporters, indicated their intentions stating:

"I need to ask your help now to "finish the work" of Operation Behold Your God. We will be taking the gospel not to just another city, but to New York City, the very heartbeat of the world-wide Jewish community. For thirty years we've held summer campaigns in Manhattan, and God has blessed those efforts. But we are taking the Behold Your God New York Campaign to a whole new level.

"For the first time ever we are calling together all of the Jews for Jesus missionaries from around the world for this campaign. Reaching into all five boroughs of the city and to the surrounding counties of Westchester, Bergen, Suffolk and Nassau, this major effort will also have a specialized ministry to the more than half a million Russian-speaking Jews, the 200,000 Israelis and New York's sizeable Orthodox Jewish community. This adds up to nine campaigns running simultaneously!!! ... We are estimating the total cost of this campaign to be $3,133,446... "

That's right; over THREE MILLION DOLLARS will be spent during the month of July as Jews for Jesus missionaries from around the world are brought to the greater New York City area.

And the campaign will not be limited to Manhattan. Missionary efforts will occur in all five boroughs of the city and in the surrounding counties of Westchester, Bergen, Suffolk, and Nassau. Many of these places for the first time.

Not only will the geography be different, but the targeting of specific Jewish populations is to occur in these areas. They plan targeted ministry to Russian-speaking Jews, Israelis and, in their words, "the sizeable Orthodox Jewish community."
Also it's not just about street evangelism this year. These campaigns will include:

door-to-door visits
direct mail
phone calling
evangelistic ads in English and Russian newspapers
Hebrew and Russian-speaking teams
music concerts in the cities and at the beaches
special web sites
evangelistic billboards
special media campaigns
art exhibits
film screenings

HOW JEWS FOR JUDAISM CAN HELP:

Jews for Judaism has worked with Jewish communities around the world over the last five years, helping them to address the "Behold Your God" Campaign, as well as over the last 20 years, addressing the aggressive and deceptive tactics of missionaries and cults that target the Jewish community for conversion.

We believe in taking a proactive approach to these external threats to our community through a variety of means. In addition to issuing alerts such as this one, we support and assist communities by extending our expertise, as well as providing resources, programming and policies to aid in combating this threat.

If you would like to volunteer or receive information and response materials or arrange a speaker, program or seminar for your community or institution, please call us at 1-800-477-6631, e-mail us at nybyg@jewsforjudaism.org or complete this form.

Additional information about the threat to our community and responses to it is available in the downloadable brochures, books and flyers below and elsewhere on our website- www.jewsforjudaism.org