(Ed: The following is a letter written by Channah Appel to the Cleveland Jewish News in response to their acceptance of a paid ad for a “Messianic J_” movie appearing on p. 10 in their January 18th, 2013 issue. The identity of the publisher was not unknown and even the ad copy uses the terminology “Messianic Jew.” Visiting the website referenced in the ad makes the purpose of this event even clearer – to proselytize Jews. Please read this letter which has been submitted already and write your own to the CJN to protest their decision. Contact Managing Editor Bob Jacob: editorial@cjn.org or 216-342-5207. A scan of this ad appears at the end of this letter)
“I understand that newspapers in general are going through a rough time. Internet is the more popular mode for reading and keeping up with the news. This does not mean that any person with money should be allowed to advertise in the paper. What was the advertising staff thinking when they took the ad for the “Jews for Jesus” group (clothed with the words “Messianic Judaism”- I mean who would you want to guess they think is the Messiah anyway?)
The Movie was advertised as ” a New Jewish Film” (p.10 in the Jan 18th issue) in large headlines.Not only are we told in the 1/2 page advertisement that the main protagonist in the film a messianic Jew, but the director, Michael Robert Wolf is a Messianic Jew as well! He is doing Clevelanders the great service of being at the movie’s premier to proselytize those who came to watch it!!-
They do not mention that he is “rabbi” Wolf of a congregation of Messianic Jews in Cincinnati! I found that out by googling his name, and was not surprised by what else I found. In this piece on you tube you can see how they discuss that it would be “a great tool with which to share your faith, the gospel, to Jews in need.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
We have enough threats of missionaries against us. When I taught at Fairmount Temple, we used to show a fabulous film from the UAHC called “the Target is You” explaining how university students were being targeted by missionaries. Now we have the CJN here to help these enemies with their goals.
I am very disappointed.
Shimeon Weiner says
The staffer at the CJN who responded to me – telling me that the ad was within the policy of the CJN – is not Jewish, and a graduate of Benedictine High School and John Carroll University.
I think he used poor judgement and I think there is no one at the CJN to oversee this type of thing. Would love to see the Conservative leadership weigh in on this.
Mordechai says
Dovid Greenberger, 22 January, “The CJN however does not have the interests of the orthodox community in mind ”
I disagree the CJN or rather the Cleveland NON-Jewish News does not have the interest of any Jewish soul in their publication. Time and time again theCJN publishes articles and advertisments that will lead the Jewish soul astray.
Susan Efroymson says
Tangentially – I recently received a call from a Messianic Church soliciting money to save a priest from rotting in jail in Iran. While I stressed politely that, regardless of the demonination, saving a life is a worthy goal and wished him luck with that – ( he had not revealed himself to be messianic at that point), I let him know firmly where we stood on the rest of it.
That said, while I hope no one else is receiving such calls and that he had our number in error, in the event I am wrong and our community is being targetted, I thought I would share that so children can be warned in case they answer the phone and families can be prepared. This caller was clearly prepared to have an all out “discussion” on the topic.
Joe Green says
Along the same lines as Susan: My daughter answered the house phone yesterday. The caller asked to confirm if we were Jewish. She confirmed. (I am going to have to have a talk with her…) He then asked for confirmation of our street address – which he read to her. She confirmed. (I am REALLY going to have a talk with her.) He then informed her that we will be receiving a DVD at no charge, about Judaism. Anyone know of a frum organization that uses an Indian call center to confirm that a mark is Jewish and then sends them a DVD about the religion they just admitted they already are? I didn’t think so.
I fully expect this DVD to be along the same lines as the other organizations mentioned in this topic. Someone with money is trying to buy our souls for their perverted version of religion.