In this edition...
Cover Story
Jews for Jesus and “the media” have a long history. We first put up handbills on the kiosks of San Francisco State University and the University of California Berkeley using the slogan “Jews for Jesus.” The national press confused the number of posters with
the number of people and literally named our movement. Thank you, Time and Newsweek! Since then, media have always helped to amplify the message of Jewish people believing in Jesus.
That was certainly the case for the grand finale of BYG in New York. We hoped to raise a million dollars to broadcast the gospel…[ Full Article ]
BYG Beginnings
How it all started
The acronym for Behold Your God—the Jews for
Jesus five-year plan to reach every city (outside of
Israel) with a population of 25,000 or more Jewish
people—was no coincidence. But acronyms aside,
what we really dreamed was that through this BYG
outreach, people all over the world would, indeed, see
the Savior.
The idea for Operation Behold Your God originated as
one of many that surfaced in a two-day brainstorming
session. The brains that were “storming” were those of
the Jews for Jesus leadership who met in the upper room
of…[ Full Article ]
Campaign leaders Bruce Rapp and Larry Stamm
Yosef Ashurov, one of our
outreach workers in Odessa, was
handing out broadsides at 108th
Street when he met a former
neighbor of his from
Uzbekistan. Mara moved here
13 years ago. “I told her that
God loves her, and Y’shua died
so that she could be made right
with Him,” Yosef said. “She
seemed very interested so I
invited her to our concert. She
walked for two hours just to be
there! When she arrived,
Elizabeth (our missionary to
Queens, who is originally from
Uzbekistan) shared the gospel
with her again. Mara listened…[ Full Article ]
This summer, the Tilleses (Murray and
Alana, along with their 14-year-old
son Nathan and 11-year-old daughter
Shayna) shared a mission trip
together: a week with the Jews for
Jesus Behold Your God New York
campaign. Murray and Nathan took to
the streets to evangelize, while Alana
and Shayna stayed behind the scenes,
cooking and taking care of laundry,
among other things.
While Loren and Martha Jacobs
were proclaiming Jesus in BYG
Manhattan, their 18-year-old
daughter Aliza was
evangelizing along with the
Long Island team. Mom and
Dad stuck around for two
weeks before…[ Full Article ]
The shofar blasted as some 200
campaigners and stewards gathered on
Shabbat for the consecration service to
start the Behold Your God finale. The
sound of the ram’s horn was a robust
call for us to present ourselves for
consecration. We gathered to ask God to
help us reach His people in the greater
New York area—we gathered to dedicate
ourselves corporately to that cause.
The service took place in a Chinese
Alliance church on the Lower East Side.
On the wall hung a cross inscribed with
Chinese characters: a perfect reminder that
God sent His son for the salvation of…[ Full Article ]
Micha Cohen is a general missionary
with Jews for Jesus in Chicago, but he
spent the first and fourth weeks of July
on the BYG campaign in Manhattan.
During the second two weeks he
remained in the city and led Halutzim, a
Jews for Jesus program for Jewish teens
who believe in Y’shua (Jesus). The
program helps young Jewish believers
explore their identity, both as Jews and as
believers in Jesus. They do this in the
context of the Jewish cultural sites
Manhattan offers, discussions and prayer
times amongst themselves . . . and sorties
with the regular New York…[ Full Article ]
“When I walk around the littered city
streets I try to adopt the distant urban stare
of the natives, but it’s probably pretty
obvious that I’m fresh out of the country.
I like telling people that where I’m from,
the tallest buildings are silos, and they
usually ask, ‘What’s a silo?’ I didn’t
expect New York City to have such an
effect on me. As I have been rejected by
the people of New York for the sake of the
gospel, I feel like I’ve been rejected by the
city itself. I long for the bucolic farms
and verdant hills of home. When I look
out the windows in New York, I see…[ Full Article ]
Campaign leaders Josh Sofaer,Garrett Smith and Tuvya Zaretsky
Campaign leader Josh Sofaer can tell you
that reaching people in the suburbs is a
whole lot different than city street
campaigns. “It’s not that there are no
people . . . they are just all in their cars!”
he explains. “The
Jersey Shore was the
best place for
distributing literature
and having
conversations, though
it’s quite a shlep
(sometimes two hours)
to get there. We also
handed out tracts at the
PATH trains leading
into Manhattan and at
the airport, which
enables you to reach a
variety of people,
though not…[ Full Article ]
Campaign leaders Dan Sered and Greg Savitt
Ask Manhattan campaigner Sharon
Turnil her favorite place to hand out
broadsides and she’ll tell you “Bryant
Park, because people are relaxed and
willing to talk.” (Or as Michelle, who
also favors Bryant Park put it, “People
are chillin’ and willin’.”) Monte Hinojosa will tell you his favorite
“sortie site” is the subway station at
59th and Lexington (dubbed “the Panic
Room” by campaigners back in 1980)
“because people come from all
directions so it’s hectic and you can
hand out a lot of broadsides.”
The Manhattan campaign has…[ Full Article ]
Karol Joseph is nothing if not
adamant. “When Behold Your God
started, I remember telling David
Brickner that all of our missionaries
should move to New York City
because every single borough
needed its own branch. There are two
million Jewish people in NYC—
that is two fifths of the country’s
Jewish population.”
While Brickner was not ready to send
all our missionaries to open more
branches throughout New York, he did
agree that Karol should begin a new
branch of Jews for Jesus in Brooklyn.
Joseph, who has headed up our training
program in Manhattan for the last…[ Full Article ]
Team leaders Leonid Vasserman and Gregory Furman
Gregory Furman and Elizabeth Terini are
both from the former Soviet Union, but
have been part of the regular team of
Jews for Jesus in New York for some
time. This summer however, they were
joined by 27 brothers and sisters from
Russia and Ukraine in order to reach the
largest population of Russian-speaking
Jews outside of the former Soviet Union.
That would be Brooklyn—with a smaller
but still sizeable concentration in Queens.
Some of our Russian-speaking
evangelists teamed up with the Queens
campaign, but the rest…[ Full Article ]
Spelled Hassidic, Hasidic, Chassidic or
Chasidic, over 300,000 such Jews reside
in the New York metropolitan region.
Though commonly referred to as ultra-
Orthodox, Hassidic Jews (or “pious
ones”) most prefer to be described as
“fervently observant.” (The term ultra-
Orthodox also applies to the Misnagdim
literally, “opponents,” who at one time
had serious disputes with the Hassidim.)
Hassidim (“im” denotes plural) live in
closed, tight-knit communities where
Yiddish is the mother tongue. Men wear
distinctive black garb including hat, long
coat, pants, and shoes.
White…[ Full Article ]
Campaign leaders Stephen Katz, Jonathan Bernd and Yoel ben David
“I will meet to talk more about this, but I
want to meet with a woman.”
Normally our missionaries would
conclude that a man who said this was
not interested in the gospel. But this
was the ultra-Orthodox aspect of BYG
New York and our missionaries were on
new ground.
“Why a woman?” the Jews for Jesus
missionary countered.
“All my life men have told me what to
do, what to believe and what to think.
I’m tired of it. And I have never had a
meaningful conversation with a woman.
I want to know what it is…[ Full Article ]
Campaign leaders Susan Mendelson and Bob Mendelsohn (no relation except in the Lord)
“Nachas” is a Yiddish word that denotes a
joy that is somewhat parental in nature . . .
as in describing one’s “pride and joy” in a
loved one. Bob Mendelsohn must have
been feeling plenty of nachas over Jeff
Burkes, the chief forensic dentist of NY
County, whom Bob led to Christ in 1982.
Burkes (who was called to help identify
victims after the 9/11 terrorist attack) was
one of the doctors who gave his testimony
for a series of events titled, “Jewish
Doctors Meet the Great Physician.”
A…[ Full Article ]
One thing we hear on the streets and see in the Jewish newspapers is “Jews for Jesus is
deceptive. They are not Jewish, their founder is a Baptist and Jews for Jesus was
founded and continues to be backed by Baptists.” Geoff Robinson, one of our favorite
Gentiles for Jesus, asked Moishe to comment on this. Here is what he said:…[ Full Article ]
Reggie Douglas is not happy that this was
the final Behold Your God campaign. It
is barely an exaggeration to say he has
made a career out of these witnessing
campaigns: beginning with the first BYG
campaign in San Francisco in 2001, he’s
participated in 15 Jews for Jesus
witnessing campaigns. Some might say
he is a campaign junkie. People in Jews
for Jesus, especially those who’ve led
campaigns, say he’s a godsend.
What brought Douglas from his home in
Baton Rouge to Behold Your God
campaigns in cities all over the U.S.?
It all started at Community Bible Church in
Baton…[ Full Article ]
Campaign leaders: Aaron Abramson and Daniel Goldstein
For the first time in our history, an Israeli
team of Jews for Jesus campaigned among
the 200,000 Israelis in New York City.
Clad in Hebrew Jews for Jesus T-shirts
and carrying Hebrew broadsides and other
gospel literature, they also placed gospel
ads in local Hebrew newspapers,
conducted surveys and used our specially
designed Hebrew website. They phoned
Israelis they met on the streets and had
personal visits to discuss Y’shua (Jesus).
We asked Daniel Goldstein to describe
the difference between reaching Israelis
here…[ Full Article ]
Have you ever read those restaurant
reviews in the newspaper that apply
adjectives to food that you never thought
possible? I know that “soul,” “purity,”
and “synergy” are not typically the first
words that come to mind when I
describe my potato salad. But my potato
salad is usually nothing like that of
world-class and New York Culinary
Institute of America-trained chef Robert
Krause of Krause Dining in Lawrence,
Kansas. A typical meal in Krause’s
restaurant is pricey and for very special
occasions only, but those lucky enough
to be on the Brooklyn campaign got to
eat…[ Full Article ]
Campaign leaders Amer Olson and Jhan Moskowitz
“We have a very strong, close Jewish
community here,” a man informed
campaign leader Amer Olsen over the
phone. “We won’t stand for this.”
“This” was the Jews for Jesus Bronx/
Westchester campaign, headquartered in
White Plains, New York.
People didn’t expect to see Jews for
Jesus in the Bronx or Westchester.
They expected to see us on the other
end of their commute in the subways
or on the streets of Manhattan. But
when they arrived home to see us
in the Bronx or Westchester, it got
their attention.
In affluent Westchester…[ Full Article ]
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