Christian missionaries have been taking advantage of a humanitarian crisis, targeting the refugees throughout Europe, Israel and the U.S.
By World Israel News Staff
On the heels of reports that Evangelical missionary organizations are seeking to convert fleeing Ukrainian Jewish refugees to Christianity, watchdog groups are speaking out against the practice.
Groups including Chosen People Ministries and Jews for Jesus have established aid centers for Ukrainian refugees in neighboring Poland.
Media reports have quoted leaders of these missionary groups attempting to convert Holocaust survivors in their 90s to Christianity, distributing Bibles to fleeing Jews and pressuring Jews running from wartorn areas to accept Jesus Christ as their savior after providing them with transportation and shelter.
Last week, Pastor Chad Holland of King of Kings Church in Jerusalem told Christian media that his congregation was supplying support, including food and clothing, to newly arriving Ukrainian Jewish refugees in Israel.
He said that the practical support his organization is providing to the refugees gives them an “open door” for “sharing the message of Salvation” with the Jews, because “a genuine trust and friendship is already established.”
But efforts to convert fleeing Jews isn’t limited to those still in Eastern Europe.
Indeed, the Chosen People Ministry, in its March 2022 mission report on its website, includes a section titled “Ukrainian Update: Desperate Refugees.”
“Our Christian friends, who welcomed us before when we brought groups of Holocaust survivors to Poland, opened their facility to Ukrainian refugees. We helped dozens of Ukrainians escape to Poland, and now we are providing for some 200 people,” the section reads.
Missionary groups are expanding outreach to large Jewish communities throughout the United States, including New York City – home to the largest Jewish population in the Diaspora.
One Christian organization, the International Board of Jewish Missions (IBJM), has arranged a special program that promises to train its members in the best ways to spread “the good news of the gospel of Jesus the Messiah to God’s chosen people.”
A pamphlet from the group explains that “our Jewish friends are a special people – proud of their religion and heritage. For this reason, IBJM provides specialized training. Experienced workers will instruct you on how to approach and share the gospel with Jewish people.”
Prominent anti-missionary activist Rabbi Tovia Singer told World Israel News that “the behavior of these Messianic missionary organizations targeting Jews is utterly deplorable,” but added that attempting to convert Jews in times of crisis is the standard modus operandi for these entities.
“Chosen People Ministries, Jews for Jesus, and other fundamentalist Christian groups” have a long history of seeking out vulnerable Jews, having previously “targeted Jews being bombarded by missiles from Gaza in [southern Israeli] like Sderot,” he said.
Now, Singer said, “they are targeting Ukrainian Jews fleeing Russian bombardment. They are weaponizing humanitarian aid and exploiting a genuine humanitarian crisis.”
He clarified that he supports any religious group that seeks to assist refugees and ease the suffering of people displaced during the war but that it’s unacceptable that such help comes with strings attached.
These missionary organizations “are not like Catholic humanitarian aid groups that are providing assistance altruistically. Rather, they are doing it with remuneration…they are promising all sorts of benefits, material support, housing, and food, in exchange for conversion.”
Another anti-missionary activist noted that while Israel prioritizes supporting civilians after disaster, such as its efforts to help Nepalis after a devastating earthquake in 2015, that aid is provide without expectation of anything in return.
“Israel is often the first country to send emergency relief wherever there is a crisis, but there’s a difference,” said Shannon Nuszen, founder and director of missionary watchdog group Beyneynu. “We understand and respect the individuals we are serving and do this with no condition that they hear our religious sales pitch and convert to Judaism.
“We are not anti-Christian,” she emphasized. “We appreciate the assistance, but we must draw the line when it comes to proselytizing. To exploit a humanitarian crisis to sell Jesus is just wrong.”
Evangelical Christians are known as strong supporters of Israel, but Nuszen rejected the idea that Israeli government officials and Jews should look the other way and accept the aid without criticizing the missionary agenda among many of them.
“They are targeting vulnerable people who are looking for food and shelter [in order] to rob them of their faith,” she said. “This is not the way that a true friend would act.”