INSULT AT AUSCHWITZ
When thousands of Jews from around the world gathered
recently in Warsaw and at Auschwitz to remember the
Holocaust and pray for our dead, dozens of unwanted "guests"
were praying alongside them offering their condolences,
feeling their pain, and, while they're at it, suggesting
that the only way for Jews to get over the Holocaust is to
accept Jesus as their personal savior.
In a remarkable fund-raising letter obtained by Jews
for Judaism, Reverend Elwood McQuaid, head of a New
Jersey-based missionary group, writes that Holocaust
memorial ceremonies are ideal "strategic fields" for
converting Jews.
"The Month of Remembrance is a critical time for ministry
to Jewish people...a fruitful time for witness as Jewish
hearts are open to the Lord," reads the letter from Friends
of Israel Gospel Ministry. "Thousands of mourners, including
many Jewish and Israeli young people, will return to the
Polish towns where their ancestors lived, and visit the
ghettos and death camps where they perished...On these
solemn occasions, the Friends of Israel will come alongside
these grieving people, comforting them in the Spirit of
Christ...By God's grace, we will bring them God's message of
true comfort and hope: the wonderful news of a living
Messiah!"
McQuaid, a Baptist minister whose Jewish conversion
mission is second in size only to "Jews for Jesus," has a
message for the survivors themselves: "The saddest thing
about the Holocaust survivors is that their bodies are alive
but their spirits are annihilated. Liberal Judaism doesn't
have answers for them. The Orthodox have more answers,
maybe, but Jesus Christ is the best option."
According to Mark Powers, of Jews for Judaism, "to
believe that at a moment when Jewish emotions, Jewish
identity, and Jewish spirituality are the strongest, that
Jews would be susceptible to a message that means nothing
less than their spiritual destruction is heinous and
ludicrous. We cannot sit back and allow a spiritual
Holocaust to annihilate our people."
Unlike the missionaries of old, who many times offered
Jews a less-than-edifying choice between Jesus and death,
McQuaid's troops, along with missionaries from dozens of
evangelical groups nationwide, soften their conversion
message by stressing "love and support" for Israel.
Jews for Judaism alerted the Jewish community to
McQuaid's planned participation in a pro-Israel conference
held in May, along with two other Christian groups which
Jews for Judaism lists as involved in deceptive
proselytizing. Most Jewish organizations and the Israeli
Embassy withdrew from the conference.
Adapted from an article by Jeff Goldberg of New York
Magazine
|