WCBS Airs Segment on Jews for Jesus

I assume the above link is the transcript.

"I think they should be proselytizing on the street," one woman complained.

One Jewish man practically flew into a rage.

"You've never heard about the Spanish Inquisition?" he asks. "You heard about the many times we have been killed, prosecuted, executed because of Jesus?" he asked.

The street volunteers are undeterred. They sell themselves not a converts, but as fulfilled Jews who have accepted Jesus as the messiah.

The group recently mailed 80,000 DVDs in Yiddish to Orthodox Jews. Its label shows a picture of a Jewish figure blowing the shofar, the traditional Jewish ram's horn that summons the faithful to prayer. It's titled "Days of Moshiach."

Viewing it, you see what appears to be a depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The words are Yiddish, but the images are from a production by the Campus Crusade for Christ. Mainstream Jewish leaders are unanimous in their condemnation of the recruitment technique.

"It's deceptive," complained Michael Miller of the Jewish Community Relations Council. "It's wrong, and it's offensive. You can't be two religions at once."

Miller said it's like a case of false advertising. "Hebrew Christianity" would be a better term, he suggested. The fact that their chapels have no crosses and the ceremonies borrow from Jewish tradition doesn't change the core break with Judaism.

"Say you're evangelical, and we'll shut up," he said. "To say that you're Jewish, that in fact you are more Jewish because you believe in Jesus is offensive."

The Jews for Jesus, though, see it differently.

"You can be a Jew and an agnostic," she observed. "Or a Jew who believes Menachem Schneerson is the messiah, but if you're a Jew for Jesus suddenly that's no good."

It's worth mentioning, though, that not everyone in Jews for Jesus is actually a Jew. Non-Jews are common behind the scenes helping with the logistics of the well-financed street campaign. At the group's Manhattan headquarters, CBS 2 saw rooms filled with stacks of pamphlets, New Testament Bibles in Yiddish, Russian language pamphlets featuring Holocaust survivors who've found Jesus, and rooms of volunteers waiting to take to the streets.

Trash bags filled with the pamphlet of the day are lined up in the hallway leading to the front door. Volunteers hit the streets in four shifts daily -- in the boroughs and the suburbs.

Many are the children of original Jews for Jesus members from the '60s and '70s. Others are more recent converts.

Dan Sered said he is an Israeli citizen. "Born and raised in Israel," he offered. "100 percent Jewish and 100 percent Christian."

The guy who mentioned the Inquisitions and stuff. Good question. We'll deal with it later on this blog.