More than 100 Russian Jewish children are attending a Connecticut camp operated by missionaries, according to the Task Force on Missionaries and Cults of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.
Seymour Lachman, Task Force chairman, said “we have found that some missionary groups are engaging in a concerted outreach campaign to persuade Russian Jewish families to send their children to Christian summer camps, where children are inevitably more susceptible to indoctrination.”
He said such recruiting is particularly strong in the Brighton Beach area of Brooklyn, where new Russian Jewish settlers are approached on the boardwalks, in the parks and even in their homes. He said parents calling for more information can be connected with Yiddish-speaking staff members and the parents are told the camp is Jewish. He said the fees charged by the camp are as little as five to ten dollars a week.
From a teenager who posed as a camp counselor, the task force learned that of the 200 Russian Americans attending the camp, more than half are Jews. Nine of them were baptised on July 3, Lachman said.
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