Thirteen hundred teenagers attending the opening of the 22nd international convention of the United Synagogue Youth here today were urged to hold the line against attempts by the “Jews for Jesus,” the “Jesus breaks” and other evangelical movements seeking to convert Jewish youths from their Judaism.
“The missionary at the door is not a new visitor for Jews. He has been with us all through our existence as a people,” Rabbi Paul Freedman of New York, executive director of the USY, told the youngsters. “If we remember this, that the evangelical missionaries cannot give us anything that Judaism cannot or does not give us, we will survive as we have in the past,” he said.
Rabbi Freedman told the teenagers, “If you ever experience any moment of doubt about your Judaism, remember Dachau, Bergen-Belsen and the other Nazi concentration camps. The harrowing experience of the holocaust should be a permanent reminder of our Judaism. Along with the birth of Israel, it was the dominant Jewish experience of the 20th century and will live forever in our memories,” he said.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
