Zev Isaacs is spending $300,000 to try to convince every Jew in Chicagoland that Jesus is the Messiah.
Isaacs is executive director and founder of United Messianic Jewish Outreach, an evangelical organization based on the view of self-described Messianic Jews, who say that a Jew can believe in Jesus and still be Jewish. It is a belief that contradicts the traditional and mainstream Jewish view that the Messiah has not yet come and that belief in Jesus makes someone a Christian, not a Jew.
The United Messianic Jewish Outreach grew of Isaacs’ newspaper, a semi-monthly called The Messianic Times, which he publishes from his former home base in Toronto.
He is in the process of moving to Chicago to get his new missionary base established and to launch a campaign in September involving billboards, mass mailings and radio, television and newspaper advertising.
His goal is to “save” the more than quarter of a million Jews in the Chicago area by “reaching thousands of Jewish commuters daily,” according to his promotional material.
In a recent fund-raising letter mailed out of his Skokie, III., office, he says that he has already converted someone who works in the same office building.
Isaacs’ plan is to target 1,000 Jewish families in the Chicago area with intensive evangelizing starting at Rosh Hashanah.
Each family will be mailed a Messianic Jewish New Year card for Rosh Hashanah, a book on Yom Kippur and a cassette of Messianic Jewish music in time for Sukkot.
Then each family will be telephoned by Isaacs and his supporters, “sharing the Gospel, answering questions and offering to pray with them,” according to a brochure.
In another fund-raising letter, Isaacs boasts of four full-time staff members who are getting the campaign off the ground. Isaacs hopes to launch similar efforts in New York, Florida and California, according to the letter.
The letter also touts that Isaacs’ organization was featured in a March 7 program on Trinity Broadcasting Network – which is owned by Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition.
Isaacs declined requests for an interview until he “gets settled” in Chicago.
Chicago’s Jewish establishment has not yet seen any signs of Isaacs’ presence, but is preparing for his arrival.
“We haven’t seen any sign yet of his presence in Chicago, and we have a lot of feelers out there,” said Paula Harris, associate executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago.
The JCRC is working with all Chicago’s mainstream Jewish organizations and school groups “to coordinate our response and have a unified approach,” Harris said.
On Aug. 4, the JCRC and two rabbinical organizations mailed out a letter to every Chicago rabbi connected with them, warning them of Isaacs’ expected arrival.
The JCRC is also planning to advertise in the area’s Russian-language newspapers and radio stations to alert the Russian emigre population, which most Messianic Jewish groups consider particularly receptive to their message, Harris said.
They have also notified Jewish social service agencies about Isaacs’ plans, she said.
But at least one anti-missionary activist believes that what the JCRC is doing may not be enough.
Mark Powers, national director of the anti-missionary group Jews for Judaism, met with JCRC representatives and advised them to carry out preventive education by running seminars about the Messianics at area synagogues and senior citizens homes as well as at place for the Russian population.
“They’d rather wait until he does something,” Powers said. “I want to know why we’re always playing catch-up.”
“These groups are a real threat,” said Powers, who is based in Baltimore.
“It’s easier to prevent hundreds from going in” to the Messianic groups than “to get one out,” he said.
But Chicago officials rejected the criticism.
“We feel we’ve been significantly outfront on this,” said Michael Kotzin, director of the JCRC and senior vice president of the Jewish United Fund.
After coordinating a response with a wide range of local Jewish groups as well as consultating with other communities with similar experiences, Kotzin said, “we are appropriately positioned to respond as we see the problem develop.”
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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.
