The following is a report and personal plea written by Shmulik
Eitan, an Israeli young man who is the brother of one of the congregants in
"As you all know, I am not a believer and do not hold any religious
beliefs whatsoever. However, what is happening to the believers in
In
March of 2004, about 18 months ago, these Hassidic people stared demonstrating
against Messianic Jews in
My
sister and brother in law, Debbie and Yakim Figueras, along with their 4
children, have endured this too. Almost every day there are a few of them that
somehow ambush the house – sometimes stoning it early in the morning, sometimes
just suddenly banging on the windows and shouting obscenities, like “Jesus the
bastard” “Nazi’s” “filthy Christians” etc. And every week, on the same day,
there is a major demonstration outside their home, with the Gur Hassidim
carrying big signs against believers, and shouting obscenities again – with
police looking on and many times giggling with the demonstrators. To say the
least, this is absolutely weird. However, with every attack that went unchecked
by the authorities, these people get more bold and daring, and things are
escalating at an alarming rate by now.
Not
long ago my sister was driving with three of her children, to pick up her
eldest son from a music lesson at the local conservatory. As she stopped, two
of these Gur Hassidim walked by and recognized her. One stayed by her car, the
other left. My sister, innocently thinking there was some value to this, waited
and relented to talk to the one who stayed, thinking there was some point in
quoting scriptures to him. She didn’t realize that the only God these people
really serve, as you will see in the attached video-clip, is the god of hatred
and ignorance. Within a few minutes the other man came back – with
reinforcements: Her car was now surrounded by 15 of them, screaming, cursing,
hurling insults at them and Jesus, Shouting at her that she’s a filthy
Christian, shouting at the kids (aged almost 2 and almost 4) that their mother
is a filthy Christian and they need to leave Arad and “stop kidnapping and
baptizing children! BUSLOADS of children!” My sweet
little nephew Yair,!
leaned his head out the car window and growled back at them.
I was mortified when I heard this.
Needless
to say this is yet another traumatic event for all of them to go through. It
took a while before the conservatory staff opened the doors and let her and the
children in, for safety. At another instance, Police authorized the Gur Hassidim to demonstrate outside a place
where the believers were having the Sabbath meal and worship. Things got out of
hand pretty quickly, and when the believers wanted to leave the building, the
police – who was there all along but was out of control by some point – did not
let them leave the building because they could not guarantee their safety. So
now the believers were trapped inside.
Over
a month ago, my brother-in-law wrote a letter to the Israeli chief of police,
in which he gave the history of the past 18 months, and asked for his immediate
intervention as things were getting worse and he feared physical assaults would
be next. He asked him, among other things, why the police sanctions
demonstrations where they are not in control and cannot guarantee the well being
of the people being demonstrated against. There was never any response to this
letter. Unbelievable.
A
couple of weeks ago, things reached a new low, when a chess-playing club owned
by local believers, in which they handed out Bibles and Messianic literature,
was burned down – and mysteriously, next door a new Chess club opened – owned
and operated by the Gur Hassidim. Some reporter from one of
ister) is “the sect leader”. You couldn’t find someone
more shy and not interested in leading than my sister,
and me and my friend Amir, a believer guide who called and told me about the
article had a great laugh about that concept.
My
brother in law Yakim, went and had a meeting with the
mayor of
By
now it has become amply clear that the authorities are not at all interested in
implementing the democratic right of Freedom of Worship in
adors tell the government they are concerned about
what is going on in
This
is not just my sister and nephews. These are your brothers and sisters of your
own faith. And believe me, they are suffering, and have been going through this
for a long time – with absolutely no protection. It’s a miracle that no one has
been hurt so far.
So
I ask that you all take some sort of action: Write the Israeli government
offices – the Prime Minister’s office, the Ministry of Public Security, the
Ministry of Justice, The Israeli Police Force. I will
include their email addresses. These offices, if flooded with emails from
Christians around the world, enquiring-of and demanding the safety of Messianic
Believers in
and demanding, and therefore are easily overlooked and
easy to ignore. If you could bring their plight to the Israeli government and
authorities, it would be very helpful.
In
the attached link, you will see news coverage of some of the – believe it or
not – more peaceful events of persecution in
Let
me just translate some of the highlights for you:
It
starts with the Narrator saying that these pictures are part of a two-year war
waged in
(they actually don’t use the name Jesus or Yeshua here, but
rather call him Yoshkeh, another derogatory name for him). Then they show the
burned down chess club and burned bibles etc, and an English-speaking believer
talks for a bit. You’ll notice he says “I guess they’re coming up with a final
solution now, of some sort… burning…” he is alluding to the fact that this
behavior is very reminiscent of Nazi behavior in pre-world war 2
Next
you’ll see a Gur Hassid shouting “who wants to sell their soul to Jesus, the
bastard? Just dip in the sea, sell your soul to a bastard who has been buried
and rotting under the ground for 2000 years, and you’ll get rags! Jesus the
bastard is giving out rags… Rags from the bastard.
Next you’ll see him saying to the believer there – “He’s a bastard. Yeshua is
here. Here!” – as he stamps his feet indicating Jesus
is under him.
Many
of you have been to
Next
you’ll see a local secular Israeli, complaining that the mayor needs to put an
end to this hatred because there is no reason for it. Little does he know that
his mayor has no such intention. He ends by saying –
The Gur Hassidim here in
Next
you see a Gur Hassid saying “they kidnap children and baptize them to
Christianity. Stay away from them” - - Does
that remind you of allegations by Nazis and other antisemites against Jews in
Next
the reporter says “while Mayor Brill burries his head in the sand, 200
Messianic Jews in his city are persecuted in a manner which is reminiscent of
sights from the exile period”.
You’ll
see a Messianic woman walking by, holding her little daughter, and they say
“this is Rebekah Frei, born to a Haredi family. She was kidnapped by the
Christians and made into one. Know the truth!” – as
they lie, outright. Next, she is interviewed and says how they spread lies
about her, publish her picture and address in the streets, saying she’s a
dangerous Missionary. Then you see one of them heckling a Russian believer,
saying “where is Yeshua? Yeshua is in Chernobil (where they had the nuclear
disaster years ago).
It
ends with the reporter saying: “it would be interesting to see what an outcry
there would be if this happened in any other country against Jews.
It’s
important for me to stress these pictures were taken by believers in
It
will not be enough to just forward this email to other believers. I ask you to
take action. Write, call, email – whatever. Make the
Israeli government know these few believers have the world’s attention, and
Please
take action. We need your help. Please feel free to forward this email to any
of your friends and anyone who may be concerned about the well being of
believers in
Thank
you.
Sincerely,
Shmulik Eitan.
The news clip: http://news.walla.co.il/?w=/3807/770929
The
Israeli government addresses: http://www.gov.il/FirstGov/BottomNavEng/Contact
General
Government website: http://gov.il
Israeli
Police Force: http://www.police.gov.il/english/default.asp
- the Police Commissioner in