Dear Joe

This is the latest of the outbursts from the Community in Melbourne. I received this from Lawrence Hirsch today. Can you show it to David.

Harold

Australian Jewish News, Melbourne Edition Friday, February 11, 2000

Missionaries Branded Heretics Mark Briskin

A CHRISTIAN leader has branded a messianic church that aims to attract Jews to it's congregation as "heretical". The executive chairman of the Council of Christians and Jews, Reverend Anne Amos, says Beit Hamashiach, a South Caulfield messianic congregation, is fundamentalist and heretical.

Rev Amos, who is from the Uniting Church in Blackburn, said mainstream churches rejected messianic congregations such as Beit Hamashiach. Jewish leaders say the church, which believes in Jesus as the messiah but claims to be Jewish not Christian, is undermining Jewish identity.

Two weeks ago the Australian Jewish News reported the Jewish Community Council of Victoria had established a taskforce to look into the activities of the church. Messianic church leaders have responded that their missionary activities are analogous to the outreach activities of Jewish groups such as Chabad. However, Rabbi Chaim Gutnick said it was not appropriate to compare evangelism to Jews about Judaism with evangelism to Jews about Christianity.

The Caulfield South messianic congregation Belt Hamashiach operates under the umbrella oganisation of Celebrate Messiah Australia and runs Friday night "Shabbat" and festival services and life cycle events.

Members, some Jewish by birth and some gentile, believe that Jesus is the messiah. Jewish members claim not to have converted to Christianity but to remain Jews who believe in Jesus Christ. Rev Amos said she was not aware of the specific activities of Beit Hamashiach but believed that messianic groups were growing increasingly active. She said the Council of Christians and Jews would continue to monitor them.

ãI would have to take a broader view where I think this is going to increase because of the conservative world and the rise of fundamentalist groups. For a number of years it was confined to prayer meetings and people just having fuzzy feelings."

Rev Amos was also concerned about the manner In which the messianic churches operated. A section in the Celebrate Messiah Newsletter (Vol 5 Issue 2)

titled "Prayer Points" urged readers to pray for "The Russian messianic Jewish service held on Thursday nights at East Bentleigh and also the new service that will be starting in May on Wednesday nights in Prahran. This is in a strategic position for reaching the large Russian Jewish community living in the St Kilda/Prahran area."

Celebrate Messiah director and Belt Hamashiach leader Lawrence Hirsch defended his organisation's proactive approach, comparing it to the activities of some Jewish groups. "Well, don't the Lubavitches do that? They go out actively on the street in the Chabad mobile or mitzvah mobiles actively seeking people to convert to their form of Judaism. They try and convert Jewish people from other different sections of the Jewish community to their form of Judaism which they believe is the only right form of Judaism."

Elwood Synagogue senior rabbi and president of the Rabbinical Council of Victoria, Rabbi Chaim Gutnick, said that he was concerned about the threat posed by Beit Hamashiach.

In refuting the comments made by Mr Hirsch he said: "The word convert is not right - we are taking Jewish people and encouraging them to perform Jewish mitzvahs. But here they are taking Jewish people and converting them to Christianity. They are taking people and making them practice things, which are against the principles of the Jewish religion. You can't compare one to the other."

Temple Beth Israel senior rabbi Fred Morgan said he was concerned by the activities.

"We're not at all happy with it, like all other Jews I imagine. We would distinguish between Christianity and Judaism as two distinct religions and an attempt by one group to portray itself as Jewish when in fact they accept the tenets of Christianity is undermining to Jewish identity."

Rabbi Morgan believed that the Beit Hamashiach activity was insulting as it did not treat Jews with dignity or respect as a separate religious group.