Religion: Yeshua Is the Messiah'

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Other new groups that play up their Jewishness play down or avoid altogether the heavy Pentecostalism of Evans' B'nai Yeshua. Among them: Philadelphia's Beth Yeshua, which has grown from 30 members to 150 in two years, and Beth Messiah in the Washington. D.C., area, begun with six members in 1973 and now boasting 500. A pioneer in the new style was charming, talkative Moishe Rosen, who founded "Jews for Jesus" in 1973 and now presides over 80 staffers and a $2 million annual budget from his unmarked headquarters in San Rafael. Calif.

Jewish authorities hold that a Jew who adopts Christianity — or any other religion — is a meshummad (apostate), a grievous sinner who incurs various penalties. He may not be a witness in a Jewish legal proceeding or count in the minyan, or quorum for prayer. He remains technically a Jew, however, since the Talmud says that "a Jew who sins is still a Jew."

Literal War. Jewish groups are fighting as never before against proselytizers of all varieties. In recent months Christian street preachers have been punched in New York's heavily Jewish garment district, and the Jews for Jesus outpost in Manhattan has been ransacked. One Texas convert says he was kidnaped while celebrating Passover with his brother, a rabbinical student, and held for days of "deprogramming" until he renounced Jesus. The most extreme opponent is Hesh Morgan, whose militant Anti-Missionary Institute plants spies in Evangelical groups to gather information and assigns youths to disrupt meetings and heckle speakers. It is "literally a war." says one Los Angeles rabbi.

Most Jewish groups, however, favor voluntary talks with converts rather than strong-arm tactics. New York's new Jewish Community Relations Council has a task force compiling data on 45 missionary groups and has assigned psychologists and educators to develop a counter strategy. Similar efforts are under way in 16 other cities.

With strong family and community pressure at work, why are these young Jews following Jesus? Theodore Freedman of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith says they are "largely children with emotional problems." Donald LeMagdeleine, a Roman Catholic who is conducting the first careful survey of the young converts for a thesis at Berkeley's Graduate Theological Union, disagrees. They want a religious experience that they did not find in their synagogues or in Jewish cultural upbringing, he says. "They are not looking for Jewish rap groups. They are looking for God."