The Missionary Climate in Australia: A Student’s Perspective

By Yehoshua Nagel

Growing up in Sydney, Australia, the Jewish community seemed to be perpetually aware and concerned with issues of Jewish continuity in regards assimilation, intermarriage as well as physical threats. However, the issue of missionaries and peer-to-peer proselytizing was either disregarded, or completely ignored. This was exemplified by a friend in Adelaide who described in an email to me that her community sees Christian Missionaries as ‘more of a quaint oddity than a threat to our precious Jewish children.’ [1] Due to my involvement with Jews for Judaism and Be-True, I began to see rigorous attempts to pull Australian Jews away from their faith. It seemed that the unnoticed problem was bigger than I had expected.

Having gone to a Jewish day school my whole life, the only times I ever had someone attempt to offer me a different faith was from the door-knocking missionaries who occasionally came in an attempt to convert my family to their religion. Our response was always “No, thank you” until a particularly disturbing missionary arrived at my door. His name was Daniel [2]. Daniel was a madrich (youth leader) at the same Zionist Youth Movement that I attended when I was younger. He had also studied at the same Jewish day school that I attended. Daniel used to pray at an orthodox synagogue and was very much a part of the Sydney Jewish community. Daniel was now knocking at my door, trying to convince me to join the Jehovah’s Witnesses. I have since discovered that Daniel had also brought his mother into that Christian sect. How could someone so involved with Judaism decide to leave, and try to convince others to do the same?

It was because of meeting Daniel that I found Rabbi Eli Cohen – the director of Jews for Judaism, Australia. As I learnt about Jews for Judaism and started speaking to my friends, more and more stories kept building up about missionary activity in Australia. One particularly disquieting event occurred to Jared [2], my friend’s brother. Jared had been very friendly with a born-again Christian called Keith [2] for 5 years and they often discussed their respective religions. Jared always assumed that this was innocent debate, and even had Keith over to his house for Yom Tov (Jewish festival) meals. Once Jared accidentally discovered that Keith wrote a web log online which contained Jared’s personal information, a series of emails sent between them and a prayer that Jared and his family should accept Jesus in their lives and that he should be able to cope with the good questions that Jared asks. The blog continued with a question to Jesus as to why Jared was able to provide such good questions and answers. Needless to say, Jared was quite put off by the apparent friendship of Keith.

Entering university opened my eyes even further to missionary activity in Sydney. Wearing a kippah (Jewish skullcap) at university essentially made me a sitting duck and I was the target of frequent witnessing attempts. Some were as blunt and obnoxious as people coming up to me and asking me “Can I interest you in Christianity?” Others were far more subtle and deceiving, very often from students and members of The Campus Bible Study [3] (CBS). They would question and attempt to debate me on theological issues such as atonement, the Messiah, and Heaven and Hell. The most recent encounter I had was with one of the more senior members of CBS who was trying to convince me to attend one of their lunchtime lectures. During this discussion, I asked her if there were any Jewish members of CBS, to which she replied “There are about four of five members who used to be Jewish but are now Christian.” Evidently, the missionary activity in my community was having notable success.

From my personal experiences and stories from my friends, the missionary threat in the Australian Jewish community, particularly on campus, is one that cannot be taken lightly. A concerted effort is present to convert the Jewish people and, as I discovered for myself, is sadly successful. It is for these reasons that I am particularly excited about the founding of Be-True at my university, which will provide an invaluable resource of inspiring information, thought-provoking seminars, and powerful answers to difficult questions.

[1] Email received on 17/2/09
[2] Name changed for privacy
[3] The largest Christian Society of my university campus