10 May 2004

ISFSP supports the the former Chief Sephardi Rabbi of Israel and says to Jewish groups: "Reject Evangelical Funding, Don't Prostitute Yourselves to Missionaries."

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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The International Society for Sephardic Progress (ISFSP) stands side by side with Mordechai Eliyahu the former Chief Sephardi Rabbi of Israel for speaking out against Jewish groups accepting funding from evangelical Christian organizations. The former Chief Rabbi spoke of this problem in public at the Rabbinical College in Morristown, N.J. Prominent rabbis, including Eliyahu, are speaking out for the first time against Israel's profitable alliance with evangelical Christians in the United States who have funneled tens of millions of dollars to Israel in the past decade. Shelomo Alfassa, Executive Director of the ISFSP stated:

"The rabbis fear the Christians' real intent is to convert Jews--and their fears are true. Unfortunately, non-religious secular Jewish groups such as the Anti-Defamation League and other self-appointed Jewish leadership groups care more about appeasing their non-Jewish friends than standing up for Torah true Jewish issues. In a storm of ignorance, the secular Jewish groups will always deny the hidden agenda of the Christian evangelical community."

Below is an excerpt from Mr. Alfassa's forthcoming book "Silent Shoah":

The Christian perspective is as follows. The Jewish people will be gathered into Israel, at which time God will deal with them, and give the Jewish people one last chance to accept Jesus or they will be destroyed. This is what fundamentalist Christians believe. They also believe that we are currently near the end times, that the global jihad launched by fundamentalist Muslims on both Jews and Christians are in part conflicts which will lead to final Armageddon. That the violence occurring in the State Israel is God's way of driving the Jews to Israel.

Compared to the $500,000,000 (half a billion dollars) they spent over the last decade to target and convert the Jewish people, Christian organizations give pennies to Israel--but we should not accept them. From New York to Moscow and Paris to Jerusalem, missionaries are strategically working to convert Jews--the very same groups which claim to "love Israel." It is time the blinders come off, that our voices are no longer mute. We must stand up to attacks on the Jewish nation, whether they be physical or spiritual. We should never prostitute ourselves or risk Jewish souls for financial gain.

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The International Society for Sephardic Progress (ISFSP) is a Jewish agency developed to serve the Sephardic community--the descendants of the Jews of historic Spain, Portugal, North Africa and the Levant who share both common religious and cultural bonds. Although based in the United States, the ISFSP is an advocacy organization representing Sephardim internationally. The ISFSP also functions to produce high quality Jewish educational projects which will educate the public on the rich Sephardic Jewish communities, past and present.

The ISFSP is a a non-profit organization.

Read an important page from
"Silent Shoah" on this topic (PDF)