Messianic Christian Couple in Israel Accused of Converting Minor

Messianic Christian Couple in Israel Accused of Converting Minor [Excerpts]

Ultra-Orthodox Jews harass, threaten pair even though 16-year-old has not converted.

JERUSALEM, July 2 (CDN) — A hard-line Jewish ultra-Orthodox group in Israel that singles out Jewish Christians known as Messianic Jews for harassment and abuse is taking aim at a couple it claims is manipulating minors into becoming Christians.

The group, Yad L’Achim, this week placed leaflets around the home of Serge and Naama Kogen…in Mevasseret Zion, a suburban community located just west of Jerusalem. The same week someone took out a full-page ad in a local newspaper giving the couple’s address and telling residents they were part of a missionary group “targeting” the community. The Kogens are native Israelis and hence not part of any missionary group.

The advertisement invited the public to a protest planned against the Kogens, and on Sunday (June 26), about 20 of the group’s supporters demonstrated outside the couple’s home, where they denounced them over megaphones for 90 minutes.

The protests came after Yad L’Achim lost a court case against the Kogens and their congregational leader, Asher Intrater. The group had accused them of “proselytizing” minors.

During the protest, a distraught 16-year-old girl, the alleged target of the couple’s “missionary” efforts, said all of Yad L’Achim’s claims were false. Donna Lubofsky maintains that she has never converted to Christianity. She wanted to speak at the protest to give her side of what happened, but the organizers wouldn’t let her, she said.

http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/israel/article_114414.html