 My name is Len Goldberg, as Julius mentioned, a practicing accountant of North York for many, many years and a very, very proud supporter of Jews for Judaism. The dedicated gratitude to Julius and Rabbi Skobick and the story I'm about to tell you will explain why. I want my story to alert you to the movement that seeks to disenfranchise people from the Jewish faith, that why their pitch has no merit, has no basis in truth, and how important Jews for Judaism is because they possess the knowledge to disabuse those at risk from being converted. You can go to a rabbi for certain information, but nobody matches the skill of the New Testament as the people at Jews for Judaism. So how did this all happen? Well, several years ago I was having a meeting with a client, walking in, we're going to discuss year-end business, nothing other than usual. All of a sudden he starts quoting the New Testament and the Old Testament, and he's trying to tell me that belief in Jesus as the Messiah came from our book, the Old Testament. And there I am, just standing with my mouth open, not being able to say a word. He was well-versed in Bible proof texts, in the Old and the New, and he was peppering me with quotations and facts regarding Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, and that was stated in my Jewish Bible. Many times in the past we had met for other business meetings, and we often talked about business and other things, but this was the first time that he was on a mission. He was on a mission to convert me, and he was prepared. He carefully explained that he thought Jews were thought to be under the control of Satan, that we had scales over our eyes. I was shocked. Here I am sitting with a client, someone I've known for years, and he thinks I'm possessed. I've been accused of many, many things. I may have been devilishly good looking at some point, or had a demonic sense of humor, but no one ever thought that I was under the control of Satan. This was the main reason, according to him, that Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah. Every time we had a meeting scheduled, I became kind of terrified, because I had no ammunition to retort what he was saying to me. You can imagine with this pall of being satanic, hanging over our conversations, I walk in one day and he's having a conversation with the secretary, and he looks up and he says, Speak of the devil. I'm saying, oh my God, was he just using a figure of speech, or did he truly think that I was under the control of Satan? So these recurring meetings left me speechless, literally. I had no ammunition from which I could counter the wave of words coming at me. Instinctively, I recoiled at the concept of being considered a subject under satanic control and became increasingly angry at myself for my lack of knowledge from which I could launch a meaningful response. Some may have fallen under the verbal attack and surrendered to his words. I got angry at myself. But with every problem comes a solution, and there it was, on the table. Jews for Judaism counter-missionary survival seminar at Sherrodville Congregation. A flyer advertising the series was laying there with a whole bunch of other things, but it caught my eye. This looked like the self-defense material I needed. I signed up and spent the next six weeks educating myself and being educated about so many aspects of the experience I was going through and how to respond to missionary zeal of my client. And as a byproduct of this whole exercise was learning to appreciate the beauty of Judaism. What an eye-opener. First, let me give you a summary of what this counter-missionary course offers. Firstly, the simple reasons why Jesus is not our Messiah. It's no secret that Christian missionaries claim Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. Why has Judaism rejected this for over 2,000 years? The concept of the Messiah has its foundation in our Jewish Bible, the Tanakh, which clearly teaches that six criteria must be fulfilled before any Jew can be acknowledged as the Messiah. The Messiah must be from the tribe of Judah and a descendant of King David and King Solomon. In gathering of the Jewish exiles, when the Messiah is reigning as king of Israel, the Jews will be ingathered from their exile and will return to Israel, their homeland. This clearly has not yet happened. And it didn't happen in Jesus' time, so there's no way that he could be the Jewish Messiah. Rebuilding of the Holy Temple. The Temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt a third time. The fact is the Second Temple was still standing in Jesus' day. It was destroyed 38 years after his crucifixion and has not yet been rebuilt. Fourth reason. Worldwide reign of peace. There will be universal disarmament and worldwide peace with a complete end to war. Yet wars have continued dramatically in the world since the start of Christianity and many fought by Christian nations. Observance of the Torah will be embraced by all Jews. The Messiah will reign as king at a time when all the Jewish people will observe God's commandments. But Jesus never ruled as king nor have all the Jews embraced the commandments of God's Torah. And finally, universal knowledge of God. The Messiah will rule at a time when all the people of the world will come to acknowledge and serve the one true God of the Jews. This as well has not yet taken place and we await its fulfillment. A classical Biblical portrait of the Messiah for all of the criteria for the Messiah are found in numerous places in the Jewish Bible. Let me just read one from the book of Ezekiel, chapter 37, verse 24 to 28, quoting, And my servant David will be king over them and they will all have one shepherd and they will walk in my ordinances and keep my statutes and observe them and they shall live on the land that I gave to Jacob my servant in which your fathers have lived and they shall live there. They and their children and their children's children forever and my servant David will be their prince forever. Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them. It will be an everlasting covenant which I will give them and I will multiply them and will set my sanctuary in their midst forever. My tabernacle shall be with them and I will be their God and they will be my people. And the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel and when my sanctuary is in their midst forever. So anyone can claim to be the Messiah or a group of people can claim that someone else is the Messiah. However, if that person fails to fulfill all the criteria found in the Jewish Bible, he cannot be the Messiah. According to the Christian scriptures, Jesus seems to have understood this. As he was being crucified by the Romans, he cried out My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So what's the Christian rebuttal to this in order to deal with Jesus' failure to fulfill the biblical messianic prophecies? Missionaries argue that he will accomplish them when he returns in the future. It's like a do-over. It's important to understand that this second coming doctrine is an admission that Jesus did not fulfill any of the messianic criteria. This rationalization versus failure certainly provides no reason to accept him as the Messiah of today. Furthermore, the Jewish Bible does not have a messianic installment plan where the Messiah comes, fails in his mission, and then returns thousands of years later to try it again. Still, missionaries will claim that because Jesus performed miracles, he must be the Messiah. However, we have no real evidence that Jesus actually performed any miracles, and even if he did, they would not prove he's the Messiah. Our Bible never teaches that we will be able to recognize the Messiah through the miracles that he will do. Actually, the Torah teaches that even false prophets can have the ability to perform supernatural miracles. We Jews prefer to wait for the real Messiah, according to God's promises and guidelines. The Jewish Bible provides a clear and consistent description of what the world will look like when the Messiah comes, and this clearly has not yet transpired. So we still await the coming of the true Messiah, that may he and the utopian world come soon. Jews for Judaism's counter-missionary seminar taught me so much more. I learned about the astonishing frequency of Jews being targeted for their beliefs. When it just happened to me, I thought it was like a sole incident that couldn't be happening to too many other people. My experience with my client was new to me, and I thought isolated, but this is routinely played out every day in suspecting Jewish candidates for conversion who are targeted by friends and acquaintances. This practice of proselytizing friends, neighbors, and business associates is widespread. The concept of being challenged by someone you know gives them an advantage. The element of trust when interacting with those we know lowers our defenses, and one becomes more vulnerable. The tendency for me was not to be confrontational with a colleague, especially a client, you're not going to challenge him, especially when I had no basis on which I could have a meaningful response. Again, those with little education and weak ties to Judaism can become fodder for Jews for Jesus. It is reported that over 8,000 are swayed to the Hebrew Christian movement each year, 8,000 people. There are over 20,000 Jewish Christian sect members in Israel alone. Couple this with intermarriage of over 70% among non-Orthodox Jews. The growing number of unmarried Jews, the escalating rate of divorce, resurgent anti-Semitism, the future of Judaism seems very perilous. So while we may not have, well, it may not have happened to you, know this is happening in North America and Israel and other parts of the world. Jews are being targeted and we need to step up and do something about it. Next I learned about the vast sums of money expended for the sole purpose of drawing Jews away from Judaism to the Christian faith. If you go to Canada Revenue Agency's charity listings on their website, you will see the Canadian branch of Jews for Jesus as of December 2016, which is the last year they filed. They have almost a million dollars in the bank. If you go and check Jews for Judaism at that same date, not so much. You will note that most of their directors for Jews for Jesus are not Jewish. You can tell from their last names, these are not Jewish people that are on Jews for Jesus. Each year 300 million dollars are spent by a variety of missionary organizations to convert Jews worldwide. There are over 1000 Christian groups in North America actively involved in missionizing the Jewish people. Some even convert dead Jews through a ritual known as proxy baptism practiced by the Mormons until they agreed to stop in exchange for a building permit in Jerusalem. What followed after that was a detailed analysis by Rabbi Skoblik clearly showing the huge theological differences between Christianity and Judaism. Many naively would think they believe in Jesus and we don't, and that would be the end of it, but not so. The Christian belief that salvation can only be achieved through Jesus is explained as well as the relevance of faith not action as a significant element of their beliefs. Even without knowing a response to this tenet, intuitively it didn't make sense and you can believe whatever you want, but if you don't do anything, what's the point? One has to put effort to get something. Then there's the issue of one God and the Trinity in Christianity and sin. Major differences there. Judges can atone for sins by repentance, prayer, and performing mitzvot. Christians believe in the sacrifice of the blood of Jesus on the cross is the only way to be forgiven for sins. Failing that belief, one is destined to burn for an eternity in hell. The nature of the true Messiah is poles apart with Christian belief in the virgin birth and Judaism with a normal human Messiah born of natural parents. The list goes on. Joni Mitchell in her song, you don't know what you've got till it's gone. Meaning in this context, I didn't know what I had taken for granted until I saw it side by side with Christian beliefs. Along the way I was alerted to deceptive tactics missionaries use. Clever staging that mimics Jewish rituals and the concept that you can believe in Jesus as the Messiah and still be Jewish. My client sincerely believed that. And it was I who educated him that this is not the case. You can search for YouTube videos of Messianic services and be quite convinced they look authentically Jewish. They're wearing kippot, palasim, they have safer torres. You think you're at a Shabbat service, but you're not. These are fake Jews. Even the name Jews for Jesus is an oxymoron. You can't call yourself Jewish if you believe in Jesus. Some of the deceptive tactics include quoting scripture out of context. They'll read one part and forget about what came before and what came after. They'll create quotations that sound very authentic, but they don't exist. They don't come from anywhere. Some hold that Judaism had suppressed the truth about Jesus. Like there was a conspiracy of our sages and rabbis to suppress Jesus as a Messiah. The collective quotations sound very authentic and compelling. They're used to overwhelm the listener and provide ill-gotten authority to those speaking them. Many interpretations presented as factual are embedded with a predetermined conclusion. That is, Jesus was the Messiah and this was foretold in the Old Testament. So whatever they read has an embedded conclusion. They already know the answer. Why haven't you seen it? Christian scholars, though, are coming to the realization this is not so. One professor, Michael Rodelnik, says as follows, There is bad news for the Messianic movement. Some scholarly followers of Jesus are taking him out of the Hebrew Bible. I am convinced that an interpretive approach that negates Messianic prophecy is becoming prevalent among many scholars who believe in Yeshua. These believers adopt views that find it hard to see Messiah in the Hebrew Bible. So their claim that the Old Testament speaks about Jesus as the Messiah is finally being realized as not true. So the Christian side is divided on the infallibility of Messianic prophecy, leading to concluding that Jesus as the Messiah is being self-evident is not. I see now that my antagonist was misinformed himself. He believed wholeheartedly in the script provided to him and had not independently validated claims he uttered. He sincerely believed that you can believe in Jesus as a Messiah and still remain Jewish. It's like calling yourself a vegetarian even though you continue to eat chicken. When we look at ourselves, many of our unique attributes are taken for granted. We become indifferent to our special characteristics. However, when contrasted with other belief systems, our uniqueness becomes more evident. Many examples of these differences exist, but I was unaware of them until I was alerted to them in the course of listening to the lectures from Jews for Judaism. For example, the Jewish belief of enjoying life contrasts sharply with the Christian belief they were born in sin. Like strike one, as soon as you're born you have sin from Adam. There's only one way out. As Jesus quoted in the New Testament, I am the way, the truth, and the life no one comes to the Father except through me. Failing to believe this will sentence you to eternal damnation in the afterlife in Christian theology. Judaism's Noahide laws, on the other hand, provide for the world hereafter for all non-Jews that uphold seven Noahide laws. You don't have to be Jewish to get to heaven. This is a big difference. Judaism's antidote for sin is repentance, charity, prayer, coupled with a sincere attempt to rectify any wrongdoing. Judaism's cure for sin is much more compelling, much more logical, and uplifting. The Christian concept of original sin casts a pall over life, dimming its prospects with a somber pallet. Personally, I prefer ecclesiastics, quoting, so I commend rejoicing in life because there's nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat, drink, and rejoice. Having both belief systems laid side by side, it became much clearer to me how special Judaism is. There are numerous differences, and seeing them displayed could really reinforce my understanding and appreciation for our Jewish faith. This was the defining moment for me. Once the recognition of Judaism's beliefs became evident to me, the more inspired I became to learn more. The concept of the pintile yid that sparked within each Jew just looking to be fanned and turned to a flame was revived, and my Jewish awakening had begun. And for this, I give special thanks to Jews for Judaism. I became curious as to what did Judaism possess that attracted all its money and effort to drop people away from it? Why are our beliefs such anathema to the Christian world? So I came with my own answer. I believe it is because we are for the most part happy, prosperous, and a disproportionate contributor to the betterment of the world, even though we amount numerically to a statistical rounding error. The Jewish population worldwide is less than 0.2% of mankind, or should that be people-kind? According to many, we should be a forgotten footnote in the annals of time. Some other religions dismiss Judaism as a major religion, because there are so few of us. Nonetheless, Judaism had a profound influence on the founding of Christianity, Islam, and was clearly in the minds of the founding fathers of the United States. South Koreans study Talmud. Many people insist on a Jewish doctor, accountant, or lawyer are all three. Israel is a young country and has become a world leader in many areas and record time compared to its neighbors. We as a people have an enviable reputation, yet remain the perennial target of hatred and a scapegoat for all the ills of the world. Antisemitism is on the rise in Europe, United States, and remains unabated in many of the Arab countries. Yet, here we are. Israel is surrounded by enemies, targeted by terrorists, always on guard, yet Israel remains the world's 11th happiest country. Go figure. In appreciation to Jews for Judaism, I became a supporter, a volunteer, and now a speaker. As a volunteer for Jews for Judaism, I've had firsthand experience confronting Jews for Jesus advocates on street corners, libraries, or during pro-Israel events in the city. Know this. Missionaries are in our city. They're well-funded, well-organized, and looking to seduce the unwitting to their side. For example, I've seen invitations to what appears to be a Shabbat dinner in Hebrew text and vague scriptural quotations, making it look authentically Jewish, but they're meant to deceive and confuse the recipient. They prey on marginalized, poorly educated Jews for fellowship and acceptance to draw them in. I think most of the evangelicals come at this sincerely. Nonetheless, the prey on the uneducated shouldn't count as a win for them. And their support for Israel, it's great to see that, but it's no reason to embrace their position on Jewish religious matters. Take away from this was the need for education and knowledge. There's no defense to a missionary pitch that is compelling, as a dispassionate, knowledgeable, counter-offensive. How do we equip ourselves and our children with tools to fend off these challenges? The prohibit of cost of day schools combined with the abandoning of most basic Jewish traditions, like a kosher home and going to synagogue, are stark reminders that we may self-destruct without any pressure from our detractors. We need to walk the talk in order to survive as a Jewish nation. The courses offered by Jews for Judaism offer much more than counter-missionary information. They could easily be recast as a refresher course for Jewish education. Coupled with a fabulous Jews for Judaism YouTube channel with 250 videos, 21,000 subscribers, there's no reason anyone cannot become better informed and better educated. Why is this important? There are so many commonly held misbeliefs that we each have a moral responsibility to set the record straight when confronted with lies and misinformation. Boggles the mind how other religions take it upon themselves to discredit and misinterpret our sacred texts to further their own interpretation. I personally find it offensive to hear from non-Jews that the Torah is impossible to keep and that Hashem made a mistake in giving it to the Jewish people. Such arrogance. It is for these reasons I endorse the efforts of Jews for Judaism and their outreach and their prolific supply of meaningful and relevant content. While Jews do not hold by other religions' beliefs, it is not for the purpose of attracting converts to Judaism. We don't go to Christians and say, what you believe in is not true. What they want to believe in is fine. But for them to come to us and say that what we understand and read for centuries is not true, that's another story. So take some time, watch the videos, attend the lectures, become a volunteer, make a donation and stand up for Judaism whenever and wherever you can. Keeping Jews Jewish is our mutual responsibility. We cannot subcontract this duty to others. The challenges from BDS, anti-Semites, left-wing self-hating Jews, the Internet, biased news, our enemies are everywhere and sometimes overwhelming. So doing nothing is not an option. To conclude, I still have discussions with my client on business and religious matters, but now I am able to deflect, defend and reply to all of his challenges. And when he asks why Jews don't believe in Jesus as a Messiah, I simply respond that Jesus did not fulfill a single biblical Messianic prophecy. When he asked me how I became more knowledgeable and passionate about Judaism, I point to him and happily reply that he succeeded in making me a convert back to Judaism. Thank you very much.