Missionary “Bible” Found in 770

By COLlive reporter

At first, the softcover blue-colored book with the Hebrew words “Rebbe Melech Hamoshiach” seemed innocent. After all, those words can be found on bumper stickers, yellow flags and even in some books.

A bochur that saw the book titled “The Orthodox Jewish Bible” at the main shul of 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights thought he would find another translation of the Chumash.

The index used familiar terminology such as “Besuras Hageulah,” “Iggrot Kodesh” and “Hisgalus” – terminology referring to the final redemption by Moshiach and holy letters by Rebbes and Tzadikim.

But he then read that the “news of the redemption” was “according to Mattityahu” and that the book is “sefer toldos of Rebbe, Melech Hamoshiach Yehoshua Ben Dovid, Ben Avraham.”

The bochur was shocked at the discovery and told COLlive.com that he immediately stopped reading and threw it out of the shul to the trash bin.

The book, authored by Reverend Phillip E Goble of a Christian Messianic congregation in New York, proudly “applies Yiddish and Hasidic cultural expressions to the Messianic Bible.”

It isn’t clear how the book ended up in the large shul frequented by tens of thousands of Jews from all walks of life, the bochur said.

This isn’t the first time Christian missionaries are targeting Chassidic Jews. Literature is often mailed directly to Jewish homes in Crown Heights and other Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn.

In May 2019, COLlive.com broke the news that a Christian couple has been masquerading as Orthodox Jews to influence the Jewish community in Chicago. After being exposed, they left in disgrace.

“The internet gives missionaries access into our homes, and Messianic congregations provide a subtler approach for more than 200,000 Jews worldwide who practice a distorted mix of Judaism and Christianity,” warns missionary fighter Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz.

Rabbi Kravitz, founder of Jews for Judaism in Los Angeles, says the best advice he can give Jewish communities facing the treats of missionaries is “Don’t let your guard down.”