Last weekend saw the Perth Jewish community get together for various Chanukah celebrations. As is so often the case, however, a few more people turned up than expected.
Usually, when extra friends turn up, it’s cause for even stronger celebration. However when those friends are members of a Christian church, with a clear goal of converting Jews to Christianity, it might be time to put the cork back in the bottle.
This is exactly what happened at PHC’s Chanukah celebrations this last weekend, as “Messianic Jews” (if such a combination of words is not a complete oxymoron) from a Subiaco based group informed their members the PHC function was an “open day” and “all should attend”.
While I know PHC is a friendly, welcoming and happy environment, I’m not sure this is the kind of crowd they were hoping to attract. Such groups are known to prey on less education and less observant Jews and attempt to guide them into Christianity.
Conversations with these people indicated that they were seeking a “stronger connection” with the “larger Jewish community” and they look forward to attending more events.
In the interests of protecting our Jewish community from this, I point you to a pretty decent website, to educate yourselves against their more common arguments.