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Jews for Jesus: Targeting Jews for Conversion with Subterfuge and Deception
Legal Cases Involving Jews for Jesus
Jews for Jesus has been involved in a variety of legal cases regarding their right to distribute literature, their portrayal of Jews as members of the group, and other issues over the years. Specific cases include:
- In 2007, Jews for Jesus won the right to distribute its pamphlets in Oyster Bay, New York after several of its members had been arrested for doing so. The ruling declared unconstitutional an Oyster Bay ordinance that had required individuals to obtain permits to distribute fliers in public parks.
- In 2006, Jackie Mason dropped a $2 million lawsuit he brought against Jews for Jesus after the group had used his name and image in a pamphlet, implying that he was a member. Mason agreed to drop the suit after the group gave him a written apology for the pamphlet.
- In 1998, Jews for Jesus filed suit against Steven Brodsky, an Orthodox Jew who registered the Internet domain name www.jewsforjesus.org. Brodsky’s Web page described Jews for Jesus as a “cult” that was “founded upon deceit and distortion of fact.” It linked out to the Web site of Outreach Judaism (www.outreachjudaism.org), a Jewish educational organization that specializes in opposing groups like Jews for Jesus. Jews for Jesus claimed that Brodsky’s domain name infringed on its trademark. A judge issued a preliminary injunction against Brodsky, who vacated the name. It is now the group’s main Web address.
- In 1993, Israel’s Supreme Court, in a case involving a couple affiliated with Jews for Jesus, ruled that Jews who adhere to the Christian beliefs are regarded by Israeli law as “members of a different faith,” and are not eligible for the automatic citizenship that Israel grants Jews. In its summary of the ruling, the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the belief that Jesus is the Messiah “cannot be reconciled with Judaism” and “marks the clear separation between Judaism and Christianity.”
- In 1992, New York’s highest court ruled against Jews for Jesus in a suit the organization brought against the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York (JCRC), an umbrella group representing 60 Jewish agencies in the metropolitan New York area. The case addressed the JCRC’s 1985 warning to Long Island rabbis that Jews for Jesus was seeking a venue to conduct a Passover seder. The JCRC urged the rabbis to contact their Christian colleagues, as well as catering establishments and large restaurants, to “impress upon them how serious an affront these Hebrew-Christian groups are to the Jewish community.” Subsequently, Jews for Jesus could not find a venue for the seder on Long Island, and was forced to conduct it in New Jersey. Jews for Jesus sued the JCRC for violating its civil rights; the 1992 decision upheld a lower court ruling that the JCRC communication did not “go beyond the proposal stage” and that there was no evidence that any of the Long Island rabbis had actually contacted establishments for the purpose of discriminating against Jews for Jesus.
- In another lawsuit brought by Jews for Jesus against the JCRC of New York, a U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in 1992 that the efforts of the JCRC urging Jewish organizations not to patronize a New York country club because it allowed Jews for Jesus to hold its annual convention on its premises were not protected as an exercise of the JCRC’s First Amendment rights.
- In 1987 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Jews for Jesus in a suit it filed against the municipal agency in charge of Los Angeles International Airport. Airport officials had barred Jews for Jesus from distributing leaflets at their facility as part of a larger ban on what they described as “First Amendment activities.” Jews for Jesus challenged the airport’s right to institute such a sweeping ban.
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