After a wave of missionary preaching in Sderot: The city's rabbi meets with Yad Laachim'

December 3, 2024   

Last week, the Yad La'achim Missionary Combat Department received many inquiries from Sderot residents reporting missionary preaching materials distributed in the city's neighborhoods. An investigation revealed that those behind the advertising were Christian tourists who set out to convert Sderot residents, while taking advantage of their emotional state. Yad La'achim field operatives who were quickly dispatched collected the missionary materials and distributed informational materials in their place warning the public against the missionary menace. The city's rabbi, the rabbi Dror Twil, also received inquiries on the subject. Rabbi Twil, who saw the seriousness of the situation, contacted Yad La'achim to personally understand what was at stake and what possible courses of action were involved. Indeed, at the beginning of the week, a meeting was held at Rabbi Twil's office with the participation of Rabbi Hanoch Gechtman, director of the Missionary Combat Department at Yad La'achim, and the organization's field coordinator, Rabbi Shimon Abergel. At the meeting, the activists expanded on the mission in Israel, the scope of its activities, the reasons for it, and the ways to stop it. They also expanded on the emphasis that missionaries place on exploiting hardships and wars, and therefore, to what extent they see the residents of Sderot as easy prey. [Gallery] The rabbi was shocked by the data, spoke in detail about additional inquiries on the subject that had reached him, and concluded on joint treatment and prevention measures and raising awareness in the city of the danger. Yad L'Achim says: "We thank Rabbi Twil for his great dedication to the city's residents and his desire to help us prevent the dangerous missionary destruction activity. We are confident that with folded hands we will indeed be able to withstand the outbreak and repel any missionary attempt to harm the city's residents.".