Simon Wiesenthal Center: Israel Should Remove GOD TV’s Channel from Cable Seeking to Proselytize Jews

May 12, 2020

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is urging Israeli authorities to remove a new cable channel, Shelanu, presented by GOD TV that is seeking to proselytize Jews. “To be clear, Israel protects religious freedoms of all groups, except those who seek to proselytize minors or who employ deceptive and coercive means. In fact, religious broadcasting servicing Israel’s Christian population has been operating for years. That isn’t the issue. Pretending that messianic Judaism is a legitimate form of Jewish belief – as the “fulfilled” form of Jewish belief – and preaching this to children via television, is the issue. Many Christians we know readily agree with their Jewish friends that messianic Judaism is neither Judaism nor Christianity,” explained Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the Center’s Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action.

Rabbi Yitzchak Adlerstein, the Center’s Director of Interfaith Affairs added. “Jews with strong religious identity will not dictate to other religious groups what they are allowed to think. We fully understand that the need to share Christian belief with others is not a marginal requirement, but part of the definition of being Christian. But most of our Christian friends understand how two millennia of Christian persecution of Jews – including forced conversions, discrimination, denigrating Judaism and compulsory harangues of preachers posted in synagogues to convince Jews to give up their faith – has impacted modern Jewish identity. They should not expect that the Jewish people would allow Shelanu’s tactics to go unchallenged. We hope believing Christians-including our evangelical friends - will join our call.”

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The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).