A Jew from Phoenix, Arizona called the TeNaK Talk broadcast last week and told Rabbi Tovia Singer about how his community was forced to discard Sifrei Torah, tefillin and mezuzahs after they discovered that the “Jewish sofer” who wrote them was actually a Christian missionary.
The family he was referring to is the Dawsons, known as the Isaacsons, who infiltrated a number of frum communities in the US, posing as Rabbanim and serving in senior positions in kashrus organizations, writing safrus, and performing taharos, and in Phoenix, even serving on a Beis Din and overseeing marriage and divorce.
The real reason for the Phoenix resident’s call was to ask Rabbi Singer about what a community can do to protect themselves from missionaries that “show up” in a community. “What is the dead giveaway that a person is a missionary?” he asked.
Rabbi Singer responded that the answer is built into the question because the Dawsons didn’t just “show up” in Phoenix. “They started off their career by showing up in Portland, Oregon where they engaged in Evangelical Christianity. When they were confronted, they admitted who they were and what they believed and then skipped town. They then went to Dallas, where they told Rabbanim that they are Jewish but didn’t have a religious wedding so they want to redo it, thereby obtaining a keshuvah. They then showed up in Houston and managed to infiltrate the Orthodox Jewish community to the point where Dawson was the senior supervisor for the Orthodox kashrus agency in Houston and performed taharos.”
“Meanwhile, Portland community members were warning that these people aren’t Jewish, they sent emails…When the Dawsons showed up in Milwaukee, baruch Hashem, they took these warnings seriously and did their research. When the Milwaukee Beis Din confronted them, they didn’t deny their beliefs.”
The Dawsons then skipped town again and showed up in Phoenix where they were actually running a shul, carrying out conversions, and overseeing marriage and divorce. Rabbi Singer added that they were actually running a “factory” – charging up to $50,000 for conversions and telling people to bring their kesuvos so they can rewrite them – for money of course.
“People weren’t paying attention, they were ignoring the massive amount of evidence and allowing this to go on. The answer to the question is: ‘Just pay attention,'” Rabbi Singer concluded.
TeNaK Talk is a live video broadcast started by an “ex-preachers kid” who abandoned the New Testament teachings and hosts guest speakers on Biblical topics, meeting the needs of the “Noahide, Ger, Righteous Gentile, ex-Christian, ex-Messianic, non-Jew and lost Tribes.” Rabbi Tovia Singer and Rabbi Michael Skobac are regular lecturers on TeNaK Talk.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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10 Responses
Why aren’t these missionary creeps not being arrested and charged with fraud? They misrepresented themselves and charged money for services, and sold religious items fraudulently. At minimum, they should be sued into bankruptcy. Why are they just allowed to skip off into the sunset?
Asking random people on the airport if they’ve put on tefillien today…
Kabdeihu V’chashdeihu!
When somebody moves into your community, be friendly and welcoming to an extent but investigate. Find out who they are and where they come from. The expression “Jewish Geography” comes from someplace. For centuries Jews always want to know “who you know” which actually means “who knows you”.
The entire story sounds really fishy. Where did they get their education? If he posed as someone who is yodeah sefer, that only comes about with years of study. Where did he learn safrus? etc.
It’s Lashon Hara to believe anything. According to most commenters on this site
Even if people are convicted an Bais Din as doing the worst things, the commenters here in general will say that the dirtbag evil rascal is more holy than a Bais Din. And then you wonder how Christians can pose like Jews and no-one will care to care. On the contrary they’ll stick up for them
Another question, where were the local rabbonim? It wasn’t that these people just moved into town to live, they were involved in some of the most complicated and vital areas of Jewish life- gittin, marriage, kashrus. It’s a small city, how could they not check the proficiency of these people. It seems they bear some achrayus.
Let me preface my opinion by noting that I’m not frum. I’m certsainly not hostile to strict observance. (If I was, I wouldn’t be here.) On the contrary, you are the keepers of Judaism. And my respect for Jews who are שומר שבת is unbounded.
And while I recognize the peril missionaries represent, and respect the work R.Singer has been doing for decades, I think there is a point here to be made. And it’s possible that such a point is more obvious to a less educated Jew like me than any of you in this thread.
As a Jew with a more secular upbringing, I didn’t find anything about Christianity appealing. Its morality made no sense. In fact, it’s horrific. I knew this before I understood the explicit antisemitism at the heart of Christian scripture, Christian dogma and Christian history. (The Nazis didn’t invent the Final Solution to kill us all. They took it straight out of the New Testament.)
So what’s my point? The chance of missionaries fooling educated Jews like any of you is pretty small. Their targets are Jews with little or no Jewish education. Because of this, fighting missionaries might require a different approach.
Consider this. Of all the world’s religions, none can be justified from a logical, rational and moral standpoint more than Judaism. We cannot effectively protect less educated Jews from Christianity unless we hightlight the fact that, simply put, Judaism makes sense. Christianity does not.
I’m pretty sure that most of you could take my life’s Jewish learning and fit it under your thumbnail. But I’ll bet I’d have as good a shot at keeping a Jew Jewish as anyone. Sometimes countermissionary efforts come off as trying to teach calculus to someone can’t count to ten, let alone to 613.
After I teach them how to count, I’ll pass them off to R. Singer.
@ymribiat when you ask someone in the airport if he is jewish and would like to put on tefillin your not asking him to be your mesader kiddushin…
The zionists trying to convert charedim to secularisim is more of a threat than christans trying to convert us to christans
Someone like the Dawsons could get that far in a Jewish community such as Safruth, Beith Din participant, apparent gabbai at a local shul, Mashgiach, and representing himself as a Rav? Did no one ever speak to him in learning? Would it not become immediately apparent that he is a fraud? Any boy with merely a high school yeshivah background/or a 1st year Beith Medrash boy should have been able to speak with him in learning and easily conclude that this guy is no Rav — a complete Am HaAretz? Le’kol HaPa’choth it would become apparent that some investigation is needed! Speak in learning! A goy will not be matzliach in learning! A goy wouldn’t even understand the concept of Torah learning. Surely someone had to suspicious?