That innocent question, posed by a woman who had just moved to Beersheva, set off a chain of events that led to Yad L’Achim’s intervention.

It all began with an innocent knock on the door at a chareidi home in Beersheva. The lady of the house discovered at her doorstep a woman who had moved into the building a few weeks earlier. The woman had an innocent, but startling, question.

“In my previous home in the Krayot, in the Haifa Bay area, I used to travel to Haifa for regular meetings of the local J’s Witness cult,” she began. “Since I’ve moved here, I’ve really started to miss the activities and camaraderie we had with the cult. They must have a branch here, in Beersheva. Perhaps, as a believing woman yourself, you might know where the local branch is and how I can get there?”

The chareidi woman was in shock. She recognized the name of the cult from publications distributed by Yad L’Achim and knew that it was responsible for leading Jews astray. She never imagined that she would personally encounter a Jew who had been taken in by the cult.

Despite her shock, she managed to maintain her composure and promised to look into the matter and get back to her shortly.

As soon as she shut the door, she called Yad L’Achim’s hotline and asked for advice on how to proceed. She was instructed to get back to her neighbor and set up a meeting between her and “people who can help you.”

That first meeting, with Yad L’Achim staffers, lead to a series of others. Little by little, the confused woman became aware of the deceptive tactics the missionaries had employed to win her heart. It began to dawn on her that the truth and light she had so desperately sought could be found in the world of Torah and Judaism. She began to understand that the missionaries, whose words she had so thirstily drunk, were smooth operators, liars who were enemies of Judaism.

Yad L’Achim wasn’t content with pulling her out of the clutches of the missionaries. Its activists are deepening their ties with this young woman, drawing her closer to Judaism. Today she is lighting Shabbos candles every week, and has affixed a mezuzah to her door.

As she continues to make strides as a Jew, she is overwhelmed by a sense of gratitude to G-d for sending Yad L’Achim to enlighten her and save her from the world of the cults.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)