Missionary groups are targeting elderly Holocaust survivors in Israel who are often in financial distress and experiencing loneliness, according to officials at Yad L’Achim.

In recent weeks the counter-missionary organization has been inundated with phone calls from survivors reporting that they had been contacted by missionary groups.

“We thoroughly investigated the matter and discovered that the missionaries are approaching organizations that assist survivors in an attempt to obtain contact information on these elderly Jews,” said one Yad L’Achim official.

In response, Yad L’Achim chairman Rabbi Sholom Dov Lipshitz send an urgent letter to Holocaust aid organizations expressing his deep concern.

“There are no words to express the shock of every Jew in the face of this despicable plot, in which survivors, at the end of their days, are being targeted by the missionaries.”

Rabbi Lipshitz added that these organizations must ensure that no information is divulged to missionaries, whose goal is to eradicate the Jewish people in a spiritual “final solution,” R”l.

“We want to be able to notify the survivors and their families of the very real danger that they are exposed to from the missionaries,” he concluded in his letter.

“We request that you give us access to the names and addresses of survivors so that we can contact them. Alternately, we would be happy to give you material on the subject to distribute among the survivors.”

Rabbi Lipshitz said this week that the cynical use of elderly survivors by the missionaries is a further proof of the urgency of the Knesset passing an effective law banning missionary activity in Israel.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)