Representatives from the anti-assimilation organization Yad L’Achim managed to prevent a mass Christian baptism on the Kinneret last Shaboos. The organization’s volunteers, many of whom are Yeshiva students, rushed to the Kinneret on Shabbos to stop the mass-baptism.

The missionaries, who hail from Tel Aviv and work primarily with the Russian-speaking community in Israel, were hoping that the fact that the Baptism was scheduled for Shabbos would prevent the Yad L’Achim volunteers from interfering with the ceremony.

However, some 15 students from Ma’ale Eliyahu Yeshiva managed to speak with the prospective converts even before they boarded the transportation vehicles to Tiberias. The Yad La’chim volunteers from the Yeshiva wore shirts printed in Hebrew and Russian that said: “Jew, stop! This Christianity is not for us!”

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Some of the Jewish prospective converts understood the gravity of the situation and publicly expressed the discomfort they felt. The interference by the Yad Lachim bochrim caused the missionaries to shout at the activists and there was a confrontation. Another group of Yad Lachim activists who were in the north surrounded the Baptism site in an effort to prevent the convoy from reaching its destination.

Once the missionaries in Tel Aviv received phone calls from the baptismal site informing them of the Yad L’Achim activists who were in the area,  they turned back, and the attendees dispersed to their homes.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)