by Eric Fingerhut, Staff Writer

Jews for Jesus missionaries scheduled to be in the Washington area during the next two weeks will face counterleafleters in T-shirts urging local Jews to "come home to Judaism" and providing "7 Answers to Jews for Jesus."

The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington held instructional sessions this week in Rockville and Northern Virginia for the counterleafleters. JCRC officials said Monday that about 25 people so far had responded to an e-mail request for volunteers to distribute literature at Metro stops during the morning and evening rush hour.

The JCRC, which is spending $5,000-$7,000 on the effort, also plans to run an advertisement in the Express newspaper with a similar "come home to Judaism" message directing Jews to contact the Jewish Information and Referral Service for more information.

"They will not be allowed to go unchallenged," JCRC executive director Ron Halber said of the Jews for Jesus leafleters, whose campaign runs Saturday through July 8.

Stephen Katz, D.C. director of Jews for Jesus, said that his organization expects anywhere from 10 to 100 people "we never know how many may join us on any given day" to distribute literature during the two weeks. That period encompasses a number of traditionally well-attended public events in Washington, including the Fourth of July fireworks festivities and the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall.

"We'll be everywhere," including Metro stations, parks and in front of movie theaters, said Katz. "Where people are that's where we want to be."

This summer's campaign is reminiscent of Jews for Jesus' last major outreach effort in the nation's capital three years ago, but Katz said it is smaller in scope.

The 2004 drive was part of the group's "Behold Your God" project, which, during a six-year period ending in 2006, targeted every 25,000-plus Jewish community worldwide. This year's "Washington D.C. Summer Campaign," said Katz, is similar to the campaign the organization has run annually in New York for more than two decades.

While the 2004 Jews for Jesus campaign garnered significant media attention, it was widely deemed a bust by the local Jewish community which also ran an extensive counterleafleting and information campaign. Jewish officials said they saw virtually no evidence that any Jews had joined Jews for Jesus.

Last week, Katz said that numbers weren't the proper way to judge Jews for Jesus' influence.

"We measure success by our ability to raise the issue," he said. "Only God can change a human heart. We can't do that. We disseminate information and engage in conversation."

During its six-year "Behold Your God" campaign, Katz said, the organization reports that "1,695 Jewish people came to believe in Jesus."

Although earlier this month, Halber urged community members to ignore an anti-Israeli occupation rally, he said that a different approach must be taken to combat Jews for Jesus.

"A lot of the evangelism that Jews for Jesus does takes place after they leave" and the official campaign ends, he said, noting that the organization keeps in touch and follows up with those who express interest. Thus, a strong countermessage must be present to discourage Jews from making that initial contact.

"One Jew is too many" to lose to Jews for Jesus, Halber said, also noting that the campaign can also be used as a "catalyst" for getting more local Jews "meaningfully engaged in Jewish life in Washington."

Scott Hillman, executive director of the educational organization Jews for Judaism, agreed on the importance of counterleafleting. Jews for Jesus is "coming in and trying to redefine" the Jewish community, he explained, which is different from someone simply presenting an opposing political point of view at a rally or demonstration.

A proactive response "reminds people these are spiritual predators looking to make people separate from the community," said Hillman.

Messianic Jews have become more sophisticated in their use of Jewish language and symbols in recent years, said Maxine Grossman, an assistant professor of Jewish studies and religious studies at the University of Maryland at College Park, whose research interests include contemporary religious identity formation. But, she noted that Jews for Jesus has a big stumbling block in ever making much headway among Jews "their very name, which is a complete contradiction," she said, noting that even the least Jewishly knowledgeable Jewish person knows that Jews don't believe in Jesus.

On the other hand, she said messainic Jewish congregations are more problematic, because they simply behave like they are Jews, in a "matter-of-fact" way, and "put the onus of interpretation on other people."

The best way to combat that, she said, is for Jews to be educated about their religion to answer the claims of messianic Jews.

The literature that counterleafleters will be distributing aims to help with that process. In a question-and-answer format, it provides information to respond to statements Jews for Jesus missionaries frequently make.

For instance, in response to the question, "Did you know that believing in Jesus is the most Jewish thing you can do?" the flier states that "According to Judaism the Messiah will not be divine or eliminate the obligation to observe Torah."

It continues: "Jews believe in a monotheistic system of a non-corporeal God" and that "by believing that Jesus is 'co-equal to God the Father,' Jews for Jesus have crossed an unbridgeable chasm by accepting a belief idolatrous for Jews."

JCRC assistant director Rabbi Sarah Meytin said that counterleafleters will distribute literature only in places where Jews for Jews representatives are already passing out information.

Rockville's Harvey Leven, who with his wife, Ilene, counterleafleted in 2004, plans to do it again this summer. He described the experience as "very rewarding," recalling that a number of Jews he encountered at Metro stations "thanked us" for being there. He noted that it was also important for Jews for Jesus members to see Jews countering them.

The JCRC's counterleafleters will be joined by a contingent of up to a dozen people from the InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington wearing "Friend of the Jewish Community" T-shirts.

InterFaith Conference executive director Rev. Clark Lobenstine said that his organization has a "long-standing and very important policy statement, which respects the right of religions to share their faith," but states that they "must be truthful in what they're saying about others" and must not target vulnerable populations a test he says Jews for Jesus does not meet.

So he was glad to join the Jewish community to demonstrate that while Jews for Jesus have a First Amendment right to distribute their literature, "people of other faiths," and "not only Jews," object to their methods.

"It strengthens all of us to act together," he said.