Aish: From Christian Missionary to Observant Jew

Posted on October 31, 2023 by Luke Ford

Bluma Gordon writes for Aish.com:

Shannon Nuszen’s mission was to convert as many Jews as possible. Her fealty to the truth sent her in an unexpected direction.

The recent story of Michael Elkcohen, the undercover Christian missionary who masqueraded as an Orthodox Jew and infiltrated an Orthodox community in Jerusalem, sent shockwaves around the world. The father admitted his missionary intentions in 2014 but managed to avoid further scrutiny by relocating to the Anglo community of French Hill. A year ago, a journalist familiar with his confession notified Shannon Nuszen, the director of Beyneynu, a new watchdog organization that exposes missionary activity in Israel, about the couple. They had been spotted using two separate Facebook profiles – one with Jewish identities and one with Christian identities.

“We started an investigation to verify the truth,” Shannon said in an Aish.com interview, “and the week before we planned on releasing the information to leaders, the story exploded in the media when a child who attended the same school as the missionary’s children told her parents that a classmate was telling her friends about Jesus.”

While Elkohen has deleted his social media profiles and now denies the claims, Beyneynu believes they have enough evidence to prove his missionary affiliations – and his act of betrayal to the community that extended their hand to his family. Shannon will release the evidence to the Israeli Ministry of Interior. “It’s my hope that the government and Jewish institutions finally see the need for, at the very least, a department that filters Aliyah applications and stops fraudulent applicants from entering Israel,” says Shannon.

Regarding the Elkohens, Shannon says she hopes that the government will revoke their citizenship and send a strong message to the entire Christian world that although Israel appreciates their social, political, and financial support, they draw the line at missionary activity, fraud, and deceptive tactics against the Jewish people.

I surfed over to Beynenu.com and found this:

Beyneynu is a non-profit organization that monitors missionary activity in Israel and abroad. We collaborate with government and community leaders to raise awareness about the dangers of Jewish evangelism and encourage healthy boundaries in our interfaith relationships. While we strive to maintain a spirit of mutual respect and cooperation with Christian allies of the State of Israel, we also recognize the importance of being proactive in confronting missionary influence and movements in the Jewish homeland. Despite ongoing debates over Jewish identity in Israel for the past 75 years, Christianity has always been considered a line that should not be crossed.

From IsraelNationalNews, March 24, 2022:

Fresh off of a mission on the Ukrainian border, a “Messianic” group that seeks Jews to accept Jesus is setting its sights on Jewish New Yorkers.

Chosen People Ministries is one two Messianic groups that announced plans this week to visit New York and share their gospel this summer, causing alarm for some Jews in the city who say that their practices are disrespectful.

CPM and the International Board of Jewish Missions both released materials that detailed their plan to visit New York.

“I think most Jews are not aware of how aggressive they are in campaigns,” said Shannon Nuszen, founder of the anti-missionary group Beyneynu, which first reported the missionary groups’ plans.

From IsraelNationalNews.com, Feb. 9, 2023:

The Beyneynu anti-missionary organization has sent an urgent appeal to the Israeli Interior Ministry regarding a family of Christian missionaries attempting to infiltrate the haredi community in Jerusalem.

The Dawson family, now styling themselves as the Isaacsons and dressing in traditional haredi garb, were outed 16 months ago in Phoenix, Arizona. Before then, they attempted to infiltrate Jewish communities in Texas, Oregon, and Wisconsin, moving on each time their true identity was exposed.

According to the haredi news site Behadrey Haredim, the family is now in Jerusalem after obtaining three-month tourist visas, and has settled in the neighborhood of Nachlaot, near the Mahane Yehuda open-air market. Nachlaot is an eclectic neighborhood where haredi Jews live alongside religious “hippies,” traditional Jews, and secular Jews, and has in the past been thrown into turmoil after several immigrants from the United States were accused of settling there and conducting missionary activity.

In her letter to the Interior Ministry, Shannon Nuszen, founder and director of Beyneynu, wrote: “We believe that they will ask to immigrate to Israel immediately or at the very least obtain student visas for their children through the Ministry of the Interior.

“It’s urgent that the Ministry of the Interior act immediately to block these people from receiving any visa that would allow them to continue the damage they are causing to Jewish communities with their insidious agenda … We know from first-hand reports from Jewish communities and rabbis in the U.S. that the Dawson/Isaacson family is deceptive, dangerous and very determined to establish themselves in Israel.”

From IsraelNationalNews.com, Feb. 13, 2023:

Beyneynu issued warnings to the Jewish communities in Jerusalem, apprising them of the situation. The next Shabbat, Calev again turned up at the Kol Rina synagogue and was told that his identity was now known and that he should refrain from causing a commotion and please leave – if he so wished, he could request a private meeting with the rabbi.

Beyneynu has written to the Interior Ministry in the hope of preventing the Dawsons from obtaining Israeli citizenship (which they are not legally entitled to).

“It is urgent that the Ministry of the Interior act to immediately to block these people from receiving any visa that would allow them to continue the damage they are causing to Jewish communities with their insidious agenda,” wrote Shannon Nuszen, founder and director of Beyneynu in her letter to the Ministry.

“We know from first-hand reports from Jewish communities and rabbis in the United States that the Dawson/Isaacson family is deceptive, dangerous, and very determined to establish themselves in Israel,” she added. Nuszen also noted that previous bitter experience has shown that Israeli citizenship, once granted, is extremely difficult to revoke even if it can be clearly proven that it was fraudulently obtained.

Concerned citizen, Michael, sends me a letter dated July 30, 2023 that I just received (and he included photographs of about 60 different Facebook posts and pages that support his arguments below):

Dear Mr. Luke Ford,

I want to inform you about a woman working as an undercover missionary named Shannon Nuszen. She is a covert evangelical Christian missionary who is currently proselytizing Jewish adults and minor children without parental consent to convert them to Christianity. There is currently an open case with the Interior Ministry of Jerusalem for Immigration Fraud to deny this woman her papers to make Aliyah, due to the fact that she is practicing Christianity, although this woman claims to be a devout Jew. She hides in the shadows of Rabbi Tovia Singer, who is protecting her due to fear that she will destroy his already tainted reputation. I am urging everyone not to be fooled by her deceitful methods. She outs other Christian missionaries publicly on mainstream media, such as in Aish HaTorah News and Arutz Sheva, Jews are fooled to believe that she is protecting us from horrible missionaries that want to convert us. Shannon Nuszen is hiding in plain sight while pretending to be an Orthodox Jew. Her organization Beyneynu is a cover for her to receive funding for her organization from missionaries around the world… She pretends to be a devout Orthodox Jew… Shannon is currently galivanting in Israel with pastors from the Texas Evangelical Christian Church which she currently attends… She hosts huge parties where she feasts unsuspecting Jews in her home in order to gain their trust, with her pastors present!

On Oct. 30, I emailed Beyneynu the allegations in the letter above. I have yet to receive a response.

Gavriel Aryeh Sanders emails:

Luke:

This tripe you just posted about Shannon Nuszen is 100% wrong. My wife and I have been guests in her home several times. There are no missionaries there. There is no Interior Ministry case to block aliyah. She’s been a citizen for years. Beyneynu does legit work. It’s no cover. I would know. I’ve worked with her on several cases. She’s absolutely no covert missionary.

You must take this post down now. With all the grief we’re experiencing in Israel and among the Jewish people right now, you have to add to it with a spurious posting like this?

Posted in Conversion | Comments Off on Aish: From Christian Missionary to Observant Jew

The Nix (2016)

Posted on October 30, 2023 by Luke Ford

I’m reading Nathan Hill’s novel The Nix. Here are some highlights:

* “Porn is a problem for the whole project of enlightenment,” Alice said. “If otherwise rational, educated, literate, moral, and ethical men still need to look at this, then how far have we really come? The conservative wants to get rid of pornography by banning it. But the liberal wants to get rid of it too, by making people so enlightened they no longer want it. Repression versus education. The cop and the teacher. Both have the same goal — prudishness — but use different tools.”

* “The men in the movement say this shit all the time,” said Alice. “Like if you don’t want to fuck them they wonder why you have such big hang – ups. If you won’t take off your shirt, they tell you not to be so ashamed of yourself. Like if you don’t let them feel your tits you’re not a legitimate part of the movement.”

Posted in America | Comments Off on The Nix (2016)

Idea Deflection Is A Symptom Of Under-Earning

Posted on October 29, 2023 by Luke Ford

One of the 12 symptoms of under-earning according to Underearners Anonymous is: “Idea Deflection – We compulsively reject ideas that could expand our lives or careers, and increase our profitability.”

I’ve been thinking about my character trait of dismissiveness. It’s a reflex with me and it is part of my idea deflection in particular and under-earning in general.

I tend to present a hard cynical exterior to the world and dismissiveness is just part of the package. My cold front keeps others at bay and it keeps me isolated.

One of the tools I’ve learned in 12-step work to work with an unwanted trait is to figure out how the trait serves me, how it hurts, and how I would benefit from the opposite of the trait.

Here’s what I wrote in answer to these questions:

ADVANTAGES: Reduces my options and choices in life and this saves me time and energy. Accurate dismissiveness is a form of clarity. Accurately dismissing things and people reduces my exposure to dangers and wasting time and traveling down unproductive paths. Accurate dismissiveness reduces danger, bad choices, time sucks, unhealthy ways of living and thinking, and reduces my chances of relapsing into my addictions. Accurate dismissiveness is a powerful way of saying yes to top-level choices. Accurate dismissiveness opens me up to what is good and powerful and beautiful and true. It keeps my side of the street clean. It keeps me from getting enmeshed and entangled in people and things I’m better off without.

On the other hand,, I can use ambivalent to maladaptive levels of dismissiveness to keep myself isolated, unattached, uninvolved, at arm’s length from people, it can be a wall that I build to not only keep bad things at bay, but to keep beauty and truth and good people and good possibilities at bay. I can use dismissiveness to keep myself feeling safe by dismissing deeper and more human levels of involvement with other people and with new ideas and new practices. To the extent that I use dismissiveness to shore up my false beliefs about my own greatness and wisdom, I’m living in delusion, not in reality. Once you dismiss somebody once or twice, they’ll likely never offer anything to you again. They’ll dismiss you. So my dismissiveness has cost me potential connection and prosperity. As an employee, I’ve often dismissed or minimized my employer’s concerns, and that has led to disaster. As an employee, I have often felt that I knew better than my superiors and employers, and that has not usually served me. My dismissive attitude has caused other people to dismiss me. I tend to present a cold hard dismissive cynical exterior to the world and that does not endear me to others. That has kept me lonely and isolated and poor. Even people in my life know not to share vast parts of themselves with me because they’ve too often felt the sting of my dismissal.

To the extent that my dismissiveness comes out of my insecurity, it is maladaptive. To the extent it comes out of my security and clarity, it is adaptive.

My maladaptive use of dismissal keeps me isolated, keeps me in delusion, keeps me the skunk at the garden party. It limits my thinking and my choices and my options for interacting with people. It limits my opportunities for prosperity. It keeps my life small. I hurt people with my instinctive dismissiveness, and hurting people hurts me
and lowers my self-respect.

My life would benefit with less maladaptive dismissiveness, with less dismissiveness coming from a place of insecurity, because it would allow me to be more appropriately open to the world, to others, to new ways of thinking and living and connecting. I would be able to see my own errors and shortcomings and inadequacies and so I’d have a more appropriate and accurate appraisal of myself and where I can contribute to the stream of life. Other people would like me more. Dismissiveness is a form of idea deflection, which is a symptom of under-earning. Less of this symptom would likely mean less under-earning. by letting go of this false dismissive self, I could become more of my better self, a more honest self, a less artificial self, a less defended self.

I remember one Shabbos lunch for Orthodox singles where we were all invited to share one thing about ourselves. I shared, “I love sarcasm and irony.”

My therapist responded, “That will really make women want to get close to you.”

One therapist said to me, “You might only heal once you’ve put down your [psychological] weapons [such as dismissiveness and cynicism].”

Another therapist said to me, “I’d hate to see you waste your life in delusion.”

Another therapist said to me, “I’d hate to see you become one of those guys at the bar bending people’s ear about what you could have been.”

When I was once vulnerable with a therapist, she said to me, “This side of you will attract people, not repel them [like you normally do].”

A friend said to me: “You just want to be a celebrity. That’s all you dream of. It’s a dream life, you want, baby. You can’t settle for the prosaic tasks of building up a good life.”

Posted in Addiction | Comments Off on Idea Deflection Is A Symptom Of Under-Earning

Hamas v Israel

Posted on October 29, 2023 by Luke Ford

A friend says: What gets me about how the propaganda front is going is that Hamas clearly attacked Israeli with a mind to the second and third order consequences of their actions; and there’s very little discussion of that among the opinion-forming institutions/forums.

As far as I can tell Hamas miscalculated in the following ways. 1st they didn’t expect to penetrate so far so fast and face so little opposition. 2nd they were expecting a much faster and wilder Israeli response, not the unrelenting bombing, and brief land incursions. 3rd they thought their allies in Hezbollah, Iran etc would give them far more support. That largely hasn’t happened, possibly because Hezbollah’s initial attempts were largely disastrous for them. The IDF seems to have adjusted their doctrine significantly and effectively with the Shiite militia.

My friend in government said that we basically sank all of Iran’s surface ships in response to the hostage crisis under Carter, but it wasn’t until after we accidentally shot down one of their civilian airliners (legitimate mistake) that they “respected our resolve.”

They know this about themselves. And they know that this puts us in a catch 22.
The only means we have for addressing them on their own terms is something that our own culture is, in public, almost completely incapable of understanding much less condoning. Any action that would reclaim our dignity in the eyes of the Muslim world degrades and marginalizes us in the West. And visa-versa.

Posted in Israel | Comments Off on Hamas v Israel

When The Camera Turns On You

Posted on October 29, 2023 by Luke Ford

I heard a comment once on talk radio that everybody thinks he can act, run a country, and host a talk show.

Acting is largely reacting and a large part of the TV sports broadcast is up-close shots of members of the crowd reacting to the game.

Imagine the camera turned on you and you knew that your face filled the TV screens of millions of people? How would you react?

Some people jump up and down and wave like it’s the greatest thing that’s ever happened to them. Other people have more muted reactions. I think there are all sorts of age, sex, race and class differences operating here. I just saw a shot of the crowd in the India-England World Series of Cricket match and it appeared that the upper class, well-dressed contingent in this part of the India stadium displayed under-stated smiles while the working class around them whooped and hollered.

When I see someone painted in his team colors, I don’t expect that person to be a six-figure earner. In my life experience, the more intense the person’s fandom, the more desperate the life (and this fandom might dominate in arenas outside of sports such as politics and religion). If you like yourself, you don’t need to lose yourself in a team. If your happiness depends upon the fortunes of your team, you don’t have much going for you.

The more individuated, rational, intellectual, abstract, buffered and disembodied your approach to life, the less likely you’d be to express rabid enthusiasm in any context. I’d expect overall that sports fans are more tribal and right-wing than the average citizen.

Here’s one academic survey on class differences:

…the higher in socioeconomic status you are, the more independently oriented you are likely to be, while the lower in status you are, the more group-minded you are likely to be…

Because lower ranking people have fewer resources and opportunities than those of relatively high rank, they tend to believe that external, uncontrollable social forces and others’ power have correspondingly greater influence over their lives. Success for them, therefore, depends on how well they can “read,” rely on and help out others, the psychologists’ theory holds.

By contrast, those who enjoy more resources and greater class status live in contexts that enhance their personal power and freedom — larger and safer living spaces, the means to buy high-priced goods and experiences, and education that provides access to influential people, ideas and venues. These conditions give rise to a more self-focused approach to life, the theory states.

“With wealth and privilege comes this island of sorts, this increased insularity from others,” as Piff puts it.

I notice that children tend to react more to the camera than do older people and men more than women. Asians, of all the races, seem to react least to the camera.

I heard an observation that while the middle class in America welcome fame, the working class and the upper class generally don’t want it.

Here some random observations on life:

“Happiness is a liability in only one profession — attorney. Clients and superiors see it as a lack of commitment. When you leave at 6 pm, you have to look unhappy at having to leave so early. Opponents in court and depo see happiness as a weakness. Peers are jealous.” (Attorney caller to Dennis Prager)

“Being a gentleman is considered as weakness.” (Next lawyer caller)

* Saying “that ideology matters more than blood relations is a lot like saying that Chicago Bears fans root for the Bears because they believe intellectually in the Bears` Tampa-2 defensive alignment, while Green Bay Packer rooters have chosen their team out of their faith in the merits of the Packers` 3-4 defensive set.”

* “It really can’t be disputed that Jewish American men treat their wives better than men of all other religions by orders of magnitude.”

* “Unless I am wrong, Luke, you basically advocate for the shadow side of everything your father stood for?” (Mate)

* Woman: “Does nothing ever offend you because you are dead inside or because I just don’t matter to you?”

* Chaim Amalek: “You have a history of exposing the underside of every movement/activity you have attached yourself to.”

* Friend: “You just want to be a celebrity. That’s all you dream of. It’s a dream life, you want, baby. You can’t settle for the prosaic tasks of building up a good life.”

* “Luke is like a chrysalis in a chrysalis in a chrysalis, destined to repeatedly molt one identity as he take on another. SDA to orthodox Jew, and now from orthodox Jew to…”

* All of my therapists have told me that when I let my cynical guard down, I am easier to get close to.

* A friend who’s known me since childhood says: “You want everyone to love you. You want to be special to everyone. I so understand you. You have to have been unloved to understand this need.”

Posted in TV | Comments Off on When The Camera Turns On You