Christianity Today

Jews for Jesus (JFJ) recently finished a 66-month evangelistic campaign with a month-long New York finale. Two hundred missionaries worked the streets for JFJ's largest-ever campaign in New York, which boasts the largest Jewish population in the world outside Israel. They distributed 1 million tracts and collected contact information for more than 5,000 people.

"It's hot in the subways, on the streets; our feet are tired," David Brickner, executive director of Jews for Jesus, told CT. "But the response has been volcanic."

Brickner said 157 Jews and 164 Gentiles had become followers of Yeshua as of mid-July, most of them through street evangelism.

Jews for Jesus, composed of evangelicals with Jewish lineage, began the campaign by sending the Jesus film in Yiddish to 80,000 Hasidic homes in the city. With a campaign budget of about $1.5 million, JFJ also launched ads in newspapers, radio stations, and in the subway. JFJ dispersed missionaries through all five city boroughs and sections of New Jersey.

Missionaries tried to spark conversations by asking passersby who they thought Jesus was before explaining that they were both Jews and Christians.

"The bottom line is we're saying Jesus is the Messiah of Israel. What could be more Jewish?" Brickner said. "My Jewish heritage is secondary to the fact that Jesus is the Messiah."

For follow-up, Jews for Jesus is working with a number of local evangelical churches, including Calvary Baptist Church, Brooklyn Tabernacle, and Christ Lutheran church.

Christ Lutheran pastor Vernon Schultheis said the church allows JFJ to use building space to store supplies and eat. He isn't sure handing out tracts is the most effective evangelistic technique, but added it may be as good as any other since Jews ...

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