The Mayor of Arad lashes out in a rude and insolent letter to the Chairman of “Yad L’Achim”: “I’m a secular man; don’t interfere with our lives.”

Dr. Motti Brill, the Mayor of Arad, is defending his outrageous decision to hold a trip for New Immigrants, while publicly violating the Sabbath, to a concert full of unmistakable Missionary Characteristics in the Latrun Monastery. The Chairman of “Yad L’Achim”, the honorable Rabbi Shalom Dov Liefschitz, replied in a letter: “You better listen to the voices in your town, who thoroughly oppose the Missionary Activity, and remember that the Jewish People suffered persecutions in the past from people in whose footsteps the Missionaries follow. ‘The wicked, what does he say? What is this?’”

The firm action that “Yad L’Achim”, the Organization that stands in the front line of the struggle against the Mission, took in view of the intent to hold, during the holy “Shabbat Shmini”, a trip for New Immigrants from the former USSR who are Arad residents, to a Missionary concert in the Latrun Monastery – enraged the Mayor, Dr. Motti Brill, who, in reply to the letter from the Chairman of “Yad L’Achim”, the honorable Rabbi Shalom Dov Liefschitz, unleashed his tongue, in a rude, insolent, and abusive letter, out of which only a mere few sentences could be printed in the “Hamodia” Newspaper.

In his letter, the Mayor asks impudently: “Who are you to decide it’s against God’s will?” He even mustered the courage, and stated with contempt: “I, too, attend concerts of this sort, and perhaps you should listen to diverse music too, in order to better understand the world we live in.”

In his outrageous words, the Mayor of Arad continued to write: “I live in a Secular State; I am a very proud secular man, and it’s my public duty to maintain multiculturalism in the Israeli and Jewish Society. I request of you, and of your Organization, to keep your strict recommended lifestyle in your city of residence, Bnei-Brak.” He ends his letter by saying: “You are not welcome in my Town. I’m full of hope that you will internalize this information.”

But a man like the Chairman of “Yad L’Achim” will not be dissuaded, not even by words as insolent and outrageous as these. In the response that the honorable Rabbi Shalom Dov Liefschitz sent, he clarifies to the Mayor of Arad that despite the attempt to depict Missionary Activity in his town as “Multiculturalism”, it is a destructive act, designed for the sole purpose of converting Jews to the Christian religion.

“The New Immigrants from the former USSR,” says Rabbi Shalom Dov Liefschitz, “were cruelly cut off from the Jewish Heritage by the Communist reign of blood and tears. Upon us, upon each and every Jew, lies the Jewish duty to connect them to the Heritage. The possibility to participate in a concert of Christian motifs was presented by the Municipality, and for the New Immigrants, it’s a temptation. If you are familiar with the Scriptures, it is written, ‘Do not put a stumbling block in front of the blind.’ The New Immigrants who lack the knowledge and the roots are as blind, and the Arad Municipality is the one putting the stumbling block. And in support of our claim, we are enclosing letters from the Ministry of Absorption, who also see eye to eye with us.”

And indeed, a special letter dealing with this very subject, which was sent to the Chairman of “Yad L’Achim” from the Ministry of Absorption confirms and validates these concerns. “It is the instruction of the Ministry of Absorption,” states the letter signed by the Director of the Jerusalem and Southern Region, and the Beer Sheva and Negev Region, “not to hold any activity that involves the violation of the Sabbath, as long as the Office partakes in financing it. The Office encourages and provides absorption programs for building up the Jewish Roots, and strengthening the Jewish Identity.”

In reference to the matter of the Messianic Jews, who operate undisturbed, wreaking havoc with innocent Jewish souls, while the Orthodox Community repeatedly protests, Rabbi Shalom Dov Liefschitz expresses amazement at the Mayor pretending to depict them as “people who disturb no one.” “Has it eluded you that they are Missionaries?! Can you not see that the social activity they are offering the community has but one purpose – converting Jews to the Christian religion! Can we continue with our daily routine when, in the midst of a Jewish town, Missionary Activity is taking place openly, even if it’s done with a sweet tongue and a displayed amiability, it is but a “honey trap”, which the Missionaries are setting for the residents of Arad, New Immigrants and veterans alike.”

The Chairman of “Yad L’Achim” attaches to his letter the Interreligious Treaty that was recently signed by Leaders from the Jewish and the Christian world. This Treaty states that all activity of preaching and persuasion for religious conversion will not be allowed, but the only ones who refused to sign the Treaty are the members of the Messianic Community.

“We must emphasize,” writes Rabbi Liefschitz, “that there is great opposition in Arad to the Missionary Activity, including the opposition of the former Mayor. It saddens me that you ignore the historical facts, how Jews were burnt at the stake at the time of the Inquisition by men of this religion of “Grace and Mercy”, and how throughout the generations we suffered cruel persecutions that are written in blood on the pages of the Jewish History. The Missionaries are followers of those tyrants, in a different style, a different disguise, but with the same purpose – to exterminate the Jewish People. It seems that every Jew, wherever he may be, feels the same feeling of disgust from Missionary Activity. And at the same time, the responsibility for the fate of the Jewish People lies upon us all: “All Jews are responsible for one another.”

As an incidental remark, the Chairman of “Yad L’Achim” states, in response to the Mayor’s cynical remark about Bnei-Brak, that, “I live in Ramat Gan, not in Bnei-Brak; Bnei-Brak is a holy city, and I hope Arad will be too.” He expresses hope before the Mayor that, “you will internalize our words, and on the days of the Passover, contemplate well on the Heritage of the Generations, which you, as we, are an offspring of that same Jewish Nation who knew so much suffering, and it’s our duty to rescue Jews from the traps that are being set for them.”

As a man who practices “All Jews are responsible for one another”, towards any Jew, wherever he may be, the honorable Rabbi Shalom Dov Liefschitz relinquished his pride, and along with his letter sends an elegant Shmura Matza, and quotes the words of the Holy book of the Zohar that this is “a bread of Faith.”