Rev. Robertson Under Fire For Links to ‘Jews for Jesus’
By Jeffrey Goldberg
The Forward, March 10, 1995
NEW YORK — Overlooked in the controversy surrounding allegations that the evangelist Pat Robertson traffics in anti-Jewish conspiracy theories is another accusation — that the Rev. Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition, is an active supporter of groups that are targeting Jews for conversion to Christianity.
These groups, Christian missionary organizations that operate under names including Jews for Jesus and the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations, are disliked by mainstream Jewry because they target Jews in particular for conversion to Christianity, evoking memories of past Christian attempts to destroy Judaism through conversion.
Jewish anti-missionary groups say the Rev. Robertson, who claims among his supporters a number of politically conservative Jews, including several right-wing members of the Knesset, has a long history of meeting the Jewish community on two fronts — he is an ardent supporter of Israel, but he also supports groups the Jewish community condemns as cultish and anti-Jewish.
“We can’t just look at Pat Robertson’s words,” says Mark Powers, the national director of an anti-missionary group, Jews for Judaism. “We have to look at his actions. I believe his actions speak very, very loudly. Supporting these missionary organizations smacks of anti-Semitism.”
Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, told the Forward that he is “aware in general terms that Pat Robertson and his institutions are involved in missionary work, but it comes as a major surprise to me the extent to which they are supporting groups that target the Jewish community. It flies in the face of having respect for other people’s beliefs.”
A spokesman for Rev. Robertson could not be reached. Over the years, the Rev. Robertson has featured “Hebrew Christian” missionaries and converts on the Christian Broadcasting Network, which he owns, and on his signature show, the “700 Club.” These Christian missionary shows include “Israel and Prophecy,” “Zola Levitt Live” and “Bob Friedman and Friends.” From a station in southern Lebanon, the Rev. Robertson has broadcast his message of conversion directly into Israel.
The legal branch of the Rev. Robertson’s evangelical empire, the American Center for Law and Justice, represents “Hebrew Christian” groups, once suing New York’s Jewish Community Relations Council on behalf of Jews for Jesus, which accused the JCRC of threatening a boycott against a hotel that was scheduled to be the site of a Jews for Jesus convention. The suit was settled during trial.
Support Overshadowed
Through the years, talk of the Rev. Robertson’s support for Christian missionaries has been overshadowed by a debate in the Jewish community over whether a man whose views on Jews many find distasteful should be embraced because he supports Israel. The Israeli government, particularly its tourism arm, has long been friendly to the Rev. Robertson, who is said to fill up Israeli hotels with Christian pilgrims. Liberal-leaning Jewish civil-rights agencies in America have raised questions about the Rev. Robertson’s theological and political views. In 1986, the Rev. Robertson found himself embroiled in controversy when he publicly suggested that Jews are not bound for heaven. “The Bible says the Jews will go to heaven if they keep the covenant God made with them (the commandments),” he stated. “If they do not keep them, they have the animal sacrifice provision. The Jews today do not fulfill the covenant entirely, and they do not offer animal sacrifice.”
‘Sincere Regrets’
The current controversy centers on passages of a book the Rev. Robertson wrote in 1991 entitled “The New World Order.” Questions were raised about the book in a recent article in The New York Review of Books by Michael Lind, a self-described ex-conservative who has been trying to expose what he sees as the homophobia and anti-Semitism of groups such as the Christian Coalition. In the book, the Rev. Robertson refers to the allegedly nefarious activities of bankers with names like Warburg and Rothschild, and he suggests that Jewish bankers funded a plan for world revolution.
In response to an Anti-Defamation League request to clarify his views, the Rev. Robertson wrote that “if my statements were misunderstood, I offer my sincere regrets.”
The book, he has said, is actually pro-Jewish and pro-Israel. The Rev. Robertson has often supported Israel publicly, support that is grounded in his theological world-view. Many evangelical Christians believe that a battle at Armageddon between a strong Israel and the forces of the anti-Christ is one of the events that must occur before Christ’s return.
Moishe Rosen, an ordained Baptist minister who heads Jews for Jesus, said in a telephone interview that the Rev. Robertson’s views on missionary work are no different than those of any evangelical Christian. “It would be very rare for an evangelical not to support some sort of evangelical ministry to the Jews, but Robertson doesn’t particularly support our ministry. I’ve never been on his show, though some of our musical groups have been. I wish he would do more for us,” the Rev. Rosen continued. “We could use the money.”