After almost two years of a battle waged by Yad L’Achim against a missionary center for youth in Jerusalem, the largest of its kind in Israel, the center has finally been closed. The story began when Yad L’Achim received information that a missionary named Yariv Goldman established a special missionary center in Jerusalem for Chareidi and religious youth, disguising it as a regular youth club. A Yad L’Achim activist began following the youth center’s activities. The staff members began preaching Christianity after gaining the trust of several teenagers who began frequenting the center. At that point, Yad L’Achim began openly protesting against the center. Activists maintained shifts outside the center to dissuade youths from using the center’s services; spoke to directors of other youth centers in Jerusalem and asked them to curtail any collaboration with the center; and pressured property owners to terminate rental contracts with the center’s directors. The organization also published a list of quotes from priests in the US praising Goldman’s missionary work from an English-language website set up by Goldman to receive donations from churches and Christian donors in the US for his work with Jewish youth in Jerusalem. Ultimately, the organization’s efforts bore fruit and Jewish youth stopped frequenting the center. Five youths who had been influenced by the center to “believe” in Christianity met with Yad L’Achim Rabbanim, who were successful in deprogramming them from the web of lies they had been told at the center. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

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