Missionaries at Work
“We canvassed the flea market and college campuses to search for Israelis,” says Asore, sharing the missionaries’ proselytizing tactics. “Then we invited them to Bible study groups.” From here, it was often a short step to having them join the community.
Today, from his office in Jerusalem, Rabbi Asore shares with me the weltanschauung of the Evangelical Church. “The missionaries know that as Jews, we’re wary of them. The bloodshed of the Crusades still gives them a bad track record. So, they are trained to show all potential converts tremendous love and compassion. It’s all part of their strategy. They are driven to convert the Jews in particular, because they believe that the Second Coming is contingent on our acceptance of their faith. For them this is a spiritual Final Solution.”
The Way Out
For Asore, the way out came when his brother-in-law, well-versed in Christian doctrine, invited him to Monsey for a debate. Asore’s Evangelical mentors tutored him for months in preparation. In Monsey, well-known rabbis joined Yehudah Peretz in an effort to help Asore come home. The hours-long debate continued over a year with correspondence flying. As it became clearer and clearer to Asore that Christianity had taken sources out of context to lend support to its beliefs, he stopped attending church and began to increase his Jewish learning.
Perhaps one of the biggest pushes came late one night, when Asore, having begged God for a sign to show him the way, flicked between 120 TV channels. Suddenly there was a rabbi on the screen, pointing his finger at Asore. “You, the Jew sitting in your living room who thinks that Hashem doesn’t hear your prayers,” the rabbi thundered, “remember that Hashem hears the prayers of every Jew!”
Saved a Third Time
It took one more brush with mortality before Asore came home. Late one night, after delivering fashion merchandise in Key West, Asore, who had planned on refueling in Key Largo, was caught in a storm. Unable to refuel, the coast guard advised him to try to reach Miami. When Asore ran out of fuel twenty minutes later, he was advised to either eject into the shark-infested ocean or try to land on an emergency Air Force landing strip built on floating barrels in the middle of the ocean. With zero visibility, Asore knew he had no chance of locating this tiny target. He opted for a complex water landing that would, in all probability, smash the plane into bits or send it on a nose-dive into the depths. Shouting Shema Yisrael, Asore headed towards the ocean… and hit the landing strip. “When mortality is starting you in the face, everything melts away. All that exists is the unadorned truth shining forth. That’s when I made the decision not to run away any longer,” says Rabbi Asore. He had come home.
A Prolific Author
Today, Rabbi Daniel Asore, proud father of a large Jewish family, heads the theological Department at Machon YANAR (an acronym, in Hebrew, for Rabbinic Marriage Counselors). He teaches a course that prepares graduates to fight against the rising tide of missionizing in Israel, and manages a hotline for those enmeshed in Christianity. Usually, concerned family members call in. “At the moment, after a call from her son, I’m dealing with a charedi widow who fell into a depression. Using the Internet, she became convinced that Christianity is the answer. I spent four hours talking to her in our first meeting. It’s a long process,” he says. In addition, Rabbi Asore has authored four books. Translated into English, At the Gates of Rome refutes all the Christian arguments used to convert Jews. The other books examine Islam, cults and atheism.
