But while Jew Belong and Born to be a Yid are both campaigns run by Jewish organizations and are intended to strengthen Jewish identity among Jews, Jews.com is not.<\/p>\n
The website is ostensibly an educational resource about the Hebrew scriptures. But after a short scroll, it becomes clear that the website is aimed at converting Jews to belief in Jesus.<\/p>\n
All articles, videos, and question boxes by \u201cRabbi\u201d Kurt Schneider begin by referencing passages from the Torah before progressing into an appeal for belief in Jesus as the messiah and encouraging Jews to reevaluate their preconceptions.<\/p>\n
A billboard advertising the site jews.com. (credit: Screenshot\/Instagram)Site compares Hassidic rebbes to Jesus<\/p>\n
Schneider speaks about hassidic Jews, viewing rebbes as intermediaries between them and God, for example, before telling the viewer that \u201cJesus is the true intermediary; he can bring you into a direct personal relationship with [God].\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJesus is not outside Israel\u2019s story,\u201d he says. \u201cJesus, known in Hebrew as Yeshua, is the messiah God promised to Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jewish people have struggled to accept Jesus as the messiah because \u201cHe has often been portrayed not as a Jew but as a gentile\u201d in culture and art, Schneider says.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor centuries, much of Western art has presented Jesus as fair-skinned and European, disconnected from the culture, bloodline, and traditions of the Jewish people,\u201d he says. \u201cThis has made it harder for many of our people to see him for who he truly is: The Jewish messiah.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schneider then cites a passage from Isaiah that says the messiah will suffer before he is recognized and honored, using this to prove his claim that Jesus has simply not yet been recognized by the Jews.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am appealing to you not to reject Jesus simply because he was crucified,\u201d he says. \u201cHis earliest followers were Jews, and they bore witness that God raised him from the dead and that they had seen him alive afterward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schneider is not a rabbi, nor has he ever been ordained as such. He was born to Jewish parents in Ohio but \u201ccame to Jesus,\u201d in his words, and has since described himself as a messianic Jew<\/a> focused on proselytizing.<\/p>\n At the age of 20, the Lord supernaturally appeared by sending him back 2,000 years \u201cto visibly witness Yeshua being crucified,\u201d he says, adding that his parents had him kidnapped by \u201cthe most famous deprogrammer in the country to deprogram me\u201d and then sent him to a psychiatric hospital.<\/p>\n After his release, he went to Toccoa Falls Bible College, where he was awarded the Preacher of the Year Award. He then became a church minister.<\/p>\n Schneider runs the TV and radio ministry Discovering the Jewish Jesus, which is aimed at proclaiming \u201cthe messiah to Jewish people and the world.\u201d<\/p>\n A lot of the content involves the bastardization of Jewish scripture, holidays, and traditions for proselytism, notably the reframing of Yom Kippur<\/a> as a holiday about Jesus.<\/p>\n Christian proselytizing organization conducts campaigns in Israel<\/p>\n