As an apologist, one of my objectives is to deal with other apologists. I encounter the work of many people and groups. One group is a Jewish group called Jews for Judaism which is run by Rabbi Michael Skobac. They arose shortly after the founding of Jews for Jesus to counter their missionary efforts. At this point in time, I would say that their organization no longer serves a purpose.
Why do I say this? As an apologist I look at every religious group and I see their apologists. Some are good, some aren’t. I would say that the worst out of any group is Jews for Judaism. This is because all they do is repeat talking points, repeat the reason for their existence, and don’t come up with any new arguments.
Many apologists have improved over the years. Tovia Singer, David Wood, Tony Costa, Jimmy Akin, Robert Sungenis and others have worked to move into new areas and develop new arguments and ideas. I’ve also seen many Muslim apologists move beyond the showmanship and one liners of Ahmed Deedat. You have to develop new material and ideas if you want to be effective.
Jews for Judaism simply parrots the party line. In the video above, Rabbi Skobac “refutes” John 14:6 by saying that holy men such as Abraham, Moses, Caleb, Joshua, and David connected to God before Jesus and therefore the statement of John 14:6 is false. To all readers of this page: If you ever read an argument as bad as that on my blog, I want you to unsubscribe and never visit this site again. Any professional apologist of several decades should consider finding a new job if this is the kind of argumentation they’re promoting. This is the content that I’d expect if a Jewish teenager made his first Youtube video on apologetics, not a full time professional apologist of several decades who’s an ordained Rabbi.
If you look at some of their other recent videos, one can tell they’re running out of ideas since they just get community volunteers to repeat their talking points. See below.
Here’s another video where a community volunteer just parrots the reason for the existence of Jews for Judaism. See below.
According to their website, they have three people on staff. I don’t think they survive on anything besides donations from the Jewish community. If I were a Jew I’d consider putting my hard earned dollars elsewhere. I don’t make a dime off of my blog or the apologetic material that I produce. I’m not saying that it’s wrong to earn money for being apologist, but one should be careful when giving money to an organization that simply produces nothing.
Those who have followed this blog for the last year have learned far more than they’d learn by following the Jews for Judaism YouTube channel for the same period of time. It’s pointless to follow this organization any longer. If I was a Jew interested in apologetics, I’d probably try to set something up and take the reigns since this organization doesn’t appear to be doing anything for its community.
Being an apologist isn’t glorious. Bart Ehrman’s new book comes out today. I’m going to pick it up and review it. I’m not doing this because I want to, but because I know atheists and Muslims will pick this book up and use it to rob Christians of their faith. I need to address his arguments for the readers of this blog.
Jews for Judaism doesn’t do anything like this and in my opinion has reached the end of the line. It’s time for them to shut down. For everyone reading this who wants to get into apologetics, know that you can’t just repeat talking points and the reason for your existence over, and over, and over again. Shalom.
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