‎20 MINUTES WELL SPENT!!! WATCH THIS AND YOU DECIDE!!!

Former ‘messianic’ follower helps ‘lost’ Jews come home

by Debra Rubin
NJJN Bureau Chief/Middlesex

March 28, 2011

CLICK HERE FOR THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE.

When he isn’t spinning discs at weddings and other parties, Jeff Neckonoff is waging a private battle against missionary groups who dupe unknowledgeable Jews into joining their ranks.

And he knows their tune: Raised a “Torah-ignorant” Jew, Neckonoff turned to messianic Judaism before embracing Orthodoxy.

“Everything the missionaries said resonated and made so much sense” to me, said Neckonoff, 45, who will discuss his journey during an April 1-2 scholar-in-residence weekend at Congregation Beth Shalom in Red Bank.

In a phone interview with NJJN, Neckonoff said he was coming to Beth Shalom to share his message that “God has his own place” for everyone.

Neckonoff said he grew up “culturally Jewish” in Canarsie, a Brooklyn neighborhood so Jewish that during his first few years in school he thought non-Jews were a minority in the United States. He attended afternoon Hebrew school, hating “every minute of it.”

“I studied Jewish history and learned how to read Hebrew but did not learn much about God,” he said.

Like many of his Jewish friends, he had “a nicely catered” bar mitzva, ate bagels and lox, and consumed no bread on Passover without really understanding why.

It wasn’t until Neckonoff took a course in comparative religion at Baruch College in Manhattan that he even had any curiosity about God. It was also where he met his Italian-Catholic wife, Maria.

After graduation, he worked as a DJ at some of the hottest night spots in Manhattan, Queens, and Long Island — including several strip clubs. His marriage ceremony was performed by a “rebel” priest and “a really cool” rabbi who told Neckonoff “he was lucky to be marrying a woman who didn’t want to convert me.” He agreed that their children would be raised Catholic.

One evening — after the couple had just seen Schindler’s List — he caught a TV program about the Holocaust. He sent for two books recommended by the host, expecting them to be traditionally Jewish. Although “enraged” to find they were actually Christian, Neckonoff read them and was so intrigued he read the Christian Bible and sought out chat rooms on the Internet. He received numerous mailings from many faith groups; the ones he got from Orthodox Jewish counter-missionaries, he said, were largely “mean and hateful.”

“They said what I was doing was a shanda and I should divorce my wife immediately and become frum,” said Neckonoff. Instead, he developed a rapport with a representative of Jews for Jesus.

He joined a messianic congregation — a church combining Jewish symbols and Christian theology — which he now derisively refers to as “Congregation Beth Goyim.” Its members wore kipot and tallitot, its rabbi wore tzitzit, and the congregation had an ark and Torah scroll and a service with “joyful” music.

When Maria became pregnant with their daughter, it “made sense,” he said, that she be raised with his newfound mixture of Judaism and belief in Jesus.

It was at one of the messianic conferences he and his family occasionally attended that he had an epiphany. “I looked around and saw there were about 100 people in the room and maybe me and six or seven others were the only halachically born Jews,” said Neckonoff. “Why weren’t more Jews streaming in? I realized maybe I didn’t know that much about Jews or Judaism.”

After much reading, research, and soul-searching, Neckonoff rejected Jesus as the messiah and began taking classes in Judaism. Over the years, he became more observant and encouraged his son and daughter to join him on his journey. They converted, and Maria — now known as Meira — spent years in intensive study before also undergoing conversion.

Today the family lives in an Orthodox neighborhood in Lawrence, NY, and the children attend an Orthodox high school. Neckonoff is a DJ — mostly on the Modern Orthodox bar and bat mitzva circuit, where, he said, he plays only “the clean stuff.”

At his website, www.jewsforhashem.com, Neckonoff offers resources for “those lost Jewish souls still trapped in the messianic, Hebrew-Christian, & evangelical worlds.”

Beth Shalom’s Rabbi Dovid Harrison said, “We are so excited to be hosting Jeff. His presentation promises to be a fascinating, educational, and inspiring experience.”

Was it love?! | Man dies trying to revive dead wife

Reported by Associated Press

JOYCE, Wash. — A man who called 911 to report that his wife had collapsed apparently suffered a heart attack and died as he was trying to revive her, authorities say.

The Clallam County sheriff's office said when deputies and medics arrived eight minutes later on Wednesday night at the home near Joyce, they found the man slumped over her body. He apparently had been attempting CPR.

Both died. He was 60. She was 59. Their names weren't released because family members had not been told.

The deaths appear to be from natural causes and no crime is suspected..

Sgt. John Keegan called the incident strange but said no foul play is suspected. “Usually events like this don’t happen in pairs,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.

ACTION ALERT | Report the “Third Palestinian Intifada” page on Facebook

A Facebook page has been created that calls for a violent Third Intifada against all Jews on May 15th.  The page has received a lot of attention in the media.  As of this writing, the page has over 332,000 followers. So far Facebook has refused to remove this page!!!

Here is how you can help:

1. Please visit the Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/Palestinian.Intifada, and report the page.  There is a link for this purpose at the bottom left of the page.
2. You can call Facebook demanding the page be taken down.  The phone number to call and to leave a message is 650.548.4800.
3. Please forward this message to as many people as you can, mention it in your status update, or write a post or blog about it.

Playing dead: The sickening video that shows children recreating suicide bomber attacks as a playground game!!!

To the Islam apologists among my friends….this is for you.  Yes, I know, this is not the real Islam.  But this is what it has become for a great majority of Muslims.

WAKE UP!

Read the original article on Mail Online by clicking here.

A shocking video has emerged from Pakistan depicting children role-playing a Taliban suicide bombing.

The 84-second clip shows Pashtun children recreating a terrorist attack, with one boy dressed in black - the 'bomber' - being embraced and wished well by his friends before setting off on his deadly mission.

In the single-take video, the 'bomber' then approaches another boy, dressed in white, who appears to be mimicking a member of the security forces and tries to stop him.

But the young Jihadi then 'detonates' - with other boys throwing sand into the air to simulate the explosion - and others rush in to examine the children who are playing dead.

Ahsan Masood, a Pashtun from Waziristan in Pakistan, posted the video on Facebook because he 'thought it was funny'.

He said he believed it had been filmed in Khost, Afghanistan, and that it had been sent to him via his mobile phone by a friend.

It has been described as 'horrifying' by a children's charity in Pakistan, but others have said it could be seen in a positive light as children role-play to deal with the violent circumstances they see in their everyday lives.

Salma Jafar of Save the Children UK in Pakistan, told The Guardian: 'It's horrifying and alarming.

'These children have become fascinated by bombers rather than condemning them.

'If they glamorise violence now, they can become part of it later in life.'

However, Pakistani media commentator Fasi Zaka called clip 'the most amazing amateur video I've ever seen'.

'It's disturbing but also sophisticated and creative – a one-camera shot that captures it all. They are reproducing what they see in their lives around them.'

Saying goodbye: The bomber, dressed in black, embraces his friends before setting off on his mission

Halt: The bomber is stopped by a boy pretending to be with the security forces

Boom: The boys throws sand and dust into the air to simulate the explosion

Medical help? One child runs in to examine the 'dead' after the explosion