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	One of the most important ] is the belief in ] with no partnership of any kind, and it is therefore impossible to profess Judaism and believe in Jesus at the same time. In his book ''A History of the Jews'', ] describes the ] caused by a divergence from this principle:		One of the most important ] is the belief in ] with no partnership of any kind, and it is therefore considered by many to be impossible to profess Judaism and believe in Jesus at the same time. In his book ''A History of the Jews'', ] describes the ] caused by a divergence from this principle:
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	To the question, Was Jesus God or man?, the Christians therefore answered: both. After 70 AD, their answer was unanimous and increasingly emphatic. This made a complete breach with Judaism inevitable.<ref>{{cite book		To the question, Was Jesus God or man?, the Christians therefore answered: both. After 70 AD, their answer was unanimous and increasingly emphatic. This made a complete breach with Judaism inevitable.<ref>{{cite book

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Beliefs

According to an article on Jews for Jesus by B. Robinson of Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance,

Their doctrinal statement is basically indistinguishable from Evangelical and other conservative Christian groups. It includes the following beliefs:

in the divine inspiration and inerrancy of the Old and New Testaments, as originally written.

God the creator exists as a Trinity, is perfect, all wise, all powerful and all loving.

Jesus is the Messiah, the second person of the Trinity, was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died for the sins of all humanity, rose again, and is co-equal with God. Jesus will return to earth in the near future.

People are saved through a belief in Jesus as savior and an acknowledgment of their sins; not by their achievements.

Heaven is a reward for those who are saved; Hell is a place of "everlasting conscious punishment" for the vast majority of humanity.

They differ from some Evangelical Christian groups in their belief that Israel continues to exist as a covenant people.

One of the most important Jewish principles of faith is the belief in one God and one God only with no partnership of any kind, and it is therefore considered by many to be impossible to profess Judaism and believe in Jesus at the same time. In his book A History of the Jews, Paul Johnson describes the schism between Jews and Christians caused by a divergence from this principle:

To the question, Was Jesus God or man?, the Christians therefore answered: both. After 70 AD, their answer was unanimous and increasingly emphatic. This made a complete breach with Judaism inevitable.

Leadership, funding and outreach

The organization was founded in 1973 by Moishe Rosen, an ordained Baptist minister of Jewish heritage who self-identifies with the Judaic tradition. Rosen remained its executive director until May of 1996 when he was replaced by David Brickner.

The group's financial support largely comes from a variety of Christian churches, "a number of Bible schools, and individual Christian donations..." and its budget is in excess of $10 million. It has "a full-time staff of 150 employees running branch offices in nine cities across the United States. There are also branch offices in Toronto, London, Paris, Buenos Aires, and Johannesburg."

Aims and organization

Jews for Jesus' official mission statement is "to make the Messiahship of Jesus an unavoidable issue to our Jewish people worldwide." They claim that belief in Jesus as Messiah is a fulfillment of the prophecies of Hebrew scripture. Rosen argues that Christianity is the fulfillment of scriptures. Through media advertisements, production and distribution of literature, producing music and organizing person-to-person evangelism, the organization asserts that "a specifically Jewish mission" is necessary, as "Jewish people tend to dismiss evangelistic methods and materials that are couched in Christian lingo, because they reinforce the assumption that Jesus is for 'them' not 'us.'"

According to its Executive Director, Jews for Jesus employs "only front-line missionaries who are Jewish or married to Jews". Stan Telchin, formerly associated with Jews for Jesus, wrote in A Loving Call to Unity that 80 percent of those who attend Messianic Synagogues are not Jewish. An official figure quoted to counter it pegged the number at 50 percent.

Critical responses

All mainstream Jewish groups (both secular and religious) strongly oppose Jews for Jesus and many see its proselytizing activities as a thinly-veiled attack on Judaism.

The Spiritual Deception Prevention Project at the Jewish Community Relations Committee of New York states that

On several occasions leaders of the four major Jewish movements have signed on to joint statements opposing Hebrew-Christian theology and tactics. In part they said: "Though Hebrew Christianity claims to be a form of Judaism, it is not ... It deceptively uses the sacred symbols of Jewish observance ... as a cover to convert Jews to Christianity, a belief system antithetical to Judaism ... Hebrew Christians are in radical conflict with the communal interests and the destiny of the Jewish people. They have crossed an unbridgeable chasm by accepting another religion. Despite this separation, they continue to attempt to convert their former co-religionists."

Some Christian churches see Jewish religious practice as valid in and of itself and thus object to evangelizing Jews.

The Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington, an umbrella organization that includes Muslims, Jews, and church groups from the Roman Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran and Presbyterian churches, has condemned Jews for Jesus as promoting activities "harmful to the spirit of interreligious respect and tolerance." The conference is opposed to religious proselytizing in general. The conference also denounces the group's "deceptive proselytizing efforts", stating that when practiced on "vulnerable populations" such as the young or the elderly, these efforts are "tantamount to coerced conversions." The Rev. Clark Lobenstine, a Presbyterian (PCUSA) minister and executive director of the Conference, has stated that his group condemns Jews for Jesus and other messianic Jewish groups by name because they "go beyond the bounds of appropriate and ethically based religious outreach." Rick Ross, an alleged "cult expert", has been critical of the organization as well and has included them on his website.

The Board of Governors of The Long Island Council of Churches, a group that is opposed to proselytizing of Jews in general, voiced similar sentiments in a statement that "noted with alarm" the "subterfuge and dishonesty" inherent in the "mixing religious symbols in ways which distort their essential meaning", and named Jews for Jesus as one of the three groups about whom such behavior was alleged.

Support

Jews for Jesus defends its actions against these charges, stating:

"If a person believes the Bible and believes that Jesus is the only way of salvation (John 14:6, Acts 4:12, Romans 10:9,10) and then that person declines to tell a Jewish friend about Christ, it indicates one of two things. Either that person has decided that the Jews are not worthy of the gospel, in which case he would be a racist, an anti-Semite and a hater of people instead of the lover of people that God wants him to be. Or perhaps he has judged the gospel as being unworthy of the Jews in which case he has trivialized the passion of Calvary and the awesome significance of Christ's resurrection."

Jews for Jesus is a member of numerous evangelical Christian groups: The World Evangelical Alliance, Canadian Council for Christian Charities, Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association, Evangelical Alliance of Great Britain, Evangelical Council on Financial Accountability, Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism, National Association of Evangelicals, The Internet Evangelism Coalition, and the World Evangelical Fellowship.

Litigation

Jews for Jesus has been involved in litigation regarding Internet use of its name. In 1998 they sued Steven Brodsky for cybersquatting for registering the domain name jewsforjesus.org to use for a site criticizing the organization; the domain now belongs to Jews for Jesus and is used for their main site.

In 2005 they sued Google for allowing a Blogspot user to put up a site at the third-level subdomain jewsforjesus.blogspot.com. That lawsuit appears to have settled, as the blog now is operated by Jews for Jesus.

In 2006, comedian and actor Jackie Mason filed a lawsuit against Jews for Jesus, alleging that they unlawfully distributed a pamphlet which used his name and likeness in a way that suggested he was a member of the group. In fact, Mason is a member of the Jewish faith and not associated with Jews for Jesus. Jews for Jesus, however, has responded on their website to the allegations, stating that "We hope once you read it you will agree that we treat Mr. Mason respectfully and that we in no way say that he is a follower of Jesus." and attempts to explain that the pamphlet does not proclaim Mason to be a Christian at all.