Suspected Jewish terrorist admits to anti-missionary activities
By Yuval Azoulay
2/10/2010 Israel (Haaretz) – Suspected Jewish terrorist Yaakov (Jack) Teitel told his interrogators he was an active member of anti-missionary group Yad L’achim for five years, Haaretz has learned.
The Bnei Brak-based ultra-Orthodox group has gained notoriety in recent years for its actions against Messianic Jews, whom it perceives as a “sect” seeking to convert Jews to Christianity. The organization also prides itself on “rescuing” Jewish women from relationships with Palestinians and Israeli Arabs.
Teitel, a resident of the settlement Shvut Rachel, was charged last November with murdering two Palestinians and attempting to murder three people, including Hebrew University Professor Zeev Sternhell and Ariel teenager Ami Ortiz. Ortiz, from a family of Messianic Jews, was gravely wounded by a bomb packaged inside a Purim gift in March 2008. Teitel admitted to placing the bomb, and called the Ortiz family “missionaries trying to capture weak Jews.”
