Customer Reviews

Hawking God: A Young Jewish Woman's Ordeal in Jews for Jesus

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This very personal account of nice-Jewish-girl Ellen's years as a missionary in Jews for Jesus reveals the power, control, and decpetion that can be found in such groups, and the difficulty in breaking away. Kamentsky's writing is balanced while remaining honest and self-revealing. For anyone who deals with cults, cult-like groups, and invasive religious missioniaries "saving" Jewish souls, this quick read is well-worth seeking out in a used copy or at a library and then sharing with parents, teenagers, clergy, and friends. Ultimately, her story is an inspiring one of her family's love and the finding of a faith.

As a Jewish person active in Zionism and Anti Missionary efforts, I quite enjoyed this book. The author is a former cult member/victim of Mity Mo (Moshie Mosen) and his J4J cult. Although she does not go into the detail I would have favoured, she does a good job exposing the lies, brainwashing techniques and other efforts they use.

This book is great and every detail is true!

I am a former Jews for Jesus missionary. I worked with Ellen...

HAWKING GOD is the only book out that gives details on what it was like to really work for Jews for Jesus. Recently, Ex Jews for Jesus staff have begun to write our stories, and soon our stories will be available in published form, but at this time, Ellen's book is vital and must be read.

I highly recommend this book!

The author writes in the Preface to this 1992 book, "This book is about a woman who no longer exists. Six years ago I prayed to receive Jesus as my Lord and savior. Today I would not make that decision. As a Jew, I do not believe in Jesus and have no desire to be part of Jews for Jesus. This is the story of how despite those feelings I accepted Christ. The good news is that today I am free from Jews for Jesus and have a satisfying life. The tragedy is that many talented, young people remain trapped in destructive religious organizations and cults."

Here are some quotations from the book:

"Months later my friend Stacy was severely disciplined for a minor misdemeanor... Already brainwashed, I did not even question Stacy's treatment. I had lost my capacity for reflective thought and critical thinking. We had to be reliable soldiers..." (Pg. 58)
"We thought God was using our foolishness to win souls for Christ. We envisioned the walls of Hell crashing down about us and believed we were winning L.A. for the Lord." (Pg. 83)
"Explaining and understanding how I believed in Jesus and still called myself a Jew is impossible. Today I feel Judaism and Christianity are mutually exclusive. I have chosen Judaism." (Pg. 119)
"Once I had mastered Christianese I graduated to tongues... within weeks I was spitting out strings of gibberish with the rest of the church." (Pg. 121-122)
"Mixing Judaism and Christianity, I feel, is like mixing green and red; you get mud. Both Christianity and Judaism lose meaning." (Pg. 123)
"When I was a Jew for Jesus, I read the resentment as evidence that people were hearing my message. They were not interested; they were angry." (Pg. 123)
"Beneath my Jewish face and cartoonish tracts, beneath my desire to convert Jews was the message that it's not O.K. to be Jewish. I believed that Jews who did not accept Jesus went to Hell. I now consider such thinking anti-Semitic." (Pg. 123)

I have read excerpts from this book on the net. It is surprising to me that anyone would get involved in such an idiotic cult, but I think it takes a certain kind of person to be so deprived personally as to join any sort of cult.

Her story would only be interesting to anyone who has been approached by a cult, and having volunteered at an Outreach Center for people who were involved in such religious cults, I can tell you it does go on and damages a lot of people. Some come out in need of psychiatric treatment, because of the threats of their future trip into hell. Like any cult, they are indoctrinated, watched, their schedules made up for them. No rest, decisions made for them, no independence from dawn till dusk. If they are there for a while, they get paid to be leaders. These cults are not religious, they are businesses. No question about it.

There is, on the Internet many more stories about such events at a website called Ex-Jews for Jesus. Very interesting reading.

This book is a travesty. None of Ellen Kamentsky's claims are remotely proven in this book. She makes ridiculous statements regarding supposedly unreasonable things she was asked to do -- such as being accountable for how her time was spent.

It is obvious that Miss Kamentsky was a confused pawn of antimissonary diatribes.