A massive billboard erected in the Pi Glilot area (between northern Tel Aviv and Ramat Hasharon) in recent days sparked an uproar after the Ohr L’Achim organization identified it as part of a missionary campaign targeting the Israeli public.

The billboard directs viewers to a website called “What If He’s Right,” accompanied by a message questioning whether J. is the Messiah. According to material on the website, the campaign seeks to persuade Israelis to reconsider J.’s identity and reexamine “holy texts.”

After receiving calls about the billboard on its emergency hotline, the Ohr L’Achim organization took action to have the billboard removed. Binyamin Volkan, director of the organization’s department for combating missionaries and cults, contacted Kobi Mor, CEO and owner of the Mega Media advertising company, demanding that the campaign be halted and the billboards be taken down.

Volkan warned that the advertisements are explicitly missionary in nature and raised particular concern over their placement in public spaces, where children and teenagers are exposed to them.

Volkan noted that missionary activity aimed at converting minors is prohibited under Israeli law, warning that publicly displayed billboards expose minors to missionary material regardless of whether they seek it out.

“Behind the advertisement is the American missionary K.A. Schneider, who masquerades as a ‘rabbi,’ complete with a beard, kippah, tzitzis and tallis,” Volkan revealed, adding: “Advertisements of this kind in Eretz HaKodesh hurt and deeply distress masses of Jews whose ancestors were moser nefesh al kiddush Hashem.”

Following Ohr L’Achim’s intervention, the advertising company halted the campaign, including the massive billboard displayed in the Pi Glilot area.

Ohr L’Achim welcomed the removal, describing it as an important achievement in its ongoing fight against the public dissemination of missionary material.

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)