Just a year after Andrew Lewis, an Australian missionary, left Moshav Otzem in the south, due to pressure from local residents, he has surfaced in the north, according to officials from the Yad L’Achim anti-missionary organization.
The organization suspects that Lewis, one of the country’s senior missionaries, is living in a small Jewish community whose residents don’t understand what he’s up to.
Last week, during the final days of the yeshiva vacation, Yad L’Achim received many calls from vacation sites in the north and from several cities – Haifa, Afula, Charish, Kiryat Shmuel – reporting on widespread missionary activity.
Based on the materials that were being distributed, the organization knew that Lewis was behind the campaign.
Yad L’Achim activists and volunteers spread out across the north to catch him in the act and to warn off the many local tourists in the area.
At the same time, concerned Jews sent Yad L’Achim footage from local security cameras showing the distribution of missionary material so that the organization could positively identify Lewis as the person behind the activity.
Lewis’ determination to distribute the material can be seen in one of the films, which shows his children — wearing kipas like observant Jews — dangerously hanging out of a vehicle to toss out missionary pamphlets.
Lewis takes his children with him so that passersby won’t suspect that he’s a missionary.
Residents who saw the images of children with their upper bodies hanging out of a vehicle were shocked that missionaries even endanger their own children in order to distribute their material.
Based on his track record during his time hiding in Kibbutz Maayan Baruch near Kiryat Shomona and in Otzem, Yad L’Achim officials said they suspect that Lewis is hiding in a small Jewish community in northern Israel where he isn’t recognized, and which he uses as a launching point for his operations.
Lewis is likely hiding his true faith, as he’s done in the past, said Yad L’Achim.
“We ask the public to keep an open eye and notify our emergency hotline in the event they encounter him, so that we can respond quickly for the welfare of innocent Jews.”