Christian Missionary caught proselytizing Haredi women on the way to give birth
It is always distressing to hear about people in distress being taken advantage of so it was especially troubling when Yad L’Achim, an organization that works to prevent Jewish assimilation, began receiving reports of a non-Jewish woman using her position driving Haredi women to the hospital to give birth on Shabbat in order to try to convert them to Christianity.
A Haredi young husband from Jerusalem contacted Yad L’Achim last week. He had been suffering troubles in his marriage. His wife had recently suffered a recent trauma and the young couple was struggling to cope. But the wife seemed even more distracted as their marital situation deteriorated despite all his efforts. Finally, she confessed. When her emotional state was at its worst, a Christian woman name Jan Comeaux approached her. Rather than compassion or comfort, Comeaux convinced the fragile young woman that her only salvation lay in accepting the Christian faith. She was about to accept Christianity, a move that would surely have irreparably destroyed her marriage, but fortunately, Yad L’Achim is providing counseling and her condition is improving.
Comeaux understood that the easiest people to convert were those in dire straits so she began working as a driver on the Sabbath for Haredi women who needed to go to the hospital which, in many cases, was for giving birth. Comeaux also attracted women in need of help through her knowledge of alternative medicine, claiming to be an expert in trauma therapy and healing.
Yad L’Achim investigated the situation and discovered the Comeaux had left a husband and children behind in the US in order to come to Israel to convert Jews. She was in Israel on a tourist visa but, as Yoav Robinson of Yad L’Achim explained, “She was not here to tour the Holy Land.”
Robinson received first-hand testimony from the women she targeted,
“Comeaux searched for people who had suffered trauma and were in fragile emotional states,” Robinson said. “She believed that Israel was prime territory since we had suffered so much terrorism and wars. Israeli law prohibits proselytizing children because they are fragile and helpless. She especially targeted helpless people.”
Comeaux denied being a missionary but Yad L’Achim knows of at least two formerly Haredi Jewish women who have left the Jewish faith due to her efforts. She has also posted on social media about her successes.
Yad L’Achim obtained a video in which Comeaux describes her methodology. She proudly claims that when people are in distress and they ask ‘Where is God?’, she answer that they need to believe entirely in order to understand. She explains that she does not reveal that she is speaking about Jesus but eventually when they are open to a foreign belief, she introduces the name of Jesus. Comeaux presents herself as a proud “lover of Israel” and serves as the executive Board head of the Christian Friends of Magen David Adom. The video has since been removed from the internet.
Robinson emphasized that the organization is not anti-Christianity and does not object to Christians in Israel.
“We object to missionaries,” Robinson said. “After two millennia of Christian oppression, the only way Jews and Christians can relate to each other in a positive way is to leave behind this paradigm of missionizing. It is especially abhorrent when the Christians target our moist vulnerable with lies and deceit.”
Comeaux is even deceitful about her identity. She appears in videos on the Jubilee Church website as Jan Kuske.
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