It’s Way Too Hot . . . And You’re In Everyone’s Way . . . Plus, You’re An Idiot

A $1.4 million Jews for Jesus proselytizing campaign may or may not be money well spent:

Jews for Jesus is a worldwide group based in San Francisco that adheres to an evangelical Christian theology but is made up of believers with Jewish lineage. It is sending 200 missionaries to the city for July, its biggest campaign in New York in its more than 30-year history. It is the finale of a five-and-a-half-year effort to conduct campaigns in every city in the world outside Israel with more than 25,000 Jews.

“This is the largest outreach we’ve ever had,” said David Brickner, the executive director of Jews for Jesus, who outlined a multipronged effort that involves street evangelizing and an extensive media campaign.

During previous summers in New York, a small group of Jews for Jesus missionaries concentrated on Manhattan. This year the group plans to make its presence known in all five boroughs, as well in Westchester and Rockland Counties, in northern New Jersey and on Long Island. There are also campaigns aimed at Russian-speaking Jews, Israelis and Hasidic Jews.

With a campaign budget of roughly $1.4 million, Jews for Jesus has already sent out mailings to 400,000 Jewish homes in the area and DVD’s in Yiddish about Jesus to 80,000 Orthodox homes. It has launched a marketing campaign with radio spots and subway and newspaper ads featuring the slogan “Jesus for Jews.”

The centerpiece of their outreach, however, is their work on the streets, where members of the group, in colorful T-shirts emblazoned “Jews for Jesus” and adorned with the Star of David, hand out literature and try to strike up spiritual conversations with Jews and non-Jews alike.

Most of the people who pray with Jews for Jesus missionaries to accept Jesus Christ as their lord and savior are, in fact, non-Jews, according to the organization’s statistics. But the group, which sends its monthly newsletter to 100,000 households, is most interested in engaging Jews with the Gospel.

Jewish groups in the city across the religious spectrum, many barely able to contain their loathing for the organization, have united in opposition.

Indeed, the response that many people, Jewish or gentile, have to Jews for Jesus epitomizes the derision, admiration and bewilderment that religious proselytizers can engender in this city.

To some, they are sterling examples of spirit-inspired boldness; to others, simply infuriating.

And steamy subway stations during the dog days of July may or may not be the best place or time to spread the word:

On Thursday, Shaun Buchhalter, a staff missionary in New York, offered the volunteers tips for how to engage people. “Don’t get discouraged,” he emphasized. “Each person is like a bucket,” he said. “Every interaction they have with the Gospel is another drop in the bucket.”

Later in the day, the volunteers ventured onto the streets for the first time. Avi Snyder, the group’s European director, demonstrated how it was done, briskly proffering blue pamphlets to the crowds plowing past on 34th Street and Broadway.

A man in a skullcap talking on his cellphone took one and tore it in half, tossing it over his shoulder while walking away. “Do you want another one?” Mr. Snyder asked.