A number of religious groups, particularly Christians and Muslims, are involved in proselytization of Jews: Attempts to recruit or "missionize" Jews. In response, some Jewish groups have formed counter-missionary organizations to discourage missionary and messianic groups such as Jews for Jesus from using practices that they say are deceptive.
Christian missions
According to Rabbi Tovia Singer, counter-missionary expert and director of Outreach Judaism, there are well over 1,000 messianic congregations and other missions to the Jews worldwide.
Catholic Church:
The Catholic Church has historically been instrumental in its attempt to convert Jews . Such examples include conversos during the Inquisition, especially within Spain. However, since the Second Vatican Council and the production of the document Nostra aetate, the Catholic Church's attitude towards Jewish conversion has been that of condemnation. Pope Francis has made explicit bans on conversion attempts, stating "In concrete terms this means that the Catholic Church neither conducts nor supports any specific institutional mission work directed towards Jews," equating such attempts to antisemitism.
Protestantism:
A number of Christian denominations have programs to reach Jews. The JTA, a Jewish news service, conducted an extensive analysis of Christian efforts to convert Jews to Christianity and found that some of the largest evangelical denominations – the Southern Baptists, the Assemblies of God, and the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod – have all increased their efforts to evangelize Jews in the recent past.
The article states that the Christian missionary organization Jews for Jesus completed a five-year tour called "Behold Your God" that brought its message to 53 cities worldwide, and the Christian Chosen People Ministries saw its income grow by 31% to $7.9 million between 2003 and 2006.
Jews for Judaism, a Jewish counter-missionary group, writes that there are over 900 Christian groups in North America actively involved in missionizing the Jewish people. Jews for Judaism further states that these groups are currently spending over $250 million each year on efforts to convert Jews to Christianity. Jews for Jesus, the best known single ministry to the Jews, spent over $15 million in 2008. The Assemblies of God has an extensive organization targeting Jews for conversion to Christianity.
Israel has more than one hundred Messianic congregations according to Yaakov Shalom Ariel, an associate professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina and author of Evangelizing The Chosen People.
A prominent effort to convert Jews to Christianity is known as Jews for Jesus. It was founded by Martin "Moishe" Rosen, a Jew who grew up in a non-observant home, converted to Christianity, and was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1957. In 1973, Rosen left the employment of the American Board of Missions to the Jews, now called Chosen People Ministries, to incorporate a separate mission which became known as Jews for Jesus. In 1986, he received an honorary Doctor of Divinity Degree from Western Conservative Baptist Seminary in Portland, Oregon. Jews for Jesus is now led by David Brickner, who has been working for the organization since 1977.
The 19th century saw at least 250,000 Jews convert to Christianity according to existing records of various societies. Data from the Pew Research Center has it that, as of 2013, about 1.6 million adult American Jews identify themselves as Christians; most as Protestants. According to the same data, most of the Jews who identify themselves as some sort of Christian (1.6 million) were raised as Jews or are Jews by ancestry. According to a 2012 study, 17% of Jews in Russia identify themselves as Christians.
Efforts to convert Jews to Christianity are sometimes regarded as antisemitic. Most Progressive Christian and Mainline Christian denominations have publicly declared that they no longer proselytize Jews. Most evangelical and conservative Christian churches have said they will continue their efforts to evangelize among Jews and claim that proselytism is not antisemitic (even if some Jews disagree) .
Muslim missions
Muslims have also targeted Jews for conversion. Rabbi Moshe Cohen, of Yad L'Achim, an Israel-based counter-missionary organization, has identified Al Dawaa, an Israel-based Muslim group headed by Sheikh Abu Yassin of Kafr Manda.