A dozen years ago, Jews for Jesus missionary Bruce Rapp wrote a short newsletter article for the organization announcing a new convert: his Jewish stepmother in South Florida.

But Edith Rapp said it was a complete lie – she denied ever accepting Jesus Christ as the son of God – and in 2003 she sued the San Francisco-based evangelical ministry.

That is the crux of a defamation claim which, after rounds of litigation that went as high as the Florida Supreme Court, is finally set for trial in Palm Beach County by year-end.

“She considers herself 100 percent Jewish,” said Barry Silver, Rapp’s Deerfield Beach-based attorney and also her rabbi. “She’s very anxious to go to court.”

But Jews for Jesus’ lawyers are asking Circuit Judge Lucy Chernow Brown to cancel the trial, mainly on the grounds that Rapp, 79, is unable to prove any damages from the publication. A hearing on the request is set for Oct. 21.

“This case is really about nothing,” said Horatio “Harry” Mihet, an attorney with the Orlando firm called Liberty Counsel. “The claims are without merit.”

In her lawsuit, Edith Rapp accused stepson Bruce Rapp of repeated attempts to convert his father, Marty Rapp, before his death from Parkinson’s disease in 2003. She alleged that Bruce Rapp falsely depicted her as a Jesus follower who recited the “sinner’s prayer” for her salvation; the assertion appears in Bruce Rapp’s “Praise Report” for the Jews for Jesus newsletter in July 2002.

Over the years, the lawsuit was thrown out, only to be revived by the state’s Supreme Court, which Silver says shows the case has merit. Now the case is scheduled to be tried sometime between Oct. 27 and Dec. 19. The plaintiff has said she may ask the jury to award her about $500,000.

During a March 12, 2013 deposition, Rapp said, “both my husband and I told (Bruce) that we were absolutely not interested, because to us, Jesus was not part of our religion. Anybody who was a Jew for Jesus was not a Jew in our faith … We were Jewish, and we wanted to stay Jewish.”

Rapp said she has suffered “mental damage” from what was written about her, according to the deposition transcript made public last month. “First of all, it just upsets me terribly that he lied about it,” she said.

Copy the Story Link