Reuters reports today that comedian Jackie Mason is suing Jews for Jesus for $4million.

Jews for Jesus thought it was amusing to put comedian Jackie Mason’s image on a pamphlet aimed at converting Jews to Christianity, but Mason found it no laughing matter and has sued the group for $4 million (2.1 million pounds).

“I found it disgusting and obnoxious, and I find it even more disgusting and obnoxious that the spokesman for that organisation says, ‘Why doesn’t he have a sense of humour about it?’” Mason, 75 and famously Jewish, told Reuters on Friday.

“It’s like if they kidnap my children and say, ‘So what, you never saw a child before?’”

Mason’s lawyer filed the suit in New York Supreme Court on Wednesday, and Jews for Jesus on Friday asked a federal court to take the case. It is now up to a federal judge to decide which court should have jurisdiction.

It’s the quotes from his affidavit that make me smile though.

“As everyone knows, I am as Jewish as a matzoh ball or kosher salami (not to mention that I was an ordained rabbi),”

“He’s a public persona. It postulated that even someone as Jewish as Jackie Mason could come to faith in Jesus if he wanted to,” said Susan Perlman, a spokeswoman for the group. “It’s humorous, hardly labelling him a Jew for Jesus. … We thought it would be flattering to him,” she said.

Mason was having none of that though. “First of all there’s no such thing as a Jew for Jesus. If you believe in Jesus you’re a Christian. That’s the point of Christianity. You can’t be a table and also a chair.

“I have to develop a whole new act now,” said Mason, who accused the group of stealing his “schtick” of poking fun at the differences between Jews and Gentiles.

[tag]Jackie Mason, Jews for Jesus, gentiles, jews, comedian, legal[/tag]