Prior to following Yeshua Messiah, Aviad Cohen was known as the Jewish rapper, 50 Shekel. Once YHVH took the scales off of his eyes, he knew he had two choices: keep quiet about the truth or share it with the world. He chose the latter. The persecution (brought upon by some non-believing Jews) that Aviad faced as he proclaimed Yeshua as Messiah consisted of defamation, slander, spin doctoring, Jewish Counter-Missionaries using underhanded methods to acquire personal information about Aviad from his family (which were promised to be kept in confidence) and then adjusting the information to accommodate their self-interests, disseminating falsehoods about him and his character as they re-educated Jewish youth about who they wanted the 50 Shekel fans to think about Aviad Cohen.

Their agenda was preying on ignorant Jews, especially the youth who were not Biblically literate and the war brought upon by the Jewish Counter-Missionaries was "Judaism vs. Aviad Cohen" rather than "Judaism vs. YHVH and The Holy Scriptures." Death threats by Jewish Counter-Missionaries followed, vandalism at his Los Angeles home (where he resided at the time), hateful emails and phone calls and the press interviewing him and then twisting his words and leaving out pertinent information from email and telephone interviews.

Aviad had now been finally ostracized as a traitor and enemy of the Jewish people since he read The Holy Scriptures from cover to cover, both Old Covenant and New Covenant and believed and chose to follow Yeshua Messiah. Since then, some of his "50 Shekel fans" still visit his website and have been in contact with him from time to time. Aviad even sent his music to one of the top Jewish Counter-Missionaries who found the music joyous and interesting. With YHVH all is possible. Jews are coming to know Yeshua as their promised Messiah and YHVH is using Aviad Cohen as a vessel to share the Good News of salvation through Yeshua Messiah with both Jews and Gentiles."

Excerpt from: The Forward newspaper l June 17, 2005

Scott Hillman, director of the Baltimore branch of Jews for Judaism, a counter-missionary group, told the Forward that his organization has been advising Jewish youth groups and synagogues to discontinue booking Cohen for performances. Hillman also said that the organization has received several complaints from people claiming that Cohen has been using his mailing list to proselytize to his young Jewish fans.

“We have a responsibility to let people know when a missionary is taking advantage of kids,” Hillman said. When asked about the allegations, Cohen responded that God’s “word speaks for itself.”