Hebrew-Christianity: Another Concern
From the United Synagogue Review, Spring 1999
It is extremely disconcerting to realize that the conversion of the Jewish community has been, and continues to be, the focus and fulfillment of the spiritual needs of millions of people. The Jewish community has always resisted these attempts with a great deal of success, but a change in tactics is making significant inroads.
Rather than force Jews to learn to live and worship as Christians, the Hebrew-Christian Movement has created a religious setting that allows -- and even encourages -- Jews to retain their Jewish identity and, at the same time, embrace Jesus. These efforts reflect a well-conceived strategy designed to gain acceptance in the secular Jewish community and, when viewed in a larger context, reveal an attempt to redefine a Jew in a manner which joins Jewish custom and practice to the fundamental beliefs of the Christian world.
Hebrew-Christianity is often and inappropriately called "Messianic Judaism." There is nothing "Jewish" about it. It is a movement which has grown from a single congregation in Philadelphia to a networked conglomerate of more than 600 "missions" to the Jewish people and which is succeeding in co-opting significant numbers of our young adults, seniors, Israelis, and our people in and from the former Soviet Union (FSU). The Jews for Jesus organization is the most aggressive and visible of these missions.
The more "Jewishly" sensitive of these groups advocate the observance of Jewish festivals and holidays in lieu of Christian ones. Accordingly, they celebrate Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Simhat Torah, Hanukkah, Purim, Pesah, and Shavuot. Similarly, most of their religious establishments hold services on Shabbat rather than Sunday, complete with an Ark and a Sefer Torah. They pray in a mixture of English and Hebrew and their worship parallels mainstream Jewish practice, differing only because of the christological interpretations which are employed.
The festival of Passover provides an excellent example of Hebrew-Christian activity. They, like us, celebrate Passover with a seder. Their haggadot look much like our haggadot, but the meaning of the ritual has been reinterpreted to reflect the tenets of Christianity. For example:
Q: How many matzot do we have at the table?
A: Why three, of course.Q: What do they stand for?
A: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.Q: Why do we break the middle matzah?
A: Because his body was broken on the tree.Q: Why do we hide [the afikomen]?
A: Because his face has been hidden from us.Q: Why do we eat it at the end of the meal?
A: Because he will come to us at the end of time.
There is a misconception that the people we are losing are "peripheral." It simply is not the case. On the whole, the people who are being converted reflect some of our best and our brightest. They are brilliant young men and women, graduates of day schools and yeshivot. Some are children who have been introduced to the Hebrew-Christian movement as a result of a second marriage. Thirty years ago, people spoke about intermarriage the way they speak about conversion to Hebrew-Christianity today.
he efforts spawned by the fundamentalist and evangelical churches some forty-odd years ago are beginning to bear fruit: our fruit. Jewish men and women of all ages, as a result of loneliness, loss of self-esteem, or the lack of a serious Jewish education are being attracted and integrated into these groups.
Our response needs to be twofold. First, we need to become aware of the threat and begin to educate ourselves. Second, we need to view this incursion as an opportunity to reexamine the effectiveness of our Jewish communal institutions. It is said that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. By transforming our places of worship and study into more easily accessible, more humanly sensitive locales, we will surely make a difference.
Rabbi Simon is the Executive Director of the Federation of Jewish Men's Clubs, the male volunteer arm of Conservative/Masorti Judaism. Countering Hebrew Christianity is one of Men's Club's major initiatives.
