These Jews are for Jesus

A small but growing number of Jews are proclaiming Jesus as their Messiah while maintaining a separate Jewish identity. But some Christians argue they are damaging relations between the faiths. GREG WATTS reports
THE CARNAGE of the holocaust in Nazi Germany, with the complicity and silence of many Christians, has forced the Church to reappraise its attitude to the Jewish people.
But the growing Messianic Jewish movement poses some awkward questions for Christian Jewish relations.
Messianic Jews profess Jesus, Y'Shua in Hebrew, as the Messiah, the fulfilment of the promises in the Hebrew scriptures. Rather than joining the existing Churches they choose to maintain their Jewish identity and worship in Messianic congregations, sometimes called synagogues, which tend to be evangelical in doctrine and charismatic in worship.
The worship varies from congregation to congregation but key features are dancing, the breaking of bread and the use of the Jewish Prayer Book. To the Jewish community words like "Christ" and "baptism" are associated with persecution (the old charge of "Christ-killers", for example), so congregations replace them with "Messiah" and "immersion".
Mainstream Judaism shuns Messianic Jews, while the mainline Churches are embarrassed and uncomfortable by their existence. Put simply, they are seen as the ecclesiological fly in the ointment.
The current Messianic Jewish movement emerged in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. An
earlier form in Russia had been exting-uished by the 1917 revolution.
The numberof Messianic Jews in the UK is quite small, between 2,000 6,000, chiefly concentrated in London and the Midlands.
There are now around 200 Messianic congregations in the United States and around 50 in Israel. The UltraOrthodox and Orthodox Jewish communities in Israel have been stepping up their opposition to Messianic Jews and are behind the attempt to get the Knesset to outlaw anyone changing their religion from Judaism or possessing literature for that purpose.
SITUATED ON London's Finchley Road is the UK headquarters of the missionary organisation Jews for Jesus. Its shop front displays books such as The Jewish Way to Say Jesus Christ, kippahs (Jewish skull caps) and menorahs (liturgical candlesticks.)
Jews for Jesus, which is linked with the Evangelical movement, adopt a high profile, evangelising on the streets, advertising in national newspapers and producing billboards with slogans such as "Be More Jewish. Believe in Jesus." Some of its offices in the US have signs that read "Jews for Jesus, founded 70CE[Christian or Common Era] give or take a year."
Jonathon Bernd is the UK director of Jews for Jesus. His father escaped from the Nazis on one of the last child transport trains allowed out of Germany Mr Bernd says that being Jewish and being a believer in Jesus are perfectly compatible.
"People think it is a contradiction today. But in the New Testament the question was: could you be a Gentile and believe in Jesus?
"We want to share our faith with other Jewish people. We want to be a resource for Jewish people who want to ask questions about Jesus. Often Jewish people, when they discover Jesus, will say 'Why didn't I hear about this before?'
"A rabbi once said to me 'I don't believe in Jesus and I don't believe in the New Testament but if you do believe in it it would seem that you're supposed to tell other people."
Opposed to the Messianic Jews is the Council of Christians and Jews. Set up in 1942 to combat prejudice, intolerance and anti-semitism, it counts Cardinal Hume, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Chief Rabbi among its presidents. "Messianic Jews cause deep pain to the Jewish community. The Catholic Church has done a lot since 1965 in building good relations with the Jewish communities," said Sister Margaret Shepherd of the CCJ.
"The Messianic Jews play no part in our agenda. I feel Messianic Jews are destructive. They are not helping to build bridges between the faith communities. They are saying you need to complete Judaism with Jesus. The Church's position is that Jews have their own way to God. Jews don't need Jesus. They have their own covenant."
Rabbi Dan Cohn-Sherbok clashed with the CCJ in 1995 when he was told that if he spoke at a conference of Messianic Jews to promote his book on Hebrew he could be expelled.
Dr Walter Riggins of the Church's Ministry among Jewish People, which has around 2,500 evangelical Churches affiliated to it, argues that the wrongs committed down the centuries by Christians against Jews does not mean that the Good News should not be shared with the Jewish community.
"Why should you have to choose between being a Jew and being a Christian. In the first generation of the early Church everyone was both Jewish and Christian," he claims.
"Obviously proselytizing is wrong. But proselytizing is a slippery word and some people use it as a synonym for evangelising. None of the Messianic Jews would be believers if someone hadn't shared the Good News with them."
Stuart Cohen, pastor of The Tree of Life Messianic Fellowship, Chingford Essex, says that the CCJ and all Christians should be supporting Messianic Jews.
"There's no need to be ashamed of Messianic Jews. Belief in Jesus is a legitimate expression. To say that Jews who are believers in Jesus are offensive is very painful to us.
"Jesus is the Messiah for the Jewish nation and for all Gentiles. We love Jewish people too much to deny them the knowledge of the truth."
The Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement appears to welcome Messianic Jews. At their international conference in Jerusalem in September, Benjamin Burgon, a leader of an Israeli Messianic congregation addressed 5,000 Catholic Charismatics. Afterwards, two Messianic Jews had a friendly meeting with the committee of theInternational Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services.
Fr Peter Hocken, who is well known on the Charismatic circuit, suggests that the Messianic Jewish movement is a reminder that God moves in mysterious ways.
"However, a possible reason why the Lord is doing things this way, outside the Churches, may be that the Jewish Church was not intended to be under the control of the Gentiles.
"For the appearance of the Messianic Jewish movement means that for the first time since the earliest Church there is once again a corporate Jewish expression of faith in Jesus Christ."
Bishop Ambrose Griffiths of Hexham and Newcastle told the Catholic Herald: "The Messianic Jews are a most interesting development. We have to accept people as they are and respect their sincer ity."
As the Pope has recently acknowledged, down the centuries Jews have suffered persecution and discrimination at the hands of Christians, culminating in the Nazi holocaust. It is, perhaps, an irony that today there are elements in the mainstream Churches that refuse to dialogue with some Jews. This is not because the Jews are seen as "Jesus Killers" but rather because they are Jesus lovers. In this decade of evangelism, is it the case then that there are "no go" areas?