August 2006 Archives

My friend Jenny Moyers is not the most connected Jew ever to walk the earth. She doesn’t belong to a synagogue and does not celebrate any of the Jewish holidays in her home. She seems to regard my rabbinic career path with something bordering between amusement and disdain.

So it came as something of a shock to me when one day we were walking together in the Philadelphia subway and a yellow-shirted Jews for Jesus missionary approached us to offer some literature. Jenny went completely ballistic and started yelling at him at the top of her voice, screaming that he ought to be ashamed of himself for calling himself a Jew. “Jews do not believe in Jesus!” she yelled. “What you are doing is disgraceful!” Needless to say, Jenny’s outburst made quite an impression on me, and it got me thinking.

Jews for Jesus push a lot of people’s buttons–even people who would otherwise not really care about Jewish tradition or practice–because they reside at the messy little intersection of identity and belief. For the most part, you can believe (or not believe) and do (or not do) whatever you want and still be Jewish. That’s because being Jewish isn’t a function of a particular belief or set of actions so much as it is a cultural, historic, and spiritual identity into which you are born or choose to convert. You’re just Jewish and, like Jenny, you don’t really need to worry about the particulars.

Jews for Jesus messes that all up.

If you really can believe whatever you want as a Jew, couldn’t you be Jewish and believe in Jesus? The answer is no, and I think it has less to do with theological objections–although these certainly exist–than it does with identity issues. For 2,000 years, at least in the West, Christians are what Jews defined themselves against. Oppressed, victimized, expelled, and slaughtered simply for who they were, Jews had their identity and outsider status reinforced over and over again. They were Other, and the oppressors were Christians.

The symbol of Christianity par excellence, the defining element, is Jesus. So to hear the words “Jew” and “Jesus” strung together into the phrase “Jews for Jesus” hits a very raw nerve for many Jews today–I imagine something akin to what Jews for Allah(!) would do to Jews who were oppressed in Islamic societies.

It’s not out of hatred of Jesus, or of Christians, or of Christianity, but rather as a reaction to hundreds of years of oppression. And for the many Jews like Jenny who don’t participate in Jewish life in any way, rejecting Jews for Jesus affirms their own bona fide Jewish identity. But, perhaps just as revealingly, the forceful reaction also acknowledges an underlying insecurity and doubt about whether you really can do or believe whatever you want and still be Jewish. Because the truth is, you can’t–there are some lines that just can’t be crossed.

Ah… summer in New York City: Central Park concerts, café life, sweaty subways, and who can forget those smiley young boys and girls passing out Jews for Jesus pamphlets. Every year they come with more zeal and more ambition, peddling their product and hoping that someone with a kippah will say yes, now that I have read this beautiful media-savvy pamphlet, I see the light and have accepted Jesus into my life.

Most Jews would like to ban Jews for Jesus outright. Understandably so, they feel threatened by a group trying to make Jews believe something that they know is a social and theological impossibility (On the Jewish understanding of Jesus see Judaism's view of Jesus, and Irving Greenberg’s more welcoming ideas).

Irrespective of whether or not Jesus was a Jew, a failed messiah, or a prophet, the bottom line remains: it is both socially and theologically impossible to be a Jew and accept Jesus as the messiah.

When I was younger, I used to clench up every time I passed by a Jews for Jesus salesman/woman. But then I realized that they are no different than half of the things sold on Manhattan streets everyday: bad merchandise.

But one cannot, nor should they, try to ban bad merchandise just because its bad merchandise. Lots of things get sold everyday on the street. If there is one thing Jews know it’s that they don’t accept Jesus. The notion that New York Jews en masse are going to be duped by these 20-year-old bright-eyed kids from Middle America is simply preposterous.

Jews for Jesus salespeople are nothing more than used-car salesmen who truly believe the stories they heard from the previous owner. But that does not nor should it make it illegal for them to sell cars.

Personally, I don’t listen to used-car salespeople, and I would tell anyone I know not to give them the time of day. But if it gives a few young folks a chance to get a free trip to the Big City, then good for them. I hope you all are having a good time running around the city telling lies. Just do me a favor when I tell you I am not interested: Leave me alone.

If you believe Jesus is the messiah, died for anyone else’s sins, is God’s chosen son, or any other dogma of Christian belief, you are not Jewish. You are Christian. Period.

We Jews may not like to admit it, since we prefer live and let live, but sharing the message of their faith is a basic tenet of belief for Christians. However, there are ethical and unethical ways of doing so. The self-proclaimed Jews for Jesus, Messianics, and other Christian groups that clothe their Christian beliefs in Jewish language and ritual are nothing better than wolves in sheep’s clothing, luring often-unsuspecting Jews with unscrupulous advertising and deceptive programming, like Passover Seders and Hanukkah parties. Their methods are unethical. They often prey on the emotionally vulnerable.

Unfortunately, their success is built upon the significant financial and in-kind support they receive from both evangelical churches like the Assemblies of God, dedicated to the mass conversion of Jews as part of their apocalyptic vision, and from the local mainstream churches in my area whose leadership doesn’t seem to understand why the Messianic or ‘Jew’ for Jesus form of Christianity should be as offensive to them as it is to us.

Unfortunately, the success of these groups is also built upon our own failures in the Jewish community: failures to sufficiently fund Jewish outreach to the unaffiliated; to take seriously the need to train outreach workers; our own reticence to push our enthusiasm for Jewish observance (unless you are Lubavitch) on other Jews and to go out of our way to care for those in emotional need in our community, whether from a divorce, a job loss, problems with parents, loneliness, or any number of other reasons.

Every Jew who converts to Christianity is a failure for the Jewish community. However, as much as I feel pain over Jews who convert to Christianity, it is even worse if the Jew has become a ‘Jew’ for Jesus, because such merging of beliefs is anathema to Judaism.

Since the Christianization of the Roman Empire, Jews have chosen to die rather than accept that Jesus is the messiah, the savior, or in any way different than any other child of God. They did so because we Jews believe in the unambiguous unity of God, that God hears everyone’s prayers (without the need for an intercessor), that there is no vicarious atonement, only the atonement each person seeks through asking forgiveness and doing good deeds, and that the messiah has not yet come, for the world is not yet perfect and at peace. That these groups imply that someone could be a Jew and believe otherwise (in Jesus as their personal savior) is simply a lie.

The best defense is a good offense. That is why we should give three cheers to Jackie Mason on deciding to sue Jews for Jesus and demanding truth in their advertising, let alone not using famous people in their deceptive advertising without permission.

That is also why we should be providing more support to such groups as Jews for Judaism, why each of us can and should learn more about what Judaism believes, and why each of us can and should do more to reach out to our Jewish neighbors and bring them home to an honest and true expression of their Judaism.

Israeli and American Jews are now scratching their heads over the war in Lebanon. Oh, how quickly political tides change. Just a few weeks ago, everyone was standing squarely behind Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert; today everyone is calling for his resignation.

Only time will tell if this war will have any positive consequences in deterring Hezbollah. What does seem certain, however, is that the Zionist myth of the muscular Jew--a myth promulgated just as much by American Jews--has been severely challenged. Unfortunately, the war in Lebanon has shown that right now muscles and military might will not solve Israel’s problems. No matter what Israel will do--short of dropping a nuclear bomb--terrorism will continue to infect the Middle East.

The story of muscular Judaism--that Jews possess a physical superiority--was first proposed by Max Nordau. In response to 2,000 years of Jews being beaten up by the world, Nordau suggested that the Jewish body needed to be regenerated from its decrepit European state. Jews were a strong people who could fight and play sports as well as any gentile.

This view was adopted many in Israel and continues to affect the nation’s psyche. In recent years, Prof. Daniel Boyarin and others have called this myth into question asking, is muscular Judaism really Jewish? Following those such as the Austrian liberal Rabbi Adolf Jellnik, Boyarin in his work "Unheroic Conduct" suggests that in contrast to the muscular Jew, traditionally the Jewish body was described and understood as being something far more feminine and non-militaristic. In contrast to the ancient heroes Bar Kochba and the Macabees, Boyarin sees the Talmudic scholar as the ideal Jew.

Perhaps the greatest irony of the muscular Jew myth is the extent to which it has been embraced by American Jews. I always find it unbelievable how American Jews who have never served one day in any army, have never even picked up a gun in their lives, have never even seen a battlefield are the first to promote going to war against the Arabs. Where do they get such arrogance?

I wonder if there would be so many criticizing Israel's actions had Israel won the war in Lebanon and toppled Hezbollah. However, the bottom line is that Israel was unable to destroy Hezbollah, proving that military might may not be the most productive way to deal with its regional problems.

In the aftermath of the war in Lebanon, Israelis have begun a round of soul-searching into what went wrong. How was it that Israel’s vaunted military–the pride of a nation and unquestionably the best-equipped army in the region–could barely make progress against a few thousand militiamen? Of the many casualties of this war, one will surely be the myth of Israeli invincibility, and this will have repercussions for Jews throughout the world.

In truth, this myth was already in questionable shape–the last entry into Lebanon in 1982, the intractable intifadas of the last 20 years – these have taken their toll on the Israeli psyche. For those American Jews raised on glorious stories of 1948, 1967 and, to a lesser extent, 1973, these debacles can be disorienting. But the truth is that for a younger generation of American Jews, these long, complex, and painful stand-offs have been the norm and not the exception. The clean, morally unambiguous victories of the past fall into the realm of history and nostalgia. For Jews around the world, the question is: How does our relationship with Israel change when it is no longer identified with legendary military prowess?

Some, perhaps, will not question their relationship with Israel, seeing it as the victim of international opprobrium despite being the country that was, after all, attacked. But for many, this turn of events with lead to some sort of reevaluation, whether conscious or not, of their feelings toward Israel.

Most American Jews’ relationships with Israel were built on a steady diet of glossy images of Israel, reinforced through synagogues, Jewish community centers, Israeli promotional material, and missions. Just recently, I attended a performance by the Tzofim–Israeli teen scouts who serve as cultural ambassadors. The image they presented through their performance–of kibbutzim, of falafel, of making the desert bloom, of Jewish unity, of a mighty IDF–was better-suited to the Israel of Golda Meir than that of Ehud Olmert. If American Jews are going to build the sustainable, organic connections with Israel necessary to forge support for the next generation, then the picture needs to be updated as well so they don’t suffer a bout of cognitive dissonance every time they pick up a newspaper.

Israel needs and deserves our support. But we need to understand that the country we are supporting is not a one-dimensional Israel: It is a place with deep social, political, and religious divisions. Nor is it the country that defeated four surrounding armies in six days in the 1960s. And if the myth of Israel’s military might is displaced, I personally think this will lead to a healthier relationship with Israel and our own Jewish identities–rooted not in a feeling of pride based on superior military strength but rather on a relationship grounded in love of the land, learning, integrity, and justice.

Reading the news the other day, I felt like Frodo Baggins does as things look grim in "Lord of the Rings." It seems we have our own Two Towers. On one hand, we have the Shiites: Hezbollah, rather than being...

It seems that the U.S.-backed ceasefire in Lebanon, while fragile, is holding for the moment. I pray that it does, and that families on both sides of the border will be able to return to their homes, rebuilding, and trying...

A few weeks ago, we read in our weekly Torah reading the command to do what is right and good. The Hebrew word is yashar, which literally means "straight."The verse is understood as the command to go beyond the letter...

Walter Benjamin, in his essay “Critique of Violence,” discuses the idea of divine biblical justice. Benjamin points out that in the Bible everyone gets what he or she deserves (though it does not seem so commensurate to us; even Job...

If there is one thing this war has taught Israelis, it's that without America they are nothing.Could things change? Could America grow weary of Israel? Perhaps. But as of now America is Israel's chief supporter. America has single-handedly protected (some...

Judaism has always been a religion that focuses on, teaches, ritualizes the ability to tell the differences between things: the difference between Shabbat and the rest of the week; the difference between kosher and non-kosher food; the difference between shatnes...

The violence in Israel continues to worsen, and now wide-scale evacuations of the North are finally under way as it appears Israel is preparing to enter Southern Lebanon in force. I pray for the well-being of the brave Israeli soldiers...

Following the mourning of Tisha b’Av (commemorating the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BCE and the Second Temple in 70 CE), Jews traditionally read selections from prophets (Haftorot) that draw on images of comfort: the sense...

For years now people have been calling terrorism a cancer. As Itamar Rabinovich, the president of Tel Aviv University and former Israeli diplomat, put it, “You either cut it out or it eats you up.”Right now, this is certainly Israel’s...

A few hours before Tisha b’Av began I was reflecting that the violence in the Middle East shows absolutely no signs of abating. Instead, it’s been getting worse–with Hezbollah shooting more than 200 rockets into Israel and Israel vowing to...