Talk about coming to the right conclusion for all of the wrong reasons! This article about the World Evangelical Alliance, a European evangelical organization, renewing their push to “proselytize European Jewry”, typifies how foolish we can all be, even as we pursue the very best of goals. Once again arrogance and posturing pass themselves off as substitutes for respectful spiritual encounter and true interfaith relations. And that applies to both the Jews and the Christians who are party to this dust up.
Since critique should always be self-directed before it is directed at others, I will begin with those Jews who stand with Abe Foxman and the ADL, who are leading the charge against the World Evangelical Alliance. For starters, why is this issue even being taken up by the ADL? Is an effort to convert Jews an act of defamation? Is it anti-Semitic? I appreciate the need to monitor and confront all racial/ethnic/religious hatred, and appreciate the work that ADL does. But, their stepping in now, needlessly inflames the situation by framing it as a conflict as opposed to a lack of understanding.
Who is Foxman speaking for when he charges that the WEA needs to “understand the immense pain and anger they are causing with their ill-advised and theologically misguided position”? Not for me. I think the WEA is ill-advised, but they are not causing me pain or anger. And it is not my place, nor is it the ADL’s, to tell this Christian group what is “theologically ill-advised”, since we do not share their theology.
And the ADL’s attempt to link the WEA initiative to the Holocaust by highlighting that the initiative is part of The Berlin Declaration on the Uniqueness of Christ and Jewish Evangelism Today is actually shameful. However misguided we may think they are, and whatever the link between Christian anti-Semitism and the willingness of many Europeans to accept/embrace Hitler’s war against the Jewish people, this is precisely the kind of hate-mongering which the ADL is supposed to fight.
There are however two fundamental questions which the WEA must confront. First, is it possible that as much as they need to witness their understanding of the truth, they need to separate that public witness from the stated outcome of seeing me and my brothers and sisters join them in faith? In other words, I am calling upon the ADL, and all those who share their views, to reconsider the notion that Christian evangelism may be an act of love from their perspective. But I also ask if evangelical Christians are willing to consider that it may not be an act of love, if those on the receiving end do not experience it as such?
The second question is simple: can anyone out there point to a single time in human history which ended well, when the success of one group was defined by their ability to convert their neighbors? There isn’t one. You may not think I am right, but the damage done by those who wanted to “repair” the spiritual shortcomings of their neighbors, and judged that repair as necessary to attain blessing or salvation, is too vast to detail here.
So why not try something new for most of us? Genuine inter-faith dialogue in which each group tried to understand the logic and the love which motivates the other side. We are not likely to agree many things, I know. And it will be hard to give up the sense of moral superiority that we all love so much. But it strikes me as far healthier than Jews who intimate that Evangelicals are in cahoots with Nazis, and Christians who refuse to admit the damage done by well-intentioned people who just never got over seeing their neighbors as spiritually damaged goods.
Shall we give it a try?
Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of 
posted September 9, 2008 at 11:08 am
Why is this so offensive? They believe they better the world this way.
What I find strange is reluctance of Jews to do missionary work and attempt to convert non Jews to Judaism.
I think it should be assumed that all religions do some missionary work just like any other competitive market.
posted September 9, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Actually the nearest that we jews get to”mssionary work” would be the Chabad Lubuvitch and the Jews for Judaism. Both though see the mass of jews who are not affiliated, or simply Jews in name only as their primary targets. I support both of these organizations in their goals of bringing jews back to their jewish roots. Part of the problem is that in the words of Mordachai Kaplan, Judaism is more than a religion, we are a Civilization, and as such, there is soo much to learn that even with 50 lifetimes, one couldn’t do it all. As someone who majored in history in College, with an Unoffical concentration in Jewish History, I can attest to the scope that is out there.
The other problem is that the one time Jews went out and converted the masses by force, well lets just say that history turned on the jews for that.
posted September 9, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Gloria,
I can hardly sympathize with those so arrogant as to think that if you don’t think (or practice) as they do you have no place in the world to come. Nor can I accept as goodwill the too frequently seen Christian position that “loves” Jews to oblivion — that position which holds that love for Jews means making Jews into Christians.
What I can accept easily enough is each person’s living his own beliefs, without shame, before God and the world and unaggressively communicating to others where they are coming from if they are in a setting where others are willing to discuss such issues.
But your finding it strange that Jews don’t proselytize apparently doesn’t take into consideration that, unlike much of Christendom, Judaism does not believe that you have to be a Jew to have a place in the world to come.
L’Shalom
Chaim
posted September 9, 2008 at 2:23 pm
As Jews we do believe our god is the only god. It also implies the non Jews pray to false gods or idols. From a Tikun Olam perspective isn’t showing them the light via missionary work the right thing to do?
Most diaspora Jews in the world live in unchartered territory where Jews are respected and appreciated (In the US) It seem to me that doing no missionary work is becoming a sitting duck religion who is prone to declining number of followers by a process of assimilation.
BTW,
proselytize is a nice word, I looked it up. Thank you, I learned something new.
posted September 9, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Don’t the Evangelicals want to trigger Armageddon with actions like that? Getting the Jews into the boat will bring Jesus back?
posted September 9, 2008 at 6:16 pm
The Nazis attempted to make the Jews disappear. Physical genocide.
The evangelizers want to see the Jews disappear. Spiritual genocide.
What exactly is the difference?
If someone tried to steal my son away from the Jewish people, I think spitting on them would be the nicest thing I could do! This is not something unique to me. I get this from my family.
posted September 10, 2008 at 9:14 am
Sorry, Rabbi,
I must disagree with you on this one.
There’s no “love” being shown by Christians trying to convert me. It’s nothing but sheer arrogance and sanctimony. The Witnesses who came to my door a few months back (along with many several others during my lifetime), with whom I decided to try to engage in discussion, ended up telling me, “Well, we can’t all be right!” That’s love?
They choose not to understand or care that we have a different mind set and perspective. They can’t even appreciate that we feel that all the righteous have a place in the world to come.
I agree with Scott on this one – it’s spiritual genocide and it turns my stomach.
posted September 10, 2008 at 10:41 am
Thanks Rabbi for your thoughtful comments.
I try to steer Christians to the teachings of a Pastor John Hagge. (Not sure I spelled his name right.) Not because I agree with every thing he teaches, but because he reminds Christians that HaShem’s Covenant with us Jews still stands and that G-d does not go back on His Word. (Torah)
Pastor John H. reminds his followers that we are STILL G-d’s people and that it is NOT their responsibility to “save” us.
Our problem is many of us DO NOT KNOW our faith, our own religion well enough to refute the Jesus preachers when they go after us! Our foolishness in listening and believing them is based in lack of knowledge that is available to us and thus we will answer to HaShem for not running after Him ourselves, and grabing on to the
Torah, thus leaving us open to others running after us.
Maybe our teachers have failed us and just maybe we have allowed ourselves to become hardened and assimilated.
However, I do not believe it is “love” that motivates them. If they truly loved us they would accept us just as we are.
I think there are people who need to reinforce their own beliefs by making everyone they can side with them, especially people who have a faith history like ours that challenges their doctrines.
I heard a Jew for Jesus person say on a TV program we need to do what ever we can to “save” the Jews! My thoughts where – ahhhhh – they think they have to do this because they believe G-d can’t!!
Speaks volumes about their lack of true faith as far as I am concerned.
posted September 10, 2008 at 12:03 pm
A comment was made by eastcoastlady about “all the righteous having a place in the world to come”. But what is it that will determine who is righteous and who is not?
posted September 10, 2008 at 12:06 pm
my grandfather left the jewish faith just after ww2 and i am the only decendant of his that openly acknowledges my jewish heritage, this has led me to suffer over the years, so when i read this article and the responses, i have to completely agree with the term ‘spiritual genocide’ as christianity now uses psychologies and sociologies to weedle thier way into jewish lives slowly assimilating and converting to their false corruption of the truth.
BEWARE OF THE WOLVES IN SHEEPS CLOTHING.
posted September 10, 2008 at 1:27 pm
But what is it that will determine who is righteous and who is not?
God does.
But he has given us Torah as a guide to see who fits that bill.
posted September 10, 2008 at 2:28 pm
I used to be one of those pushy Christians who ran around trying to get everyone saved. I did this because the church leaders told us we had to. If we loved everyone we needed to get them “saved” no matter who they were, what they did, or where they came from.
I have since grown up and through study and a return to the roots of first Jesus and then Israel and the G-d of Israel, I am now Noachide. I thought I knew it all when I was 25 but at 55 I discovered I needed to study scripture from a Jewish perspective not the Greek/Roman. When this happened all my former understandings were debunked and I came to the conclusion through my new understanding of what a messiah or Mashiach is supposed to be or do, Jesus couldn’t be one. It was hard to let go at first but in a sense I was like a kidnapped child, taken from the home and land where I should have been raised.
So forgive me for my past aggressive religiosity and my arrogance to think I could tell the Jewish people what I thought at the time was “Truth”. Now I have a Stone Edition Tanach and I study what I can through the internet and I wish I had more actual human beings to share and study with but unfortunately I live in a very small community and so far I have found no one. I have so much to learn and not enough years to get it all done.
I believe some people are out there out of love to share what they think is the “good news of Jesus” but I also think there are those who think they have the one and only unique truth and want to shove it down your throat and if you refuse it they actually think you are a fool.
Educate yourself so you can refute their idea of a Messiah. They think there are about 300 verses in the “Old Testament” that points to Jesus. Know these so you can refute everyone of them. It really frustrates them and it might make them think and maybe they will really look at those references themselves and learn they may not have the one and only unique truth after all.
posted September 10, 2008 at 2:38 pm
The Fundies do not single out Jews for this type of treatment. In fact their conversion attempts have nothing to do with us Jews, but to do with their own psychology. They treat their own children much worse than they treat us Jews. They are not rounding up us Jews and forcing us to see psychiatrists or sending us to repartitive camps. I am certain that they would if the secular society around them permitted the Fundies to the place us in Conversion Ghettos.
I think it is inappropriate to define their behavior as anti-Semitic (although I feel that it is). The focus should be how they reject the Western values of personal liberty and respect for the individual privacy. They deny to us Jews, as well as Gays, Mormons, Catholics (whom they do not consider “Christian”), secularists, etc. with a zone of privacy. They are deluded into thinking that they are on a mission from G-d to intrude themselves into our lives and start haranguing us with all sort of idiocies. Their psychological orientation is that of the True Believer (Eric Hoffer, 1951) We see the extent to which this Fundamentalist psychology will go when the surrounding society permits. Then they do place people into death camps — not just Jews but everyone else who is not one of the True Believers.
If I were advising the ADL, I would suggest that the wise tactic would be to promote the Western values of individual liberty and respect for each person’s zone of privacy. Personally, the ADL and the other defense agencies like the AJComte would do well to root out the anti-Gay elements from their own agencies and to promote the liberty and privacy for everyone. (Historically, the AJCmte has been viciously anti-Gay promoting the grass steterotypes of gays that parallel the anti-Jewish rantings in pre-war Germany. I know because I worked for the AJC)) It is rather incongruous for us Jews to complain about how people are treating us when Beverly Hills temples will still tell Gay people, “Don’t even ask to join or temple.” We have a system of Separate But Equal. We have special shuls for Gays. Jewish organizations exclude openly Gay people from lay broads (“We have nothing agst Gays, but we don’t want to promote that sort of thing.”)
Not all shuls or organizations deny Jews their rights, but the discrimination is not limited to the far right Jewish organizations. We Jew won’t be safe as along as we allow society to single out any group for denial of its rights to liberty and privacy.
posted September 10, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Tzvi cited the two groups that do the most to fend off the efforts of these well meaning evangelicals to bring their so-called “Good News” to Israel. Support the efforts of either Jews for Judaism or Chabad (or both) with your donations.
Frankly, I’d love to see Chabadniks knock on the doors of a few Mormons, Baptists or Jehovahs Witnesses and offer to explain to them our path to true spiritual salvation. Maybe THAT would get these people to realize how truly offensive WE find them.
posted September 10, 2008 at 6:40 pm
To Rabbi Hirschfield,
I think it is time that the Christian Evangelists or others like them stop thinking of the Jews as threatening their trip up to heaven when they die. Accept us as neighbors and enjoy each others differences. We are not foreigners. We started the belief in one God in the first place.
posted September 10, 2008 at 7:35 pm
I love your post Al Eastman!! You said a mouthful.
posted September 10, 2008 at 8:34 pm
RABBI you have REALLY GOOFED THIS TIME! In order for a Christian (or anyone else) to try and convert a Jew s/he would have to tell you, sooner or later, why the religon you believe in is WRONG for you and if in our case that is not an ANTI I do not know what one is.
In fact when I hear that Israel accepts their money and such I see RED! I believe in exchange they let them talk to Jews about turning to Christianity but the Christian ones who do not do this (like the none Jewish Jews for Jesus crowd) they fight. If this is right they are hyprocrites. And dumb!
The only slightly laughable thing about this is that they also love to join in the musical missionary Christian game. This is when the Catholics try to convert the mainline Protestants and the mainline Protestants try to convert the Catholics and both try to convert the Evangelicals who try to convert all other Christian groups!!!!!
Hugs
Laura
posted September 11, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Al Eastman commented that he would like to see Chabadniks knock on a few doors of Christians and explain the Jewish “path to true spiritual salvation”. Would you briefly summarize what they might say? I personally would not find this offensive and would be most interested.
posted September 11, 2008 at 2:05 pm
I know I referenced Jews for Judaism and Chabad as examples of “Jewish Missionaries” but to jewish people, but even these groups have their faults.
As an Openly Gay Jewish Male, I can say the Jews for Judaism supports a form of reparative therapy to Make homosexuals into supposedly “heterosexuals”. The problems is 1) the APA discredited this years ago and 2)I fail to see why who I am attracted to should be any one elses business, or concern. Chabad on the other hand pushes their Ultra orthodox brand of judaism, and simply would pretend I don’t exist, in the “if you ignore it, it will go away” school.
Both opinions IMHO are faulty, and honestly do not allow open debate within our community. Then again Zealots in ANY shade, jewish or X-tian tend to not like open debate/discussion
posted September 11, 2008 at 3:56 pm
I have had the same experience as Tzvi, but it is not limited to the zealots. Many so called moderate Jews ascribe to the Disease Explanation for Gays. “Oh, it’s okay for the adults, but the children. You know the children! The Children! It would set a bad example for the children.”
No I don’t know. Is Gay like Chicken Pox? Is it a malady children can catch if they get too close to a Gay person?
One moderate synagogue didn’t want to hire a Gay school principal. It’s explanation was that the lover was a rabbi at a Gay temple. Thus, the Gay rabbi would be busy at the Gay Temple on holidays and it wouldn’t look right if the Principal’s Significant Other weren’t here on Holidays. That was a strange reason, because there wasn’t even a requirement the Principal belong to the shul. From what I cn tell, the Separate But Equal set up where Gays go to their own temples is just fine with the mainstream synagogues.
It gets worse. A couple decades ago, I knew a Jewish politician whose son turned out to be Gay, but he was locked into a dark closet because his Gayness might harm his parent’s career. After seeing a few psychiatrists to fix him, he wrapped his car around a telephone doing 60 mph. Dead at 17. That solved the politician’s problem — what was a potential embarassment became an occassion for the community to feel sorry for the politico.
So let’s stop being gigantic hypocrites. The anti-Gay discrimination by Jews is wide spread and affects far more Jews than the possibility that some Fundies may thump on our front doors wanting to convert us. It’s time to remember that Pogo said, “We have found the enemy and he is us.” (Cartoon characters do always use proper grammar.) If we value individual liberty and believe people have zones of privacy, we should pay more attention to putting our own house in order.
posted September 12, 2008 at 1:11 am
We have catch words. One of them is convert. A Jew can not be converted from his Jewishness. Whatever faith he chooses he is still a Jew. I am a Goye who believes the Torah. G-D promises Abraham , Isaac , and Jacob and all Israel the land of Caanan (ISRAEL ) AND THE PROMISE that those who bless them will be blessed and those who curse them will be cursed. G-D Specificaly say’s HE loves ALL ISRAEL. If I love the G-D of Israel then I will love those WHOM HE loves.Most of the Gentiles I speak to do not commit to follow JESUS. Most of the Jewish community that I have spoken to do not commit to follow YESHUA HAMASHIACH . I love them the same and an neither anti – semitic or anti-gentile. That has nothing to do with the question. TRUTH IS ALL THAT IS IMPORTANT. wE CAN NOT undo history.Crusades , pogroms ,forced baptisms , economic and social evils practiced in the name of a Christianity that YESHUA or his disciples would not recognize.
If you as a Jew sincerely believe YESHUA to be the long awaited MASHIACH , would it not be wrong to NOT share this with me.
I have personally shared my faith with many Jewish people. I hope I have given some , something to think about. Most people who would like to see Jews receive Yeshua ,love the Jewish community in America and are Christian Zionist.By the way I support the ADL .
posted September 12, 2008 at 12:24 pm
nce a Jew accept JC, he becomes a Xian. It is the one faith you cannot be a part of and stay a Jew. You lose your Jewishness.
posted September 14, 2008 at 11:08 am
You can’t be Jewish and accept Jesus as your savior. This is one of the few thing ALL Jews agree on.
If you are trying to convert Jews then you are trying to reduce the number of Jews. If they reached their goal of converting all Jews in Europe, there wouldn’t be a single Jew left in Europe. In this case Foxman is correct. This is attempt by the WEA at spiritual genocide.
posted September 14, 2008 at 11:16 am
To Homer Wiggins:
Jews have never beleived that the Mashiach was God or a son of God. The Mashiach is not a personal savior. The Mashiach is not a savior at all. There is a Jewish prayer that says, “… but for you God, we have no savior or redeemer. Even if Jesus was the Mashicah you would still be wrong. Accordng the Hebrew Bible. the Mashiach is supposed to reign in a world of complete peace and goodness. I haven’t noticed that happening yet.
Anyone who says that you accept Jesus as your savior and be Jewish at tge same time is lying even if they don’t think they are. There is not a lot that all Jews agree on, but this is one of the few things that ALL Jews agree on.
posted September 15, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Susan,
I hate to disagree with you, but as Jews we do accept the concept of a Personal saviour, in the sense that even Ramabam included it in his 12 articles of faith, that no matter how much he will tarry i await the coming of the Moshiach. What we don’t believe is that he will have any relation to G-d.
posted September 15, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Tzvi, I guess that we have different definitions of a personal savior, because I see nothing in your quote from the Ramban that makes me think that he beleived in a personal savior in the Christian sense.
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