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?
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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 
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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