WAITING FOR THE MESSIAH

Janine Di Giovanni meets the

men who are trying to make Jews believe in Jesus

WE ARE now in the second year of the so-called Christian Decade of Evangelism. British Muslims are in the midst of launch- ing a decade of Islamic revivalism and to get in on the act, this month, Jews For Jesus — an evangelical group intent on conveying the message that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel — launched their cam- paign on the British Jews. In the past, Christian missionary activity was aimed at persuading Jews to abandon their faith and to accept Christianity. But Jews For Jesus believe a Jew who becomes a Christian does not have to leave the Jewish fold or abandon his Jewish identity. In short, he is assured that he can legitimately be a Jew and embrace Christianity at the same time.

Jews For Jesus first surfaced shortly before Christmas when the organisation, which was ,conceived in America in 1973 by a Mr Moishe Rosen, took out a £15,000, cleverly worded, full-page adver- tisement in the Times: 'You don't have to be Jewish to celebrate Christmas . . . but it helps.' The advertisement went on to explain that, yes, one could be a lover of borscht, gefilte fish, kaluki, mother's chicken soup, and possess 'a marvellous sense of humour' — in short, be a Woody

Allen caricature of a Jew — and still be a follower of Jesus. Christmas, it explained, was the birthday of the greatest Jew who ever lived.

`After all,' read the ad, which was written by Mark Greene, a former Ogilvy & Math- er strategy man, now chairman of the board of Jews For Jesus UK and a lecturer at the London Bible College, 'Y'shua [Hebrew for Jesus] was Jewish. He was born 2,000 years ago in the Jewish town of Bethlehem, where the Jewish prophet Micah predicted he would be: "But you, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." (Micah v, 2).'

The advertisement makes it all so logical. After all, most of Jesus's early followers Peter, Paul, James and John — were Jew- ish. We know that Saul, en route to Dam- ascus, was suddenly blinded by the light of Christianity, and miraculously became the apostle Paul. There are also several vital credentials that the Jews For Jesus supply in the cause of recognising Jesus as the Messiah: 1. Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem (Micah v, 1) 2. Messiah would be from the tribe of Judah (Genesis xlix, 10)

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3. (perhaps the most important) Messiah would present himself by riding on an ass (Zechariah ix, 9) 4. Messiah would arrive before the destruction of the Second Temple (Daniel ix, 24-27) 5. Messiah's life would match a particu- lar description, including suffering, silence at his arrest and trial, and death and burial in a rich man's tomb, and resurrection (Isaiah Hi, 12 — liii, 12) `As Jewish people,' Greene says, 'we simply want to tell other Jews about their own Messiah.' But the whole thrust behind the Jews For Jesus philosophy does make one wonder what is so horribly wrong with being an ordinary, run-of-the-mill Jew. Why take the complications of Christianity on board? Isn't life difficult enough with- out confusing the issues?

The Jews For Jesus — who already have offices in Toronto, New York, San Fran- cisco, Boston, Los Angeles and Chicago — do not seem to think so. They believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are divinely inspired, 'and of supreme and final authority in all matters of faith and life'. They believe in one sovereign God existing in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit; they believe that Jesus is the Messiah; and they still believe that they are first and foremost Jews.

`There is a confusion in many people's minds between Jewishness and Judaism,' Greene says. 'I think that Jewishness is formed of three strands — blood or race, culture and faith. In Israel today, there are many people who do not believe in God and yet they call themselves Jews. And that's okay, you can be a Marxist Jew and it's okay. But what is upsetting to some Jews is the whole idea that I can be brought up a Jew, but if I then believe in the great hope that Judaism puts forward — which is the hope of the Messiah and that hope has been fulfilled in Jesus, then I am not allowed to be called a Jew.'

`What Jesus says,' says Greene, 'is to go to all the people. Nothing would delight us more than if all people — all people cur- rently Gentiles, Jews, Muslims, Hindus put their trust in Jesus the Messiah. That would be splendid. It may happen.'

Not if the Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks, can help it. Naturally, he is not pleased with the proselytising of the Jews For Jesus, nor does he feel a pressing need to come to know Jesus as Messiah. He is `extraordinarily disturbed by this activity', and says that concern stems first from the long and painful history of Christian per- secution of the Jews; second 'the more fundamental reason, that Judaism is an ancient faith that predates Christianity by 1,700 years'; and third that Jews have always respected the integrities of other faiths. 'It is surely not too much to hope that, as the century which has seen unprecedented assaults on Jews and Judaism draws to its close, Christians should acknowledge the integrity of the covenant between God and the Jewish people.'

In other words, go away and leave us alone.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews is also deeply concerned, and 'deplores' the advertisement in the Times. 'If the people who placed the advertisement really see Judaism and Jewishness in terms of a cloy- ing mixture of stereotypical, sentimental images,' says spokesman Rona Hart, `then they misjudge and underestimate the Jew- ish people.'

Laurie Rosenberg, the education officer from the Board, says that their main con- cern is the targeting of those who are vul- nerable. 'Why target the Jewish community? We are aware of some instances where students who are far from home are told to come along for a Friday night Sabbath meal, and arrive to be told about Jesus. They are not upfront about the Christian message. We feel this is a misrepresentation.'

The Jews For Jesus are well aware of the controversy and the deep concern that they are causing the Jewish community, but they take it all with a grain of salt. After all, even Jesus met with a spot of trouble when he tried to convert the Jews to Christianity 2,000 years ago. 'If you look at the New Testament account, some of the Jews at the time were upset by what Jesus had to say,' says Greene. 'In the end that's why he was crucified. Some of the Jews at the time were rather upset by what Paul had to say. He was stoned, but lived. Some of the Jews at the time were rather upset by what Stephen, the Jewish Christian, had to say. He was stoned to death. It is not a comfort- able message. It says, "I am the king of your life", and, as Jesus predicted, people continue to be offended. In John's gospel, he says: "The world will hate you." '

As to the notion that the organisation is preying on the confused and the vulnera- ble, Greene scoffs. He says that if this were the case, they would not have placed an advertisement in the Times, which to his knowledge does not have a particularly high readership among the young and the confused. 'The idea that we have a strategy to knock on every Jewish door is not on,' he says. 'We do not knock on doors. We stand on street corners and hand out pam- phlets or wear T-shirts with "Jews For Jesus" on them. It's very above-board.' Greene, who was brought up in a Jewish home in North London and first came to know Jesus 'in a moment of honesty' as a student at Cambridge, worships at a Bap- tist church on Sundays, but says he is unmistakably a Jew. 'I'm even told I look like one.'

He claims part of the concern among the Jewish community is that the Jewish popu- lation in Britain is declining. There are currently an estimated 300,000 Jews in Britain as opposed to the 405,000 of 30 years ago. The Board of Deputies attributes the numerical decline to low marriage-rate, low birth-rate, emigration and people ceasing to practise and assimi- lating into the wider community. In Ameri- ca, Greene says that 50 per cent of Jews marry outside their faith.

The simple question that springs to mind in the midst of all this spiritual madness is: if Jews want to believe in Jesus, why do they not make a clean break and convert to Christianity?

Greene thinks about it and answers my question with a question: `Do you like pasta? Do you have any affinity with Italy? Do you have affinity with the sort of Ital- ian explosive personality? How can you tell me that I'm not going to find certain jokes funny, suddenly I'm not going to like the 'books I liked before or appreciate the beauty of some of the Jewish prayers? I don't think you can really say to someone who is born Jewish and has had that cul- ture that they are no longer a Jew.'

At the moment, there are very few Jews For Jesus (three, in fact) in London but in March, the head honcho, Richard Harvey arrives. Then the party begins. In a response to Sir Sigmund Sternberg, Greene wrote his own reply in the Times: 'The Bible tells us that when Jesus's love was rejected it grieved him and I'm sure it grieves him now. As it does us. But he was not silent. Nor will we be.'

Nor will, I am sure, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Chief Rabbi and Sir Sigmund Sternberg as well as countless members of the Jewish commu- nity in Britain.

The whole thing reminds me, curiously enough, of an incident that happened when I was seven years old. A Jewish boy of the same age lived across the road from me. I had brattishly informed him that `Jesus already came. You're stupid to wait for the Messiah. He's already been here.' He promptly socked me on the jaw. One wonders if the Jews For Jesus are tempting the same fate.