Bush speech to ‘Messianic Jews’ is typical problem

George W. Bush granted “Messianic Jews” a brief shining moment in the spotlight recently — and then just as quickly sent them back into the shadows.

          The Messianic Jewish Bible Institute in Dallas had advertised Bush as the keynote speaker at its annual fundraiser on Nov. 14. It prominently featured the former president’s appearance on its website alongside pages describing the group’s mission to bring “Jewish people into a personal relationship of faith with Yeshua the Messiah.”

          But after a reporter for Mother Jones magazine wrote about the fundraiser, mention of the dinner disappeared from the institute’s site. Otherwise solicitous staff refused comment. Bush spoke behind closed doors.

          The turn of events is emblematic of what Messianic Jews have faced since their emergence in the 1960s — a taste of acceptance followed by repudiation from the mainstream Jewish community.

          “I think there’s a distinction between the gatekeepers and the general community within the wider Jewish community,” said Rabbi Russ Resnik, the director of the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations, an association of some 70 Messianic synagogues around the country.

          “The gatekeepers have to be vigilant and at times overdo the vigilance,” Resnik said. “But the wider community is receiving and friendly.”

          Messianic Jews embrace Jesus as the messiah, but hew to Jewish traditions, observing Jewish holidays and reciting Hebrew prayers in services. Many are born Jews who see their practices as legitimate expressions of Judaism.

          Mainstream Jewish groups generally have rejected Messianic Jews, seeing them as luring Jews into Christianity under false pretenses.

Who is ‘intolerant’?

          Messianic Jewish Bible Institute officials declined JTA requests for comment. But in a statement Nov. 18, Jonathan Bernis, the institute’s chair, said criticism of his group reflected intolerance of its beliefs.

          “The idea seems to be that it is somehow ‘intolerant’ for Jewish believers in Jesus to share their convictions with other Jews,” Bernis said. “The real intolerance is coming from those who apparently think that no Jewish person should ever be exposed to the claims of the most famous Jew who ever lived.”

          Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles said it was “laughable” to claim that U.S. Jews are not exposed to the claims of Jesus.

          “It’s striking that for thousands of years the definition of being Christian was believing in Jesus, and all of a sudden they’ve discovered, no, you can do that and be Jewish,” Wolpe said. “It is, whether they realize it or not, a marketing tool, not a discovery.”

          It’s not clear if Bush initially understood what an appearance at a Messianic Jewish event would signify. Sources close to the former president said that an aide recommended accepting the engagement without understanding Jewish sensitivities.

          Bush went ahead, the sources said, not because he favored the movement’s mission but because he thought backing out would be bad form.

          Resnik estimates there are some 20,000 Jews affiliated with Messianic congregations, but he estimates the number of Jewish believers in Jesus could be much higher.

          The recent Pew Research Center survey reported that 34 percent of respondents believed it was possible to believe in Jesus and be Jewish. Many Jews understood the finding to reflect the view that beliefs have no bearing on a person’s Jewish status.

          Yaakov Ariel, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, says there are signs that Jewish groups have grown more accepting of Messianic Jews in recent years. Ariel notes that a recent call by a British Reform rabbi to be more accepting of the movement stirred little outcry.

          The World Congress of Jewish Studies, which takes place every four years in Jerusalem, featured a panel on Messianic Jews this year — something Ariel has been seeking for decades.

          The major stumbling block remains the practice of proselytizing. Resnik said Messianic groups try to keep a low profile in mainstream Jewish settings, but proselytizing remains a core principle.

          Especially irksome are bids to convert what are seen as vulnerable populations, Russian and Ethiopian Jews in particular. The Dallas group Bush addressed touts its efforts in that regard prominently on its website.

          Mainstream Jewish concerns about conversion inhibit what could be a useful relationship with a movement that over the decades has accrued credibility within the Christian world, according to Messianic Jews.