When the High Court Welcomes Messianic Jews

By Shelomo Alfassa

Israel National News May 14, 2002

On February 20, 2002, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the Interior Ministry must register as Jews those who were converted by the Reform or Conservative movements in Israel or abroad. This ruling has not only set in motion a wave which will flood Israel with non-Jews who actually think they are Jews, but has opened the flood gates to the proselytizing Christians. The Christian sect deceitfully calling itself ‘messianic Judaism’ is gaining incredible momentum and educating its members as to how to make aliyah.

Certain branches of Evangelical Christianity have spent over one billion dollars in the last decade to convert Jews to Christianity. Under the guise of ‘Jews for Jesus’ and ‘Hebrew Christians,’ a new threat of spiritual terrorism has emerged in the form of ‘messianic congregations,’ whose theological tenets are identical to the Christian fundamentalists who created them. Their ultimate goal is the eradication of the Jewish people through assimilation to Christianity.

Since the late 1950’s, Eretz Israel has had a small population of evangelical Christians, as well as its share of Jewish converts to Christianity. Today, the latter call themselves ‘messianic Jews,’ but don’t let the term fool you — they are not Jewish. This is probably the only fact that both Maimonides and the secular Israeli Supreme court agree on. According to the Court, Christian converts from Judaism are no longer Jews under the ‘Law of Return,’ which deals primarily with Jewish immigration. Though the law is in effect, it is not one hundred percent effective. Christians under this ambiguous term ‘messianic Jews’ are in an active campaign to circumvent these regulations, with the end objective of making aliyah.

The ‘messianics’ have the specific intent of being accepted as Jews in Israel. So much so that they have developed a political action group that lobbies the government, even using Holocaust survivors that have converted to Christianity as spokespersons. These people have a highly strategic plan, are well financed by mainstream Christian groups and have a single goal, to remove Jews from following the faith of their ancestors. Calling it a “significant breakthrough,” messianic Judaism has been officially recognized by the Registrar of Non-Profit Societies, which is a department within Israel’s Ministry of Interior. There you will find this Christian group with an official sounding name Vaad Poala Lma’an Yahadut Meshichit (Action Committee for Messianic Judaism).

According to Yad L'achim (an Israeli anti-missionary organization) there are over 5,000 converts from Judaism in over 38 different groups. Just over a month ago, a Christian newspaper wrote an article about how Christians pretending to be Jews are on duty in the IDF and are ‘witnessing’ to Jewish soldiers about Jesus. The same newspaper talks about Jews in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, who have all now adopted Christianity as their religion. These people have congregations in Israel where they worship their god and continually proselytize other Jews — with some measure of success.

Generally speaking, ‘messianics’ are Jews who have converted and worship Jesus (whom they call Yeshua). However, not all of these messianics are Jews from birth. There are many ‘messianic rabbis’ who are ‘converting’ Christians to Judaism, so these Christians can go missionize to ‘other Jews’ about Jesus. The messianics are also cranking out ‘Jewish Rabbis’ and ‘scholars’ with ‘Master of Theology in Rabbinical Studies’ degrees via the Internet. Anyone can get one. Simply pay the required few thousand dollars and they will send you the study from home material. When you are finished, then you too can convert Christians to ‘Judaism.’

By suggesting that messianics make aliyah from the West, their Christian backers are attempting to expand their influence and make further inroads into Israeli society. In Israel, they can integrate into society and, with a stealth approach, encroach on the Jewish populace. In America, these Christians even fill a few seats at many orthodox congregations. A few years ago, there was a notorious case of two Christians who were stopped from making aliyah after having spent at least a year living as orthodox Jews. Just recently, a Chabad House in Florida removed a Christian who had been there for several months deceiving the community into believing that he was a Jew. Why are they in our congregations? Because they want to appear to be Jews so that they can ultimately make aliyah and continue proselytizing inside Israel. Once they are armed with basic Jewish knowledge, they attempt to infiltrate genuine Jewish communities, spreading inaccurate and intentionally deceiving lessons from the Torah.

The lines are indeed blurring on who is a Jew, and who is not.