Until Constantine, the first Roman emperor to admit he was not a god, adopted Christianity at the beginning of the fourth century, Jews were active proselytizers of the pagans around them. It was common for Jews to convert their slaves to Judaism. The children of concubines in the household were then legitimate Jews. That ended when Christianity took hold in the Roman empire.
Exclusivity was forced upon the Jews. It was not Jewish reluctance to convert the pagans that stopped proselytizing. It was Roman law that made it illegal to circumcise any male not born Jewish. The penalty was death. That Christian intolerance, which is well documented in Nicholls' "Christian Anti-Semitism: A history of hate," caused the change. Fear of the Roman death penalty changed Jewish practice.
Converts to Judaism through the Middle Ages came about when Christian priests and monks decided for themselves that Jesus was not their savior and that the Torah and the Hebrew Scriptures were the correct path to God. As a result, such proselytes were often hounded from country to country because of Christian intolerance.
Jewish reluctance to proselytize is contrary to the prayer Al Kein Nekaveh which states that we must pray that "the entire world shall eventually recognize that only to Him should we pray and all will accept the yoke of His Kingdom and through this the purpose and reason of creation shall be complete." Prayer is not enough. For this to occur demands that Jews "get with the program" and stop acting like an exclusive club.
The gentile drift away from Christianity goes on in the Noahide movement in the United State. In Athens, Tennessee J. David Davis, a Baptist minister, determined that Jesus was not the savior and that to worship under the cross was idolatry. Davis's congregation cut off the steeple of their church and adopted the seven Noahide laws of the Torah. Their mentor is Rabbi Israel Chait of Far Rockaway, New York. Now there are about 10,000 in the growing Noahide movement.
Noahides are not Jews, but in rejecting idolatry and embracing Torah they are a step closer to fulfillment of that prayer to bring all the world to worshipping God.
Jews today should not allow themselves to be bound by old Roman law. The Roman empire is gone and we are still here. In the old days the dietary laws meant that a Jew could not eat at the table of a gentile. What kind of understanding can there be between people if they cannot sit down and break bread together? Though keeping to ourselves helped keep us intact as a people, through assimilation and intermarriage we are doomed to disappear unless we reach outside our diminishing circles.
We need to go beyond merely defending ourselves from Anti-Semites but to bring God's truth to everyone. The Torah is not a private document for Jews only. If we suffered through the Holocaust it may be because we kept ourselves aloof and separate and failed in our obligation to bring God's word to the rest of the world. The teachings of the Tanach are not only for Jews.
It's time we reached out as Jewish evangelicals if you will. In my newspaper columns and letters to the editor I seize on every chance to bring Torah to the gentiles. The role of passive resistance has not worked. As an old fencer from the Indiana University club team, I learned that the advantage always lies with the attacker and that merely to defend eventually results in defeat.
Instead of waiting to be attacked by anti-Semites who do not understand us or Judaism, it is our responsibility to bring the word of God to them and to teach Torah to the multitudes. The only true compensation for the deaths of six or seven million Jews in the Shoah is not payment in money or land but the conversion of a like number of gentiles to God's Torah law.
There is bound to be debate over the role of Noahides who reject idolatry and adopt the seven laws of Noah. Some will insist that they make a full conversion to Judaism. Noahides depend on Orthodox rabbis to teach them. Jews in turn will debate over whether proselytes should adopt Orthodox Judaism. I feel that Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstructionist or Reform, any step away from idolatry to adopt the tenets of Judaism is an improvement.
Judaism is a powerful faith that challenges everyone to accept responsibility
for their own actions. Judaism is about building a better world here and
now, not some promise of everlasting life in exchange for faith in a false
messiah. If we are to fulfill our obligation to repair the world we live
in, to complete the task of creation, it will not be done through prayer
alone, or mulling over past tragic history but by active proselytizing
to bring Torah to the gentile.