Israel is a liberal democratic secular nation state. It has the same international obligations as any other similar state. About one fifth of all Israelis are Arabs. Some of these are Moslems, others are Christians. There are also Israeli Buddhists and others who are members of various cults. This variety of options is not open to Jews however without running into serious problems. This is because Judaism is a major defining characteristic of the Jewish nation. Consequently, a typical problem arises is the case of a Jew who adopts a religion that is radical incompatible theologically with Judaism. One such religion is modern Trinitarian Christianity.
By no stretch of the imagination is modern Judaism and modern Trinitarian Christianity theologically compatible. Much Trinitarian Christian doctrine is, from Judaism's perspective, blasphemous. Consequently, such terms as "Messianic Jew" sit squarely on a theological and indeed logical, contradiction. From Judaism's perspective, a Jew who converts to Christianity is an apostate and a heretic. From Christianity's perspective that person is a saved sinner who is neither of the foregoing. Trying to unite these two perspectives in the term "Messianic Jew" is a monstrous idiocy.
However, there is one way out of this dilemma and that involves the racialisation of Jewish identity. If the Jews are a "race" then they can adopt any religion without lose of identity. So in the same way that a "black person" who converts to Christianity becomes a "black Christian", a Jew who similarly converts becomes a "Messianic (i.e. Christian) Jew" (1). This option is however only open to racists. Even so, some Christians are currently trying to force this option on to Israel's law books.
Commenting on the "Who is a Jew?" debate in Israel, in his book (2) Mr. Fieldsend, a "Church's Ministry Among the Jews" missionary and ordained Anglican minister, writes, "But now the numbers are so great, and sections within the Israeli religious establishment have a vested interest in preventing Messianic Jews from making their home in Israel. Their problem is that a purely racial definition, such as the biblical one, cannot exclude Messianic believers, while a rabbinic religious definition would exclude secular Jews, who make up the vast majority in the Land".
This is a grotesque misrepresentation of Israel's immigration and citizenship policy. Israel's immigration law is a secular law based on what is essentially a "rabbinic religious definition" (I would prefer "religio-national definition") of Jew and it most certainly does not "exclude secular Jews". The choice facing Israel is between retaining Judaism's non-racist definition of Jewish identity as the basis for its immigration law and consequently barring immigration by "Messianic Jews" or adopting a "Messianic Jewish racial" definition and allowing them in. It is this latter option that some Christians are currently pursuing with great vigour.
In 1974 the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution equating Zionism with racism. The "reasoning" behind this resolution went as follows. The Jews are a "race". The "Law of Return" allows only Jews to immigrate to Israel. Immigration to Israel is thus racial discrimination. Zionism, as the ideology promoting and supporting immigration to Israel, is thus a form of racism. As any educated person will know, the fatal flaw in this "reasoning" is in the premise, "the Jews are a 'race'". This is totally false. Israeli immigration law does not and never has, discriminated on the grounds of "race".
This will not however continue to be the case if Israel changes its immigration law to allow Christian converts from Judaism to enter the country as "Jews". These "Messianic Jews" are persons whose "Jewish" identity only makes sense if "Jew" is understood as a term of "race" classification. How else can one be both a conventional Trinitarian Christian and fully Jewish at the same time? If this change is allowed to take place, Israel will then have institutionalised a "racial" (i.e. racist) concept of "Jewish" identity in its immigration law. The Jewish state would have confirmed what antisemites have all along claimed. The Jews are a "race" and Israel is a racist state.
In an article (3) Susan Perlman ("Jews for Jesus" missionary), notes that in 1991, "Between 200 and 300 American Messianic Jews have made Aliyah and are still living in the Land". On 25 December, 1989, Israel's High Court of Justice reiterated, in the Beresford case, its long-standing position that Christian converts from Judaism are no longer Jews under the "Law of Return", which deals mainly with Jewish immigration. For the purpose of that law, Section 4B defines, a "Jew" as anyone born of a Jewish mother or who has converted and is not a member of another religion. In certain limited cases non-Jews can immigrate under Section 4A(a) of the same law. This is to allow for the immigration of non-Jews who are either the spouses of Jews or who are closely connected by background with the Jewish nation. However, any person who was a Jew and who has willingly changed his or her religion is specifically excluded. Non-Jewish immigration proper is dealt with under separate legislation. Christian converts from Judaism who immigrate to Israel as "Jews" are in reality illegal immigrants.
For example, replying to the question of why Israel's population of Christian converts from Judaism had risen to 4000 in 1991, Baruch Maoz (Pastor, Grace & Truth Christian Assembly, Israel) cited three causes. Of these one was that, "... Hebrew Christians, some from the Anglo-Saxon countries, but especially from Russia, have immigrated to the country. There is also a significant number of Jewish Christians coming from Ethiopia. Our own congregation, for example, has approximately doubled over the last year." (4)
These non-Jews sensu Israel's immigration legislation (i.e. Russian and Ethiopian "Hebrew Christians") are illegal immigrants. This means that about half the current membership of the so-called "Grace & Truth Christian Assembly" would be refused the right of aliyah, as the Beresfords were, because they are not Jews. Unlike the Beresfords, however, for whatever reason, their cases were not put before the Israel High Court. A major reason for this must be because they lied to the Israeli authorities about their religious affiliation. Instead they are swelling the ranks of the new "evangelists". They are also swelling the ranks of Israeli Christians of the "Jewish race".
Take for example the case of the Stern family. Dr. Stern is a very active writer and his biographical details are readily available.
In the notes to one book (5) it is told how, "DAVID H. STERN was born in Los Angeles in 1935, the great-grandson of two of the city's first twenty Jews. In 1972 he came to faith in Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah (converted to Christianity - Macabi)".
In addition we are told that Dr. Stern was married in, "... 1976 to Martha Frankel, also a Messianic Jew, and together they served one year on the staff of Jews for Jesus. ... In 1979 the Stern family made aliyah [immigrated to Israel]. They now live in Jerusalem with their two children and are active in the Netivyah congregation and in Israel's Messianic community." (6)
Dr. Stern is a devout normative Trinitarian Christian and according to its "International Directory" (1988) a member of the "Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism" (LCJE). This organisation is probably the world's most aggressive and conservatively Christian missionary support and co-ordination group concerned with Jewish proselytisation. It is a highly secretive organisation based in Denmark with wide international connections. Its membership includes every major Protestant missionary group in the world. In Israel, its membership totals 6 agencies, 6 congregations and 29 individuals. Membership suggests an exceptionally serious commitment to proselytising Jews.
As the foregoing indicates, the Sterns are both well trained, well educated and experienced Christian missionaries from the U.S. It would also appear that they immigrated to Israel illegally for the specific purpose of proselytising Jews.
Designating Dr. Stern and his wife "Messianic Jews" will only make sense to a racist. The only actual legislation that I know of that uses similar language is the now defunct, Section 5, para. 2 of Nazi Germany's First Regulation to the Reich Citizenship Law (November 14, 1935) (7). Under that law the Sterns would be classified as "non-Aryan Christians" rather than "Messianic Jews". Although "Messianic Jew" does not necessarily carry the same connotation of racial inferiority as "non-Aryan Christian" the principle is the same. Both designations make sense only if "Jew" is understood as a term of "race" classification.
The Sterns are not alone. According to Ben Hoekendijk (8) Elhanan Ben Avraham of Gilo (Jerusalem) made aliyah after converting to Christianity. He even relates how, "One Sabbath morning, while living at an absorption centre in Jerusalem, I (Avraham - Macabi) started my car in order to go to the Baptist church". In the same publication Samuel Suran also explains how after converting to Christianity, he made "aliyah" in 1974. Michael Guberman and Menahem and Haya Benhayim also tell a similar story. Many of the foregoing are active missionaries working for various fundamentalist Christian mission societies.
Changing Israel's immigration law, as some Christians would wish, so that Christian converts from Judaism are recognised as "Jews" would institutionalise racism in Israeli immigration legislation. This should be resisted by every means.
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