For example, Mr. John Ross (Chief Executive of the "Christian Witness to Israel") wrote in a 1992 letter that,
"Though Jewish parents can biologically reproduce Jewish children, they cannot reproduce children that believe in Jesus. Racial origins are fixed by parentage but religious convictions are not a matter of heredity".
Later he went on to affirm that the CWI is,
"... against attempts to rob Jewish people of their true racial identity".
At the time Mr. Ross was writing as the European Co-ordinator of the "Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism", a Danish based group that monitors the Jewish community and collects and distributes information world-wide for missionary purposes. Most of the UK's leading missions to the Jews are members of the LCJE.
Mr. Derek White (Director of the "Christian Friends of Israel"), wrote in a 1995 letter,
"The Jews certainly are a distinct biological race, and one of the amazing things concerning them is that their racial characteristics have not been lost over the past 1900 years of their dispersion".
Mr. Martin Goldsmith ("All Nations Christian College"), wrote in a 1992 letter,
"I personally am more concerned about my faith than my race and therefore prefer to call myself a Jewish Christian rather than a Christian Jew. ... I hope also that you will spend your energies in sharing the good news of Jesus Christ and his salvation with people of all races, rather than concentrating on opposition to your fellow Christians."
Mr. Harry Backhouse (missionary to the Jews involved with "Jews for Jesus") wrote in a 1994 letter,
"... by the way their (Jews - my comment) gene pool is one of the most compact among the nations ..."
Mr. Tony Pearce (Director of "Messianic Testimony" wrote in a 1992 letter,
"If Jewish believers have children their racial identity as Jews will automatically be transferred to them 'biologically' - i.e. because of their relation to their parents. The same would apply to English or Africans!"
Mr. Jonathan Fiddy ("Emmanuel Christian Fellowship") wrote in a 1995 letter,
"A Jew is Jewish by race - as a British person is British by race, whatever their religious standing."
The "Emmanuel Christian Fellowship" is a supporter of Mr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum (Director of the US based "Ariel Ministries" and an ordained Evangelical minister). Mr. Fruchtenbaum is widely regarded as a leading intellectual among missionaries to the Jews. He has made several lecture tours in the UK and his opinion is widely held in high esteem by his fellow Christians. His book "Hebrew Christianity" (Ariel Ministries Press, 1992) has considerable influence with missions targeting Jews on both sides of the Atlantic. On page 8 he claims that the Jews are like Negroes and so in the same way that,
"A Negro who is a Christian, Moslem, or Buddhist remains a Negro. ... The same is true of the Jew."
On page 32, commenting on Romans 11: 16-21 and 24, he writes,
"In this tree there are two types of branches, representing Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. The Hebrew Christians are the natural branches; that is, we correspond to the very nature of the tree. It is as if the tree and the natural branches have the same blood type. The wild olive branches are the Gentile Christians. It is clearly stated that the presence of these branches in the tree is 'contrary to nature'. The blood type is different."
These at but two examples of many from Mr. Fruchtenbaum's book. The theories set out in this book would be unsustainable unless it is assumed that "Jew" is a term of racial classification.
Mr. John Fieldsend (an Anglican minister; a missionary for the "Church's Ministry Among the Jews" and a Vice-President of the "British Messianic Jewish Allaince") has published his views on "Jewish" identity in, "Messianic Jews" (Monarch Publications, 1993). On page 39 he comments on Israeli immigration legislation, which does not recognise Jews who have converted to a faith other than Judaism as Jews. He writes,
"Their (the Israeli religious establishment - whom Mr. Fieldsend appears to "blame" for current Israeli immigration legislation - my comment) 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. The biblical definition is clearly a racial one, though of course God expects Jews to live up to the high standards of the covenants he has graciously given them."
It should be pointed out that Mr. Fieldsend has grossly misrepresented Israeli immigration legislation, in that it most certainly does not exclude "secular Jews". Only conversion to a faith other than Judaism will effectively exclude a Jew from membership of the Hebrew family, community and people. Mr. Fieldsend's book, like Mr. Fruchtenbaum's, would be untenable without assuming that "Jew" is a term of racial classification.
Mr. Ronald Lewis (a retired United Reformed Church minister) is Executive Secretary of the "International Messianic Jewish Alliance". In a 1995 reply to Canon Roy Clements (Anglican - Wakefield) he attempted to justify the IMJA's practice of discriminating racially against certain of its own fellow Christian members thus,
"We are a fellowship of Jewish believers in Jesus (i.e. 'Christian Jews' - my comment). We offer associate membership to non-Jewish Christians. ... Otherwise we would have the possibility of the organisation being run by non-Jewish Christians and would lose credibility".
In a society where many people still view the Jew in terms of traditional antisemitic stereotypes, passing a Christian association off as "Jewish" is not difficult. It indicates however the extent to which "race" mythology still determines the British Christian's perception of the Jewish community. For many Christians "Jew" still only makes sense as a term of "racial" classification.
There is little doubt that today's missions to the Jews rank with groups
like the National Front and the British National Party as maintainers of
the "Jewish race" myth. This really is a disgrace.