Once a Jew Always a Jew?

I had a friend who played his saxophone in the shabbat service for a local Jews for Jesus congregation. I happened to be in the same building for a teacher's workshop and dragged my good friend, Bob Who-Is-Allergic-T0-Religion.

When we got there, what struck me was how Jewish the Jews for Jesus tried to be. I simply didn't expect people to greet me with a kind "Shalom." Bob ran away after a couple of Shaloms and I couldn't stay much longer than that because of our workshop, but their setup looked like a small Jewish congregation.

The debate as to whether they are Jewish or not isn't a huge one, but it's still one that brings up a few issues:
- can you believe in a Messianic figure and be Jewish?
- what about the Lubavitch folks who believe Schneerson is the messiah? Are they Jewish?
- what about the halacha which states that once a Jew, always a Jew no matter the conversion?
- and finally from the Christian perspective, perhaps a Christian clergyman can chime in, are Jews for Jesus Christians?

From the Dayton Jewish Observer:

Area rabbis: 'messianic' Judaism not Jewish

The Dayton Jewish Observer/November 2008

By Marshall Weiss

The Cherish The Gift Of Faith advertising spread appears each Saturday in the Life section of the Dayton Daily News. Subtitled "A Listing of Worship Opportunities In The Miami Valley," and adorned with a cross as part of its heading, the two-page spread features display ads from area churches, listed by denomination.

Several months ago, an ad appeared under a new heading: Jewish. The ad, which has run every Saturday since, reads, "Beth Simchat Yeshua Messianic Synagogue invites Jewish Believers in Yeshua (Jesus) & Gentiles with a Jewish Heart to Shabbat Worship Services Saturdays 10:00 AM."

Thurlow Adams, who refers to himself as "Rabbi Tzion," placed the ads on behalf of his six-year-old, 30-member congregation, which meets rent-free in a room at East Dayton Baptist Church in Kettering each week.

A mechanical drafter by day, Adams says he's pleased with the response from the ad.

"I ran this ad in the Dayton Daily News just to reach out to folks who were looking for a Messianic Congregation," he says.

Each week, according to Adams, six to 10 people attend his Shabbat service. The only members with Jewish lineage, he says, are himself, his wife and two grown children, and one other woman in the congregation.

"The rest," Adams says, "are folks from a non-Jewish background who are believers in Yeshua, believers in Jesus and they just have felt and believed that there was something missing in their not being connected to the continuity of Judaism."

But according to Rabbi Judy Chessin, senior rabbi of Temple Beth Or, a Reform congregation in Washington Township, and chair of the Dayton Synagogue Forum, there is nothing Jewish about a "messianic" synagogue.

"When an individual chooses Jesus as their Lord and savior, they have become Christian," she says, "because that's the fundamental viewpoint of Christianity: that Jesus is Lord and savior, and Jews believe the Messiah has not come. It's as simple as that."

Rabbi Hillel Fox of Beth Jacob Synagogue, a traditional congregation in Harrison Township, concurs.

"Every single branch of Judaism agrees that 'messianic' Judaism is beyond the pale of Judaism," he says. " It is clearly Christian belief camouflaged to look like Jewish belief for the sole purpose of trying to convert Jews to Christianity."

. . .

Judaism's main movements - Orthodox, Conservative and Reform - agree that "messianic" Judaism is not Judaism. But the question of whether a Jew who adheres to another religion is still a Jew differs among the movements.

"The question is: is it a conversion to choose the theology of another faith?" says Chessin.

The answer depends on each Jewish movement's beliefs about halacha, or Jewish law.

According to halacha, if you are born a Jew, you are always a Jew, even if you convert to another religion. Even so, Chessin says, the convert would not be considered part of the Jewish community.

Fox says that for most Jews who convert to another religion, should they choose to return to Judaism, they would not have to go through a conversion within traditional Judaism.

. . .

Within Reform Judaism, which does not adhere to halacha, Chessin says, "once you convert to Christianity, you are no longer a Jew." An individual returning to Reform Judaism would have to undergo a conversion.

. . .

"One of the pitfalls for us is that we Jews don't understand," she says. "And when we run up against these people or missionaries or our children are approached by 'messianic' Jews on campus, the kids are not equipped to give the information, clear and straight, that if you believe in Jesus as the messiah, you are Christian. It behooves us not to bury our heads in the sand or run away, but actually become educated in this kind of thing and know that it is false advertising to say they are synagogues."

Read the full text here.

(Photo courtesy of nytimes.com)