Karen quotes Catallarchy this morning as implying that “Jews for Jesus” makes no sense. By a strange coincidence I was just reading Paul last night who wrote “Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham’s descendents? So am I.” (II Corinthians 11:22) As some may know, Paul would have certainly described himself as “for Jesus”. I leave it to others braver than myself to explain to St. Paul why it makes no sense for him to be a Jew and to be for Jesus.
Jews for Jesus is also the name of an evangelistic organization founded in the early 70s by Moishe Rosen. Shortly before founding that organization, Moishe Rosen trained my father in New York (I was half a year old, born in Florida, and nearly died in the awful New York winter of 1969-70.) We then moved to St. Louis where my parents began evangelistic outreach to young Jewish folks (mostly hippies in those days). Thus, I have grown up around Jewish believers all my life. One of my church’s pastors, Jake Rosen, is Jewish. His mother, Bronia Rosen, despite some time at Auschwitz, was one of the few survivors of a large Polish Jewish family, (I did research on her family as part of a college project). Why you should trust someone like me, who advocates abolition of monopoly government, courtship instead of dating, and other things that don’t make sense to a lot of people, I don’t know. But, for what it is worth, the “Jews for Jesus” that are in my life are some of the most sensible and courageous people I know.
St. Paul again, “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to the Lord for the Israelites is that they may be saved.” (Romans 10:1)
p.s. For my Catholic friends who are tempted to dismiss this as some protestant wierdness, I recommend the writings of the fabulous Jewish Catholic Marty Barrack.
11:08 am on December 4, 2003
