Conversion of the Jews is probably the most controversial area of modern Christian evangelism. Non-evangelicals have replaced evangelism with formal dialogue. The Catholic Church in the United States has all but resigned any formal effort to convert Jews. Monsignor John M. Oesterreicher notes in his pamphlet “The Rediscovery of Judaism,” “There is in the Church today no drive, no organized effort to proselytize Jews, and none is contemplated for tomorrow.” He says that even the Sister of Sion order, originally founded to work toward converting Jews, has given up this goal entirely.
Christians who have been concerned for the salvation of their Jewish neighbors have long been discouraged with the results. In recent months, though, many Christians have seen an unusual surge of interest among Jews, particularly among the young people. UCLA campus rabbi Shlomo Cunin estimates that “young Jews are converting to Christianity at the rate of six or seven thousand a year” (from Time, June 12, 1972). These Yiddish Jesus freaks are donning skullcaps, attending synagogue services, and studying the Jewish Bible. Certain of their identity as Jews, they have adopted the slogan “Jews for Jesus.”
Jewish parents regard this phenomenon as a tragedy. Jewish community leaders have adopted official ignorance of the matter because, like the parents, they take it as a reproach. They ask, “What did we do wrong that our children should become Jesus freaks and go all over preaching Christianity?” They are sure that their children’s “defection” occurred because some important item in their religious training was neglected.
The conversion of these young Jews is, of course, a sovereign work of grace. However, certain social factors have contributed to their new interest in Jesus. Many have come to recognize that there is a certain amount of anti-Christian prejudice in what they have been taught. While it was not consciously part of any official curriculum, there was always the underlying presumption that no sincere, thinking Jew would consider the claims of Christ. If one did, his personal integrity, intelligence, even sanity were questioned.
Young Jews have been asked to accept the assertion that Judaism and Christianity are mutually exclusive, that one could never be both a true Jew and a Christian. Indeed, rabbinical law dictates that a Jew who believes in Jesus is an apostate. But no biblical substantiation was ever offered, and many young Jews are no longer satisfied with the confusing explanations their Jewish leaders offer about non-Jews with Jewish obligations. Last March, for instance, the Rabbinical Court of Justice of the Associated Synagogues of Massachusetts ruled to deny Hebrew Christians the privilege of being Jewish, yet insisted that they still have obligations as Jews.
The many Jewish young people who are turning to Christ today recognize that Christianity’s beliefs complete Judaism. These “Jews for Jesus” do not feel they have defected from their Judaism. On the contrary, they have tried to communicate to the Jewish community their new understanding of and appreciation for Judaism.
Another factor increasing Jewish interest in Jesus is rabbinical Judaism’s lack of solution to the difficult situations confronting people today. Rabbis have decried the problems of dope, of degraded sex, and of the dehumanization of society and have shown great concern for finding answers. But they have generally failed to recognize these problems as symptoms of a spiritual hunger and emptiness in man.
It is no longer sufficient to say, “These things aren’t nice” or “What would your grandparents think?” Panel discussions, psychiatry, and parental tears have failed to move the young people toward a moral Jewish life. However, a growing number of Jewish young people testify that Christ has helped them overcome drug dependence and unhealthful sex relations, and develop a genuine love for all people.
Another important factor is the role of the synagogue. One thing most Jewish young people appreciate about Judaism is its social concern: Jews have certainly contributed a great deal toward the civil-rights movement and compassionate causes of all kinds. However, the young people have not found spiritual satisfaction in these endeavors and still carry on their quest for personal meaning to life. To them Sabbath sermons sound more like sociology sanctified by liturgy than the “Thus saith the Lord” that the Jewish people knew from Mount Moriah, Mount Sinai, and Mount Carmel. The Judaism of the prophets was founded on supernatural revelation. It met the spiritual needs of the people. A Jew looked to God for guidance, comfort, strength, and fellowship, and received it. Today, however, the idea that God cares for man and acts to intercede on behalf of individuals is rare in Jewish teaching. For the most part, sermons in the temple deal with the role of a Jew in a Gentile society and seem to be more properly suited for college lecture material than religious instruction.
Most young people today, Jews included, are experience-oriented. They understand, not by learning precepts, but through individual experience. They hunger and thirst after a personal experience with God. Because this experience is not ordinarily to be found in Judaism, most young Jews terminate their own religious training after the bar mitzvah or bas mitzvah at the age of thirteen, and often abandon the synagogue. Many are turning to the Jewish carpenter from Nazareth, who fills their spiritual void and provides the love their hearts so desperately need.
In addition, the young people of today tend to reject the ethnic chauvinism of their parents’ generation. They question statements by Jewish leaders, such as “To be Jewish is beautiful and indivisible—it shares no allegiance with others” (“Why Are All These People Smiling?,” The Jewish Press, May 26, 1972, p. 13), noting the obvious lack of evidence for such claims today. As long as Jews believed that God wanted them to remain a separate people, separation was a holy imperative. However, the view of God’s role in Judaism has changed so much that most young Jews now see Jewish separateness as an elitism that is without theological basis; the alleged chosenness of the Jews has become an embarrassment to them.
For that reason many of the young people could not honestly call themselves Jews. It was common among the hippies to hear, “My parents are Jewish. I’m not. I’m just a person.” However, among the many young Jews who have found Jesus, there is a renewed appreciation of their ethnic background, a deepened love for their own traditions and their own people. They love the Jewish holidays because they now understand the religious precepts. Because of Jesus, their Jewish identity has been established more strongly than ever. They believe their Jewishness is based on God’s decree rather than on the consensus of the Jewish community.
These young Jews who have turned to Christ have received nothing but condemnation from their Jewish establishment brothers. Rabbi Meir Kahane, head of the Jewish Defense League, has called the Jesus movement a “desperate fad” and Jewish believers in Christ anything from “obscene” to “ignoramuses.” Along with others, he is trying to instill hatred and mistrust among Jews for their Hebrew Christian minority and thus is sealing off lines of communication so vitally needed. The Jewish community cannot accept the love and respect these Jewish young people offer out of their experience with Jesus Christ, because to do so would be to acknowledge Christ as a constructive force.
The Jewish young people who are turning to Christ in such large numbers today are intelligent, questioning people who came to the end of their spiritual search when they discovered their Messiah. These young people are not defectors from Judaism but, through Christ, are returning to the Jewish heritage. They are living as Jews and loving it.
George M. Marsden is associate professor of history at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. He has the Ph.D. (Yale University) and has written “The Evangelical Mind and the New School Presbyterian Experience.”
