Religion & Beliefs

What about Jews for Jesus???

By Laurel Snyder / November 9, 2006

The comments from Acidkore and Joey are really interesting to me, and I want to talk about Spinoza at some point soon, but not until I've read Rebecca Goldstein's new book about the man.  I don't know enough to get into a discussion on him right now myself…

But this idea that it is meaningful to observe/participate in the rituals of a faith we do not actually believe is fascinating.  I think in some ways we all (by which I mean all us contemporary secular types) do this all the time, with the trappings our own culture… and with other cultures as well.

My question:  Does this process devalue the faith itself? Is our skeptical reasoning a judgement on the simpler faith of the "true believers"?  

In some sense, it feels like that idea turns our religious culture into a plain old ethnic identity, like Italian Americans, or Irish Americans… based in food and music, or something…  because while Acidkore may be rooting his non-spiritual religious identity in the practice of faith, for most people with a non-faith-based Jewish identity, there's a lot less content and work involved. Seinfeld Judaism. A slippery slope.

And what about converts, Jews by Choice?  While I'm generally willing to accept that atheistic-Jews are Jewish, I feel pretty fucking strongly that people shouldn't convert to Judaism for reasons other than faith (and I say this as one who is often confronted with the debate over "encouraging" conversion in non-Jewish spouses).  Is the desire to participate in the Jewish culture enough to make you a Jew? If so, shouldn't we allow all the latke-loving, Streisand-listening, Potak-reading gentiles into the fold?  All the people who enjoyed a semester abroad in Israel and are now doing a PhD in Jewish Studies?

And to take it a step further, if we allow for a range of definitions of "Jewish faith" how can we say that Jews for Jesus are NOT Jews?

It gets sticky…

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  • By Anonymous 5/23/07 at 1:44 a.m. UTC

    Jesus was a Jew. Why shouldn’t Jews for Jesus be Jews?
    Being Jewish is being a descendent of Abraham and Sarah.

    And Jesus did not abolish the law, he fulfilled it.
    He himself said “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”

  • By acidkore 11/10/06 at 11:03 a.m. UTC

    It depends on your definition of what makes a Jew. If you go by the "official" branches of Judaism and their collective assertions on the subject you get several different answers. Orthodox obviously only accept matrilineal descent or full on Ortho-Conversion. Reform allows patrilineal descent and a less awful conversion process. Secular Humanistic has a far more liberal definition:

    " ..A Jew is someone who identifies with the history, culture and future of the Jewish people.

    …Jewish identity is best preserved in a free, pluralistic environment. ..Judaism is the historic culture of the Jewish people."

    and so on (http://www.shj.org/)

     

    This is the gay, atheist rabbi who performed my Bar Mitzva. :)

    By that definition, Jews for Jesus are in fact Jews. I don't necessarily buy that hook line and sinker, but it's what they say. Personally, I look at Jews for Jesus as Christians. The first followers of Jesus were Jews who believed he was Moshiach. There have been more (and closer) claimants to that title. I do think, however, that following the teachings of a Messiah who didn't fulfill the criteria for Messiah, and explicitly (supposedly) did away with large parts of Jewish law and practice is slightly anti-Jewish.

    The difference between these guys and, say people who felt Bar Kochba was Moshiach, was that Bar Kochba did not tell people that they should give up large parts of their culture, knowledge, and pretty much everything else that binds us as Jews, no matter how strict. Nor did they turn all evangelist and go on recruitment drives.

     

    Just my two cents.

     

    EDIT: Even Israel seems to have it's doubts on what makes a Jew by Choice

    "On Sunday, a nine-member panel of the High Court of Justice, headed by Chief Justice Dorit Beinisch, will hear petitions from individuals who underwent Reform and Conservative conversions in Israel and are seeking recognition as Jews under the Law of Return. The petitions, filed by the Reform movement's legal arm, the Israel Religious Action Center, focus on the Law of Return definition of "Who is a Jew?"  "

    http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/786402.html

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