"Will Israel ever accept Messianic Jews? - Indeed, Messianic Jews are largely shunned by mainstream Jewish communities around the world, and are commonly seen as proselytizers.
In recent times, tension between Israel’s rabbinate and the liberal streams of Judaism both at home and abroad have been in the spotlight due to disputes over religious pluralism. But another group, Messianic Jews, is continuously ostracized both by mainstream world Jewry and by Israel.
Every now and again a story reaches the media about a self-identified Jew whose application for immigration to Israel, or aliya, has been denied on the basis that he or she is a Messianic Jew.
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| Supreme Court of Israel. (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons) |
The Law of Return was enacted by the Knesset in 1950.
In 1970, Amendment 4A (a) to the Law of Return was passed, stating: “The rights of a Jew under this Law and the rights of an oleh under the Nationality Law, 5712-1952, as well as the rights of an oleh under any other enactment, are also vested in a child and a grandchild of a Jew, the spouse of a Jew, the spouse of a child of a Jew and the spouse of a grandchild of a Jew, except for a person who has been a Jew and has voluntarily changed his/her religion.”
In 1989, the Supreme Court ruled that Messianic Jews’ belief in Jesus makes them Christians, thus ineligible for automatic Israeli citizenship.
That ruling, however, was left open to future changes. “The ‘secular test’ is composed of various elements, and it is possible to enumerate between them the foundations of the Jewish religion, the Hebrew language, the history of the Jewish people and the rebuilding of its independence in its state. The internal weight of these elements has changed over time, and will change in the future. The secular-liberal conception is a dynamic concept that changes with the Jewish people’s path over history,” it reads.
In April 2008, the court ruled that several Messianic Jews were entitled to Israeli citizenship because they were the descendants of Jewish fathers or grandfathers, but had never been Jewish themselves, and thus had not converted.
“The question is whether the Law of Return is still suitable to current needs,” a source familiar with the issue tells the Post.
He says the situation is complicated for those who are in the “twilight zone of religions,” between Judaism and Christianity, for example, or those who converted under duress in order to save their lives. “The law has no answer to that. Nobody has given it any thought and nobody wants to touch the Law of Return, for fear that it will jeopardize the very foundation of the justification of Zionism.
“The absurd thing is that if they join a friendship association with Israel in the West, they will be very welcomed by Israel as friends, just like any Friends of Israel Christian group,” he adds, “although I believe that they would be shunned by local communities because they are too ambiguous about their Judaism, and communities in general are not afraid anymore of Christian Friends or even Muslim Friends but are very weary of all those who are in between.”
Indeed, Messianic Jews are largely shunned by mainstream Jewish communities around the world, and are commonly seen as proselytizers.
“The term ‘Jews for Jesus’ – and probably even ‘Messianic Jews’ – is a bit disingenuous,” says Rabbi David Rosen, adviser on interreligious affairs to the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, who also serves as the director of the American Jewish Committee’s Department of Interreligious Affairs.
“If people believe Jesus is one of the triune persons of God, then they should be honest as identifying themselves as Christian.
Therefore, they can identify themselves as ethnically Jewish Christians or Jewish Christians if they want. But they are Christian,” he tells the Post. “Part of the problem with those who use these terminologies is that it’s very often for missionary proselytizing purposes.... That, I think, is the major source of distress for the Jewish community, where they are seen as predatory in their religious approach and disingenuous in their terminology.”
Addressing arguments that the situation of descendants of Holocaust survivors and those targeted by antisemites should be taken into account, Rosen says: “I sympathize with their plight but think it’s ridiculous to suggest that antisemitism, let alone Nazism, should determine who is considered a Jew.”
This question, in his opinion, should not be in the hands of the state at all.
“From my point of view, the state should not be interfering in questions of people’s identity at all. It should not be going into the business of who is a Jew, let alone what is a Jew,” he asserts. “The state itself originally, prior the Law of Return, followed Ben-Gurion’s approach that anyone who wants to consider themselves as a Jews should be seen as a Jew.”
He also opined that the state, as a secular democracy, should not be preferring one group over another.
“Most Jews believe the Law of Return should still remain as a declarative testimony of the fact that Israel is a home for Jews everywhere in the world. But it is very dubious as to whether the Law of Return should be defining exactly who is a Jew,” he says, noting that in his opinion, the duty of absorbing immigrants should be the responsibility of an organization of the Jewish people, such as the Jewish Agency.
There are an estimated 20,000 Messianic Jewish believers in Israel, and an estimated 350,000 worldwide.
Scharf says very few Messianic Jews apply for aliya from abroad, but the Jewish Agency does not have data on those who apply to immigrate while already residing in Israel. The Population and Immigration Bureau says it does not have statistics specifically for Messianic Jews.
The Messianic Jewish Alliance of Israel declined a request for an interview." - excerpts from Will Israel ever accept Messianic Jews? - By Tamara Zieve
December 16, 2017 04:33 http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Diaspora-Affairs-Will-Israel-ever-accept-Messianic-Jews-518129 The Jerusalem Post
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