My friend Jenny Moyers is not the most connected Jew ever to walk the earth. She doesn\u2019t belong to a synagogue and does not celebrate any of the Jewish holidays in her home. She seems to regard my rabbinic career path with something bordering between amusement and disdain. <\/p>\n
So it came as something of a shock to me when one day we were walking together in the Philadelphia subway and a yellow-shirted Jews for Jesus missionary approached us to offer some literature. Jenny went completely ballistic and started yelling at him at the top of her voice, screaming that he ought to be ashamed of himself for calling himself a Jew. \u201cJews do not believe in Jesus!\u201d she yelled. \u201cWhat you are doing is disgraceful!\u201d Needless to say, Jenny\u2019s outburst made quite an impression on me, and it got me thinking.<\/p>\n
Jews for Jesus push a lot of people\u2019s buttons\u2013even people who would otherwise not really care about Jewish tradition or practice\u2013because they reside at the messy little intersection of identity and belief. For the most part, you can believe (or not believe) and do (or not do) whatever you want and still be Jewish. That\u2019s because being Jewish isn\u2019t a function of a particular belief or set of actions so much as it is a cultural, historic, and spiritual identity into which you are born or choose to convert. You\u2019re just Jewish and, like Jenny, you don\u2019t really need to worry about the particulars.<\/p>\n
Jews for Jesus messes that all up.<\/p>\n
If you really can believe whatever you want as a Jew, couldn\u2019t you be Jewish and believe in Jesus? The answer is no, and I think it has less to do with theological objections\u2013although these certainly exist\u2013than it does with identity issues. For 2,000 years, at least in the West, Christians are what Jews defined themselves against. Oppressed, victimized, expelled, and slaughtered simply for who they were, Jews had their identity and outsider status reinforced over and over again. They were Other, and the oppressors were Christians. <\/p>\n