Jews for Jesus: Is it really an oxymoran?

Published: Wednesday, October 1, 1997

Wednesday, October 1, 1997

International group that preaches a love of Jesus as the Messiah has elicited curiosity, anger with their paradoxical message

By Trina Enriquez

Daily Bruin Contributor

A woman stands in the middle of Bruin Walk, armed with brightly colored pamphlets which she thrusts in front of students hurrying to class. Some refuse to take one, or accept it before throwing it away. Others read the pamphlet and encounter the 'oxymoron:' "Jews for Jesus."

Representatives of this organization have elicited both curiosity and animosity on campus.

"Jews for Jesus are hypocrites because Jews don't believe in Jesus," said Danielle Bereskin, a third-year psychology student. "He isn't any part of our religion. I don't know about Jews for Jesus, but they bother me."

Jews for Jesus is both an international organization and grass roots movement of Jews advocating a love of Jesus as the Messiah. The scope of the organization goes beyond what people first perceive.

"Introducing people to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob gives people hope. It gives them someone to believe in, and it tells them that they've got a future. And the key is Jesus the Messiah," said Tuvya Zaretsky, director of Jews for Jesus' Southern California district. "Without Him, none of that is possible."

Consequently, the organization has angered certain members of the Jewish community who feel that Jews for Jesus misrepresents Judaism to Jews and non-Jews alike.

"Every Jewish person feels this is wrong," said Rabbi Mendy Cunin of Chabad House at UCLA. "Christians come up to me and say, 'Be up front about who you are.'"

A fundamental belief of Judaism is that the Messiah shall come when all people everywhere perform deeds of goodness and kindness. Without this basic concept, Judaism cannot stand.

The name "Jews for Jesus" overturns this precept by advocating a love for Jesus as the Messiah who has already come. Certain members of the Jewish community feel this strikes at the foundation of Judaism, to a certain extent negating the perseverance with which the Jews endured such persecution as the Crusades and the Holocaust.

"Jews for Jesus is out to destroy the Jewish people," said Rabbi Cunin. "In America, they can't get away with killing us physically, so they pump millions of dollars into marketing to try to get Jewish people to convert. They are interested in seeing the annihilation of the Jewish people."

Jews for Jesus is neither a church nor a spokesman for Judaism. "Our mission is to make the Messiahship of Jesus an unavoidable issue for our own Jewish people," said Tuvya Zaretsky, director of Jews for Jesus' Southern California district. "Yet we are also an information agency, because we don't speak only to Jewish people."

Still, many ask, how can a Jew be for Jesus? Organization members contend that being Jewish is a bloodline, a heritage that no one can convert any more than he can convert his ethnicity.

"We are born Jews," Zaretsky said. "That is our lineage. That can never change. Judaism, on the other hand, is a system of belief, which is not adhered to by all Jews."

According to a 1992 issue of Moment, a Jewish magazine, between 60 and 70 percent of core Jews are unaffiliated and belong to no synagogue.

"The religion, Judaism, does not define what makes one a Jew," Zaretsky said. "Jesus himself was a Jew."

The organization has a number of recognized connections within the Christian community.

"They're in kind of a lonely position, alienated from their great Jewish religion, because they've accepted Jesus as the Messiah," said Father Ted Vierra, director of the University Catholic Center. "I wouldn't accuse them of (proselytizing), because I believe Jesus is the Messiah."

According to Father Vierra, the Roman Catholic church recognizes the validity of the covenant the Jews have with God.

The Documents of Vatican II, first published in 1966, say, "The Jews still remain most dear to God because of their fathers, for God does not repent of the gifts He makes nor the calls He issues. The Church awaits the day, known to God alone, at which all people will address the Lord in a single voice and serve Him with one accord."

Rabbi Cunin stresses the importance of educating people on what it means to be Jewish. "Learn more about it on the Internet," he said, "Even here on Bruin Walk." While you're at it, you just might bump into that woman handing out those brightly colored pamphlets.

AARON TOUT / Daily Bruin

Stan Meyer, who has been with Jews for Jesus since 1985, passes out fliers on Bruin Walk to

students on their way to class.

"It gives them someone to believe in, and ... that they've got a future."

Tuvya Zaretsky

Jews for Jesus