Editing Messianic Judaism (section)

==Reception==

===Among mainstream Christianity===
In the United States, the emergence of the Messianic Jewish movement created some stresses with other Jewish-Christian and missionary organization. In 1975, the [[Fellowship of Christian Testimonies to the Jews]] condemned several aspects{{which|date=March 2020}} of the Messianic Jewish movement.<ref>Peter J. Tomson, Doris Lambers-Petry ''The image of the Judaeo-Christians in ancient Jewish and Christian ...'' 2003 p. 292 "From outside the movement hostile criticism of Messianic Judaism was voiced by such bodies as the Fellowship of Christian Testimonies to the Jews. At their annual conference from 16 to 19 October 1975 a resolution was passed condemning"</ref>

In Israel, the linguistic distinction between Messianic Jews and mainstream Christians is less clear, and the name {{transliteration|he|meshihiy}} ({{lang|he|משיחי|rtl=yes}}, 'messianic') is commonly used by churches in lieu of {{transliteration|he|notsri}} ({{lang|he|נוצרי|rtl=yes}}, 'Christian'). The Israel Trust of the Anglican Church, based at [[Christ Church, Jerusalem]], an organization that is [[ecumenical]] in outlook and operates an interfaith school in Jerusalem, gives some social support to Messianic Jews in Israel.{{sfn|Kessler|2005|p=97|ps=: "Messianic Jews in Israel who accept Yeshua (Hebrew for Jesus) as the Messiah are supported, when they meet with hostility, by CMJ/ITAC. In the 1980s CMJ gave some support to evangelistic campaigns by Jews for Jesus…"}}

===Among Jews===
{{See also|Judaism's view of Jesus}}
As in traditional Jewish objections to Christian theology, opponents of Messianic Judaism hold that Christian proof texts, such as prophecies in the Hebrew Bible purported to refer the Messiah's suffering and death, have been taken out of context and misinterpreted.{{sfn|Cohn-Sherbok|2000|p=183}} Jewish theology rejects the idea that the Messiah, or any human being, is a [[divinity]]. Belief in the [[Trinity]] is considered idolatrous by most rabbinic authorities. Even if considered {{transliteration|he|[[shituf]]}} (literally, "partnership")—an association of other individuals with the God of Israel—this is only permitted for gentiles, and that only according to some rabbinic opinions. It is universally considered idolatrous for Jews.<ref name="OhrSomayach"/><ref name = "Shochet1999" />{{sfn|Berger|2003|ps=: "Some asserted that the association (shittuf) of Jesus with this God is permissible for non-Jews. Virtually none regarded such association as anything other than avodah zarah if the worshipper was a Jew."}} Further, Judaism does not view the role of the Messiah to be the salvation of the world from its sins, an integral teaching of Christianity{{sfn|Grudem|1994|pp=568–570}} and Messianic Judaism.<ref name="UMJC_StatementOfFaith"/>

Jewish opponents of Messianic Judaism often focus their criticism on the movement's radical ideological separation from traditional Jewish beliefs, stating that the acceptance of Jesus as Messiah creates an insuperable divide between the traditional messianic expectations of Judaism, and Christianity's theological claims.{{sfn|Cohn-Sherbok|2000|p=182}} They state that while Judaism is a messianic religion, its messiah is not Jesus,{{sfn|Simmons|2004}} and thus the term is misleading.<ref name="Lotker"/> All denominations of Judaism, as well as national Jewish organizations, reject Messianic Judaism as a form of Judaism.<ref name="Denominations"/><ref name="JList1"/> The [[Central Conference of American Rabbis]] states that {{"'}}Jewish Christians' or 'Messianic Jews' have never been considered believers in Judaism."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ccarnet.org/rabbinic-voice/platforms/article-commentary-principles-reform-judaism/ |title=Commentary on the Principles for Reform Judaism |publisher=[[Central Conference of American Rabbis]] |access-date=2023-09-16}}</ref> Regarding this divide, [[Reconstructionist Judaism|Reconstructionist]] Rabbi [[Carol Harris-Shapiro]] said: "To embrace the radioactive core of goyishness—Jesus—violates the final taboo of Jewishness. ... Belief in Jesus as Messiah is not simply a heretical belief, as it may have been in the first century; it has become the equivalent to an act of ethno-cultural suicide."{{sfn|Harris-Shapiro|1999|p=177}}

[[B'nai Brith Canada]] considers Messianic activities as antisemitic incidents.<ref name="BB_C_1998"/> Rabbi [[Tovia Singer]], founder of the anti-missionary organization [[Outreach Judaism]], noted of a Messianic religious leader in Toledo: "He's not running a Jewish synagogue. ... It's a church designed to appear as if it were a synagogue and I'm there to expose him. What these irresponsible extremist Christians do is a form of consumer fraud. They blur the distinctions between Judaism and Christianity in order to lure Jewish people who would otherwise resist a straightforward message."<ref name="Singer_Blade"/>

Association by a Jewish politician with a Messianic religious leader, inviting him to pray at a public meeting, even though made in error, resulted in nearly universal condemnation by Jewish congregations in Detroit in 2018,<ref name="Forward103118"/><ref name="NBC103018"/> as the majority opinion in both Israeli and American Jewish circles is to consider Messianic Judaism as Christianity and its followers as Christians.<ref name="WP103018"/>

In 1999, [[Pardes Shalom Cemetery]] in [[Toronto]], Canada, barred Reverend Malvern Jacobs from being buried in the cemetery as Jacobs had converted to Christianity and become a Messianic Jewish minister and [[dean (education)|dean]] of [[Canada Christian College]]'s Jewish Studies department.<ref>{{cite news |title=Messianic Jew Buried At Last |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/messianic-jew-buried-at-last-1.194483 |access-date=March 14, 2025 |work=CBC News |date=July 29, 1999}}</ref> Pardes Shalom locked its gates to prevent Jacobs's casket and his funeral procession of 400 mourners from entering the cemetery.<ref>{{cite news |title=Cemetery refuses to allow burial of Jewish-born Christian minister |url=https://www.jta.org/1999/06/29/default/cemetery-refuses-to-allow-burial-of-jewish-born-christian-minister |access-date=March 14, 2024 |agency=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |date=June 29, 1999}}</ref>

A small minority of Jewish scholars, notably [[Dan Cohn-Sherbok]], have accepted the practice of Messianic Judaism as a legitimate Jewish religious expression within a "pluralistic model" of Judaism.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ariel |first=Yaakov |title=Review of Messianic Judaism by Dan Cohn-Sherbok |journal=Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions |volume=7 |issue=3 |year=2004 |pages=119–120 |doi=10.1525/nr.2004.7.3.119 |jstor=10.1525/nr.2004.7.3.119 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/nr.2004.7.3.119 |access-date=November 4, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Berkman |first=Jacob |title=Questionable Credibility: A Rabbi's Speech Encourages Messianic Jews |magazine=Baltimore Jewish Times |volume=254 |date=August 11, 2000 |page=12 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/222813226 |access-date=November 4, 2025 |id={{ProQuest|222813226}} }}</ref> By contrast, most other Jewish thinkers have placed Messianic Judaism outside of mainstream Jewish legitimacy and within the camp of the Christian faith. Some, like [[David Novak]]<ref name=Novak2002>{{cite book |last=Novak |first=David |chapter=When Jews Are Christians |editor-last=Neuhaus |editor-first=Richard John |title=The Chosen People in an Almost Chosen Nation: Jews and Judaism in America |pages=92–102 |publisher=W.B. Eerdmans Publishing |year=2002}}</ref> and [[Michael Wyschogrod]],<ref>{{cite journal |last=Wyschogrod |first=Michael |title=Letter to a Friend |journal=Modern Theology |volume=11 |issue=2 |date=April 1995 |pages=165–171 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0025.1995.tb00057.x |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0025.1995.tb00057.x |access-date=November 4, 2025|url-access=subscription }}</ref> have come to the conclusion that Messianic Jews are still halachically Jews even though Messianic Judaism is not at all Jewish. In regard to Jews who convert to Christianity, Novak writes that "these great existential decisions are not meant to be cost-free. In any religious conversion, something is gained and something lost."<ref name=Novak2002 />

===Response of Israeli government===
{{See also|Religion in Israel#Christianity}}
A Messianic Jew's eligibility for the [[State of Israel]]'s [[Law of Return]] depends on their Halakhic status; while those who are Jewish by halakha are excluded, those who are not Jewish by halakha may be eligible based on Jewish descent.<ref name="Berman"/> An assistant to one of the two lawyers involved with an April 2008 [[Supreme Court of Israel]] case explained to the ''[[Jerusalem Post]]'' that Messianic Jews who are not Jewish according to Jewish rabbinic law, but who had sufficient Jewish descent to qualify under the Law of Return, could claim automatic new immigrant status and citizenship despite being Messianic.<ref name="JIJ"/> The state of Israel grants {{transliteration|he|[[Law of Return|Aliyah]]}} (right of return) and citizenship to Jews, and to those with Jewish parents or grandparents who are not considered Jews according to halakha, such as people who have a Jewish father but a non-Jewish mother. The old law had excluded any "person who has been a Jew and has voluntarily changed his religion", and an [[Supreme Court of Israel|Israeli Supreme Court]] decision in 1989 had ruled that Messianic Judaism constituted another religion.<ref name="New York Times - 1989"/> However, on April 16, 2008, the Supreme Court of Israel ruled in a case brought by a number of Messianic Jews with Jewish fathers and grandfathers. Their applications for {{transliteration|he|Aliyah}} had been rejected on the grounds that they were Messianic Jews. The argument was made by the applicants that they had never been Jews according to {{transliteration|he|halakha}}, and were not therefore excluded by the conversion clause. This argument was upheld in the ruling.<ref name="JIJ"/><ref name="Wagner2008"/><ref name="CBN2008"/>

The International Religious Freedom Report 2008, released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor in the US, stated that discrimination against Messianic Jews in Israel was increasing.<ref name="IRF2008"/> Some acts of violence have also occurred; in one incident on March 20, 2008, a bomb concealed as a Purim gift basket was delivered to the house of a prominent Messianic Jewish family in [[Ariel (city)|Ariel]], in the [[West Bank]], which severely wounded the son.<ref name="JPost2008"/> Eventually, [[Yaakov Teitel]] was arrested for the attempted murder.<ref name="Mitchell2009"/>

This antagonism has led to harassment and some violence, especially in Israel, where there is a large and militant Orthodox community. Several Orthodox organizations, including [[Yad L'Achim]] and [[Lehava]], are dedicated to rooting out missionary activity in Israel, including the Messianic Jewish congregations. One tactic is to plaster posters asking Israelis to boycott shops where Messianic Jews are owners or employees; another is to report Messianic Jews to the Interior ministry, which is charged with enforcing an Israeli law forbidding proselytizing.<ref name="Azulai2009"/> In another incident, the mayor of Or Yehuda, a suburb of Tel Aviv, held a public book-burning of literature passed out to Ethiopian immigrants. He later apologized for the action.<ref name="Time-IMJUA"/> On other occasions, Lehava activists attempted to interrupt Messianic Jewish and violently harass the participants.<ref>{{Cite news |title='Messianic Jews' Say Police in Jerusalem Didn't Protect Them From Right-wing Mob |language=en |work=Haaretz |url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2019-06-14/ty-article/.premium/messianic-jews-say-police-in-jerusalem-didnt-protect-them-from-right-wing-mob/0000017f-e60a-dea7-adff-f7fbffd30000 |access-date=2023-10-27}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Horovitz |first=Michael |date=2023-06-23 |title=Jewish extremists try to interrupt Messianic Jewish event in Jerusalem |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-extremists-try-to-interrupt-messianic-jewish-event-in-jerusalem/ |access-date=2023-10-27 |website=The Times of Israel |language=en-US}}</ref>

===Response of US governments===
The [[United States Navy|US Navy]] made a decision that Messianic Jewish chaplains must wear as their insignia the Christian cross, and not the tablets of the law, the insignia of Jewish chaplains. According to [[Yeshiva World News]], the Navy Uniform Board commanded that Michael Hiles, a candidate for chaplaincy, wear the Christian insignia. Hiles resigned from the program, rather than wear the cross.<ref name="TYW"/> Eric Tokajer, a spokesman for the Messianic Jewish movement, responded that "This decision essentially bars Messianic Jews from serving as chaplains within the U.S. Navy because it would require them to wear an insignia inconsistent with their faith and belief system."<ref name="Tokajer"/>

A [[Birmingham, Alabama]], police employee's religious discrimination case was settled in her favor after she filed suit over having to work on the Jewish Sabbath.<ref name="Harmon2013"/>