Two recent events motivated me to go back to one of my favorite Elie Weisel stories. The first was my summer trip to Barcelona. The second was reading about the renewed effort on the part of evangelical churches, both in our area and elsewhere, to target Jews for conversion.
"Testament of a Jew in Saragossa" is the title of the story in which Wiesel recounts an experience he had on his own visit to Spain years ago. Wiesel tells of being approached by a man who offers to provide him with some guiding around the Spanish city. When the discussion turned personal, the Spanish guide discovered that Wiesel knew many languages and he begged him to come to his apartment to decode a parchment document that had been handed down, father to son, for generations. This devout Catholic family believed that the document protected them from evil. Yet noone in the family understood its contents.
Wiesel immediately recognized the script as Hebrew, and with trembling hands and heart, he translated slowly: "I, Moses, son of Abraham, forced to break all ties with my people and my faith, leave these lines to the children of my children and to theirs, in order that on the day when Israel will be able to walk again, its head high under the sun, without fear and without remorse, my descendants will know where their roots lie. Written at Saragossa, this ninth day of the month of Av, in the year of punishment and exile."
It had taken four centuries, since the days of the Spanish Inquisition, for this family testament to fulfill its objective. But now, this Catholic Spaniard knew that he was descended from Jews. Of course, the date of the testament's writing, the 9th of Av, is the same date as the destruction of both the first and second Temples of Jerusalem, a day that has also marked an uncanny number of tragedies throughout Jewish history-expulsions, massacres, discriminatory regulations and the like. It is a day that observant Jews mark with fasting, recalling how much the Jew has been victimized through history as guests in foreign lands. It is also a day that reminds us how important it is for Jews to have a homeland in which they can control their own destiny and how fortunate American Jews are to live in a land that protects minority rights and honors religious pluralism.
Tell that to the evangelicals who are desperate to convert their quota of Jews! You'll be wasting your breath. From their perspective, they are fulfilling their own religious obligations to spread the Gospel. In the book of Matthew, Jesus is reputed to have instructed not to go proselytizing among the Gentiles. Go instead, he taught, to the lost sheep of Israel. One evangelical leader was quoted as saying that he would prefer to win over one Jewish convert than 50,000 gentiles! It puts a new wrinkle on the concept of "chosen people". Apparently, even if we want to reject the claim to choseness, as did Reconstructionism's founder, Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, to many, Jewish souls are more precious than those of non-Jews!
I actually have some personal history on the issue of Christian proselytization. The job that brought me to the Washington area in the mid-1980's was as the executive director of the Jewish Community Council, the official public affairs arm of the Jewish community funded by the Jewish federation. It was precisely at that time that the headquarters of the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations was established in Rockville. It has since moved to New Mexico though there is still a congregation in Gaithersburg called Beth Messiah. Messianic Judaism is but one of several international efforts, funded by evangelical Christian denominations, to get Jews to embrace Jesus as the Messiah. You probably have heard of Jews for Jesus. Their van can be found driving around Montgomery Cty. pretty regularly. You have also likely seen the blitz of advertising they have been doing on radio and in local newspapers for the past few months. This is their High Holyday campaign!
In 1986 I went undercover to attend the nat'l convention of Messianic Judaism. To say that it was disturbing is an understatement. What most shocked me is how Jewish the whole operation looked. They call their leaders, rabbis. They list their congregations in the Yellow Pages under "synagogues", not churches. They acquire and use Torah scrolls and they pray in Hebrew. They observe Jewish festivals and rituals. They do not ask Jews to abandon their Judaism but rather to fulfill their Judaism. They talk about embracing the Messiah Yeshua, instead of using "Jesus" language. The Messianic Jewish webpage would be the envy of any national Jewish organization. You can find there a weekly commentary on the Torah portion. You can read about their youth and adult educational programs. You can participate in their solidarity trips to Israel (which, by the way, the Israelis love. Christian evangelicals did not stop traveling to Israel when Jews did). And just in case you are not yet totally impressed, you can also join the task force they have set up to fight global anti-semitism!
It gives one pause. While Jewish organizations will be quick-- and correct-- to label such groups as frauds, and imposters, engaged in devious deception to trick Jews into coming over to "the other side", their commitment to the very elements of Jewish life and practice that many Jews are lax about is a grave challenge to each and every one of us sitting here. As Americans we are inclined to protest this well funded and zealous campaign to target and convert Jews as out of keeping with the spirit of tolerance and pluralism that characterizes our democracy. But hey, Americans are taking faith more and more seriously. Before Jews go too far down the road of criticizing the missionaries, we would do well to look at our own lives, families and homes. We need to ask whether we are raising children who will be prone to such approaches precisely because the messianic Jews take their religion more seriously than do the families and synagogues in which our children are raised!
The challenge posed by the renewed campaign of Christians wanting to convert Jews made my summer visit to Barcelona all the more poignant for two reasons. First, the occasion for my visit was to speak at and participate in the World Parliament of Religions, a gathering that takes place every four years in a different city around the world. It drew about 3000 participants from every conceivable faith on the planet. The spirit of the gathering was one of learning, sharing and respectful dialogue. I spoke on one panel with a Christian, a Buddhist and a Moslem at which each of us tried to articulate the non-negotiables of our respective faiths. It was a fascinating and respectful exchange.
Another interesting feature at the Parliament was an enormous tent, set up by the Sikhs, serving free lunch to all comers every day of the conference. It was the picture of Abrahamic hospitality, with Sikhs waiting on their guests, hand and foot. Around the tent were displays about Sikhism and even a temple in which one could participate in Sikh worship. I commented to one Sikh that this was a great outreach strategy, and would quite likely result in attracting many to Sikhism. "Oh no", he protested, "we would not think of encouraging conversion. This is only so people understand us better." Obviously, this is an ethic that has eluded many of our evangelical Christian friends here but one that we must seek to promote more widely in American society. It is no longer a given.
The second contrast between Barcelona and the targeted conversion efforts of Christian groups here was the phenomenon that was evoked in the Elie Wiesel story. I call it "the tenacity of faith". During the Spanish Inquisition, tens of thousands of Jews were tortured and killed as the Church targeted Jews for conversion. Many Jews converted to save themselves and their families. A subset, called marranos or conversos, continued to identify as Jews in secret even as they professed Catholicism in public. In recent years, thousands of descendants of these Conversos have found their way back to Judaism.
I acquired some first hand knowledge of Jews reclaiming their heritage in this way in Barcelona. On erev Shabbat, Sandy and I attended the liberal synagogue and several attendees identified themselves as "new Jews", having discovered their Jewish roots in the recent past.
How did these Christians discover their Jewish roots? There were many clues that were simply waiting to be pieced together for a soul eager to re-connect with Judaism. Like the Christian family that always soaked their meat before cooking, a practice required to kosher meat. Or the family that lit candles to Jesus, but only on Friday night. Or the practice of kissing the doorsill of their front door, both when leaving and entering the house, just as Jews would kiss their mezuzah.
In the recent past, increasing numbers of Spaniards have started to explore their roots and they have chosen to reclaim the Jewish identity that their ancestors were forced to abandon. A Reform rabbi from Kansas City, who himself has Converso roots and grew up in Brazil, now regularly travels to Madrid to convert such new Jews, offering an option to the otherwise stringent Orthodox rabbis of Spain.
Let me point out, that while the phenomenon has a special poignancy in Spain, the center of the Inquisition, the phenomenon of new Jews is not restricted to that country. There are reports of upsurges in interest in and conversion to Judaism in the former Soviet Union, in Eastern Europe, in the Balkans, in Ethiopia and in South America. Madonna may be the most publicized new devotee of Judaism, but she is hardly alone!
There is a deep spiritual hunger in the world today. People are seeking out a heritage with history to give them a sense of transcendant purpose; people are seeking sacred texts with the wisdom to guide them in troubled times; people are seeking timeless values to help them sort out right from wrong; people are desperate to regain a sense of awe so as to raise their lives to a level of holiness.
Is it any wonder that such seekers are being drawn to Judaism? Doesn't it give pause to those of us who, as a result of being raised within Judaism, have come to take it for granted. Too many of us have never engaged in the discipline of digging deeply to discover Judaism's timeless riches!
Early this summer I was teaching at a retreat for Jewish young adults in Los Angeles. One of my students, Carla, grew up in Argentina with no Jewish background whatsoever. Her father was born a Jew, married a Catholic and created a Catholic home. Carla simply willed herself into being Jewish. She came to the retreat to learn whatever she could. She latched onto me from the very first day for an optional session after one of my lectures. When I asked her what she wanted to discuss or learn about she replied simply: "Everything. I know nothing and I want to know everything about Judaism." Carla has not yet undergone any conversion but she devours information about Judaism at every chance she gets. Carla is obsessed with strengthening both her own Jewish identity and that of any Jew she meets. She lives in a small town, about 100 miles from Bueonos Aires and singlehandedly organizes and cooks Shabbat dinners every single week. Starting on Sunday, she invites any Jew or potential Jew she meets to her Shabbat dinner, bringing people back to Judaism one matzoh ball at a time.
This is evidence of the tenacity of Jewish faith. This is what it looks like when Jews, not just Christian missionaries, think about every Jew as if she or he were a precious soul.
The Elie Wiesel story ends with Wiesel jumping forward ten years past his encounter with the lost Jew of Saragossa. He was walking on King George St. in Jerusalem when a stranger grabs his elbow and whispers in his ear: "Saragossa". Wiesel can hardly believe the coincidence. The man takes him to his apartment where he shows him the old parchment that Wiesel first decoded for him. It was now framed prominently on the wall of his apartment…next to the mezuzah. "And my name now", continued the man to Wiesel, "is Moshe ben Avraham", the name of the last person in my family to live as a Jew in the 15th century.
My friends, today is Yom Kippur. It is a day to consider our tenacity of faith. It is a day to consider how committed we are to reclaiming our heritage and our faith.
I am not really worried about Messianic Jews, Jews for Jesus or the McClean Bible Church, though I would condemn their strategies. I know there is little that I can do to change the way they choose to live out their faith and their belief.
But I do worry about us. Can we, American Jews, wake up to the gift of Judaism and find ways to make Judaism more central to our lives? Can we use the challenge of the Messianic Jews to get us to observe Shabbat more devoutly, to study the sources of our heritage more seriously, to celebrate Jewish festivals more joyously, to participate in our synagogue more energetically? Do we leave zealotry to the Christian evangelicals or can we catch some of Carla's passionate spirit and use it to promote Judaism to ourselves, to our children and to our friends? These are all questions appropriate to ponder on this, the most solemn Jewish day of the year.
A final thought to ponder: Someone out there thinks that your Jewish soul is precious. It is high time for us Jews to treat our souls just as preciously.