Former Jews for Jesus Follower Diagnoses Group and Its Tactics

"From their first separation from Judaism almost 2,000 years ago to the recent revision by Pope Benedict XVI of the Good Friday Prayer for the Jews, Christians have been seeking to convince Jews to accept Jesus as their Messiah," read a flyer advertising a recent adult-studies program at Shir Ami-Bucks County Jewish Congregation. "The methods have sometimes been friendly and frequently not."

You could say that the presenter, Michelle Rizzo, a congregant of the Newtown synagogue, is qualified to lecture on the subject, given her direct experiences as a child and teenager growing up in California in the 1970s. There, she attended various evangelical churches, as well as Jews for Jesus meetings and picnics, and observed proselytizing efforts in San Francisco and Berkeley. Her uncle, Arnold Bernstein ("an uncle by marriage," she notes of "Uncle Arnie") was even one of the founders of the Jews for Jesus missionary organization and was a staff member of the Christian World Liberation Front.

Rizzo, 47, who is divorced with two teenage children, converted to Judaism at Shir Ami in June 2007. She shared her childhood experiences with about two-dozen people last week at a lunch-and-learn program titled "Who Are the Christian Jews, and What Do They Want From Us?" and held at the synagogue.

Michelle Rizzo

Rizzo said that it's important to note that Jews for Jesus -- the most well-known Christian group reaching out to Jews, she noted, most likely because of its easy-to-remember moniker -- is a Christian proselytizing organization and not a church, although much of its funding does come from evangelical sources.

The Web site for Jews for Judaism, an organization started in 1985 to counteract "deceptive proselytizing targeting Jews for conversion," states that Christian churches "spend over $250 million annually in the United States alone to convert Jews to Christianity. Most of the missionary and conversionary groups are affiliated with Protestant denominations."

Rizzo, a medical writer and editor, used her personal experiences with Jews for Jesus and messianic synagogues to discuss how the groups appeal to Jews, and explained that they believe that a certain number of "Jews need to be saved [to help] ensure that Jesus will come back."

She added that targeting Jews specifically "is the highest calling possible" for messianic Jews "because Jesus was Jewish."

She said that they attempt to reach out to vulnerable people raised Jewishly, but without ties to congregations.

'Slow to Respond'
Upon first glance, noted Rizzo, messianic Judaism looks a lot like Judaism itself: Its followers circumcise their sons; their synagogues have an ark that contains Torahs; teenagers have Bar and Bat Mitzvahs; and they sing a lot of the same songs and prayers, including the Shema.

"I learned Henai Matov in church -- in Hebrew," said Rizzo. She pointed out that messianic Jews identify as Jewish, but they are gentile from a Jewish perspective. She added that they "long to be taken seriously as a legitimate stream of Judaism," and "it upsets them that they aren't."

"They don't intend to be deceptive, to trap Jews," added Rizzo, which is obviously her take on the group. "They believe they are Jewish."

She also passed around brochures, known as broadsides, which she had downloaded from the Jews for Jesus Web site (the site itself features 115 such broadsides on various Jewish topics and holidays, including Chanukah and Passover, to be used for answering questions about Messianic Judaism). The handouts read: "Jesus made me kosher," with kosher spelled in Hebrew; and "Moses for Jesus," with a depiction of Moses holding up the Ten Commandments, along with a quote from Deuteronomy according to Masoretic text.

Rizzo explained that messianic Jews highlight certain scriptures that describe what the Messiah is supposed to be and do, but she said that these are based on mistranslations of the Hebrew Bible. She added that other details are taken out of context from various verses and passages.

"Jews have been really slow to respond to this," said Rizzo, although she noted the work of Rabbi Bentzion Kravitz, who established Jews for Judaism. "We've kind of let it go by for a long period of time. It's time Jews kind of responded."

Rizzo's uncle, now known as the Rev. A. James Bernstein after his conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy, is a pastor at St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church in Brier, Wash. When contacted at his church outside of Seattle, Bernstein -- who chronicles his childhood as the son of Orthodox Jews and his religious quest in a new book, Surprised by Christ: My Journey From Judaism to Orthodox Christianity -- said that he was "embarrassed to some degree" that he once thought "to mingle faith in Christ with Jewish ethnic identity and culture."

He added that messianic Jews often experience an "identity crisis," as they are not fully accepted by Jews or Christians.

At the conclusion of her presentation, Rizzo offered suggestions on appropriate Jewish responses to those who target Jews.

She said that you should avoid engaging messianic missionaries in conversation unless you know the Bible and specific passages extremely well, and also understand how such quotations can be used for purposes of persuasion.

"They know more than you do," asserted Rizzo. "There is no point in arguing with them in general."