Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T08:43:26.879Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Counterculture and Mission: Jews for Jesus and the Vietnam Era Missionary Campaigns, 1970-1975

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2018

Yaakov Ariel
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the early 1970's, Americans noticed a striking group of people: young men and women who stood in crowded city areas, wearing T-shirts with the motto “Jews for Jesus” and distributing leaflets calling upon Jews to embrace Jesus as their savior. These people made such a strong impression and attracted so much attention that, in the eyes of many, Jews for Jesus became associated with all attempts to evangelize Jews in America, as well as becoming one of the better known groups among the Jesus Movement. Directing its attention to members of the new counterculture and adapting to the young people's style and manners, Jews for Jesus differed sharply from evangelizing organizations of the earlier period. Whereas the older generation of missionaries strictly adhered to mid-century norms of conservative evangelical propriety, the new organization believed that its more daring approach would prove more effective with the younger generation and would eventually gain evangelical approval.

Type
Research Article
Information
Religion and American Culture , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , Summer 1999 , pp. 233 - 257
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. See, for example, Palms, Roger, “Jews for Jesus,” Home Missions 44 (January 1973): 7–9 Google Scholar; and Kaufman, Ben, “Jews for Jesus,” Cincinnati Enquirer, February 10, 1973, 37.Google Scholar

2. Hineni, meaning “here I am” in Hebrew, refers to Isaiah 6:8. It conveys the self-understanding of the group as dedicated to promoting the word of God. “Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then said I, Here I am, send me.”

3. On the place of the Jews in American premillennialist thought, see Ariel, Yaakov, On Behalf of Israel: American Fundamentalist Attitudes towards Jews, Judaism, and Zionism, 1865-1945 (New York: Carlson, 1991).Google Scholar

4. For example, see Eichhorn, David, Evangelizing the American Jew (New York: Jonathon David, 1978), 172-76.Google Scholar

5. On Moishe Rosen's life and early career, see Lipson, Juliene G., Jews for Jesus: An Anthropological Study (New York: AMS Press, 1990), 54–60 Google Scholar; and Rosen's autobiographical account, Rosen, Moishe and Proctor, William, jews for Jesus (Old Tappan, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell, 1974), 15–55.Google Scholar

6. See Alinsky, Saul, Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals (New York: Random House, 1971).Google Scholar On Saul Alinsky and his teaching, see Horwitt, Sanford D., Let Them Call Me Rebel, Saul Alinsky—His Life and Legacy (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989).Google Scholar

7. Rosen, and Proctor, , Jews for Jesus, 59.Google Scholar

8. See Zaretsky, Irving I. and Leone, Mark P., eds., Religious Movements in Contemporary America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974)Google Scholar; Roof, Wade Clark, A Generation of Seekers: The Spiritual Journeys of the Baby Boom Generation (San Francisco: HarperSan Francisco, 1993)Google Scholar; and Ellwood, Robert S., The Sixties Spiritual Awakening (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1994).Google Scholar

9. On Jewish involvement in such groups, see Linzer, Judith, Tor ah and Dharma: Jewish Seekers in Lastern Religions (Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 1996)Google Scholar; and Kamenetz, Roger, The Jew in the Lotus: A Poet's Rediscovery of Jewish Identity in Buddhist India (New York: Harper Collins, 1994).Google Scholar

10. Rosen, Moishe and Rosen, Ceil, Share the New Life with a Jew (Chicago: Moody Press, 1976), 29–31.Google Scholar

11. Leaflets in possession of the author.

12. See Rosen and Rosen, Share the New Life. This basic claim repeats itself throughout the book. Following the Israeli Yom-Kippur War (1973), Rosen had a discussion on that topic with Menahen Ben Hayim, a leader of the Christian messianic Jewish Community in Israel. Ben Hayim referred to the death of a medic in the war while saving the life of another soldier and voiced his opinion that the medic was saved since, in his self-sacrificing deed, he followed the example of Jesus Christ. Rosen did not agree and insisted that only the born-agains were saved. Interview with Menahem Ben Hayim, Jerusalem, July 1994.

13. On such evangelists and groups, see Streiber, Lowell D., The Jesus Trip: Advent of the Jesus Freaks (New York: Abingdon, 1971).Google Scholar

14. Cf. photographs of Jews for Jesus demonstrating or distributing leaflets dressed in denim and with long-grown hair with those of other such groups. See, for example, Lindsay Miller, “Jews as ‘Jesus Freaks,’” New York Post, September 2, 1972; and Streiber, , The Jesus Trip, 30.Google Scholar

15. See, for example, the advertisement “Jews for Jesus Answers” in the New York Times, June 27, 1976, which tries to overcome possible Jewish objections and inhibitions vis-a-vis the group's Christian evangelical message.

16. Rosen, and Proctor, , Jews for Jesus, 23.Google Scholar

17. Rosen, and Rosen, , Share the New Life with a Jew, 23, 28.Google Scholar

18. Interviews with Johanna Chernof, David Chernof, and Robert Winer, M.D., activists and leaders in the Messianic Jewish movement in the 1970's, Philadelphia, December 9,1994.

19. See Sevener, Harold, A Rabbi's Vision: A Century of Proclaiming Messiah, A History of Chosen People Ministries, Inc. (Charlotte, N.C.: Chosen People Ministries, 1994), 417-20.Google Scholar

20. See, for example, the evangelical bestseller of the 1970's, Lindsay, Hai, The Late Great Planet Earth (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1971).Google Scholar

21. Glock, Charles Y. and Stark, Rodney, Christian Beliefs and AntiSemitism (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1966)Google Scholar; and Lynne Ianniello, “Release for the Press,” Anti-Defamation League, New York, January 8, 1986.

22. See Willoughby, William, “A Breakthrough for Messianic Judaism?” Moody Monthly 72, no. 7 (March 1972): 16–19.Google Scholar

23. See Eichhorn, , Evangelizing the American Jew, 188 Google Scholar; see also Sevener, , A Rabbi's Vision, 296.Google Scholar

24. See, for example, Rosen, and Proctor, , Jews for Jesus, 1–2.Google Scholar

25. See Rosen, Ruth, ed., Jesus for Jews (San Francisco: Messianic Jewish Perspective, 1987), 185–200, esp. 199-200.Google Scholar

26. Rosen, Moishe, The Sayings of Chairman Moishe (Carol Stream, Ill.: Creation House, 1974), 38–39, 22-23, 104-5.Google Scholar

27. See the biographical accounts in Rosen, , Jesus for Jews, 82, 141-42, 198, 211, 239Google Scholar; see also Lipson, , Jews for Jesus, 26–60.Google Scholar On the sense of Community, see Rosen, , Jesus for Jews, 199–200 Google Scholar; on the parents' acceptance, see Lipson, , Jews for Jesus, 50.Google Scholar

28. Rosen, , Jesus for Jews, 139, 196.Google Scholar

29. See Rosen, and Proctor, , Jews for Jesus, 78–81, 85, 114, 117, 119Google Scholar; and Rosen, , Jesus for Jews, 184–200, 231-41.Google Scholar

30. On the demographics of Jewish conversion to Christianity in America, see Goldstein, Sidney, “Profile of American Jewry: Insights from the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey,” American Jewish Year Book 92 (1992), 90.Google Scholar

31. On the ideology and theology of the House of Love and Prayer, see Shlomo Carlebach, “In the Palace of the King,” a record (New York: Van-guard Records, 1965); Shlomo Carlebach, “Secrets of the Deepest Depths,” a video cassette (Berkeley, Calif.: Ain Sof Productions, 1987); and Shlomo Carlebach, “A Melava Malka” (Jerusalem: Noam, 1995). See also Korenbrot, Israel, Return to Modiim (Jerusalem: Gefen, 1985)Google Scholar; Carlebach, Shlomo with Mesinai, Susan Yael, Shlomo's Stories (Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 1994)Google Scholar; in addition, see the group's Journal (published in San Francisco in the early 1970's), The Holy Beggar's Gazette.

32. Lipson, , Jews for Jesus, 32–54.Google Scholar

33. See, for example, Rosen, , Jesus for Jews, 242-76Google Scholar; and Roth, Sid, They Thought for Themselves (Brunswick, Ga.: MV Press, 1996), 85–100, 127-43.Google Scholar

34. Rambo, Lewis, Understanding Religious Conversion (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), 108-13.Google Scholar

35. Goldstein, “Profile of American Jewry,” 90.

36. Lipson, , Jews for Jesus, 27–28.Google Scholar

37. Eichhorn, , Evangelizing the American Jew, 172-76.Google Scholar

38. See Danziger, Herbert M., Returning to Tradition: The Contemporary Revival of Orthodox Judaism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989)Google Scholar; and Prell, Riv Ellen, Prayer and Community: The Havura Movement in American Judaism (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1989).Google Scholar

39. On the number of Jews joining other religions, see Goldstein, “Profile of American Jewry,” 77-173.

40. See, for example, Hopkins, Oz, “Jews for Jesus Give Mission ‘Bad Name,’” Oregon Journal, July 27, 1973, 2.Google Scholar

41. See Jews for Jesus doctrinal Statement in Lipson, , Jews for Jesus, 182-83.Google Scholar

42. See Rausch, David A., Communities in Conflict: Evangelicals and Jews (Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1991), 128-29.Google Scholar

43. Rausch, David, Messianic Judaism: Its History, Polity, and Theology (New York: Edwin Meilen Press, 1982), 89, 159, 202.Google Scholar

44. See, for example, Hopkins, “Jews for Jesus Give Mission ‘Bad Name,’” 2.

45. Minutes of the February 1975 meeting of the Fellowship of Christian Testimonies to the Jews, Pennsauken, New Jersey, the Official Secretary's Book of the F.C.T.J., formerly in the possession of the A.M.F.International, Lansing, Illinois.

46. See Herberg, Will, Protestant Catholic, Jew (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1960).Google Scholar

47. In March 1972, the Northern California Board of Rabbis circulated a letter to Hillel houses and Jewish communities advising against such invitations. See Rausch, , Communities in Conflict, 126.Google Scholar

48. In Eisenberg, Gary, Smashing the Idols: A Jewish Inquiry into the Cult Phenomenon (Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 1988), 41–48.Google Scholar

49. See Cox, Harvey, “Deep Structures in the Study of New Religions,” in Understanding New Religions, ed. Needleman, Jacob and Baker, George (New York: Seabury Press, 1978), 122-30.Google Scholar

50. Rabbi Shamai Kanter quoted in Eisenberg, , Smashing the Idols, 178 Google Scholar; Fisch, Dov Aharoni, Jews for Nothing: On Cults, Intermarriage, and Assimilation (Jerusalem and New York: Feldheim, 1984), 12–13, 28-29Google Scholar; Elie Wiesel quoted in Eisenberg, , Smashing the Idols, 162.Google Scholar On the criticism of Jewish religious life, see Eisenberg, Smashing the Idols, introduction, xv. Fisch's views are expressed in Fisch, , Jews for Nothing, 12–13.Google Scholar

51. Rosen, and Proctor, , Jews for Jesus, 12–13, 114 (quote).Google Scholar

52. See, for example, Fisch, , Jews for Nothing, 21–71.Google Scholar

53. See, for example, Litteil, Franklin, “Amsterdam and Its Absentees,” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 16 (Winter 1979): 111-12.Google Scholar

54. Tannenbaum, Marc H., Wilson, Marvin R., and Rudin, A. James, eds., Evangelicals and Jews in Conversation (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1978).Google Scholar

55. On the Jewish reaction to Key 73, see Rausch, , Communities in Conflict, 114-21Google Scholar; Graham's Statement is found in “Billy Graham on Key 73,” Christianity Today, March 16, 1973; the pamphlet What Evangelical Christians Should Know about Jews for Jesus (San Francisco: Jews for Jesus, n.d.) is an example of Jews for Jesus' response.

56. On American missions towering over the missionary field in the latter decades of the twentieth Century, see, for example, articles by Pierard, Richard V., Koop, Allen V., and Van Engen, Charles E. in Earthen Vessels: American Evangelicals and Foreign Missions, 1880-1980 (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1990), 155–234.Google Scholar

57. See Moore, R. Laurence, Selling God: American Religion in the Marketplace of Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 238-55.Google Scholar