Messianic Aliyah
Friday, July 6, 2007
By: Executive Committee of MJAA
Mirrored from:
MJAA.org
Discusses the right of Messianic Jews to
emigrate to Israel as Jews. We mark with grievous concern the decision of
the Israeli Supreme Court on December 25, 1989 regarding Messianic Jews
and the Law of Return.
Messianic Aliyah
The following document originally appeared as a full-page advertisement
in The Jerusalem Post International Edition (week ending may 5, 1990 Page
4). It is a response to the decision of the Israeli Supreme Court to deny
the Right of Return to Gary and Shirley Beresford, a Messianic Jewish
couple from South Africa, on the basis of their faith in Yeshua. The
Beresfords continue their struggle to stay in our Jewish homeland as olim
to this day.
AN OPEN LETTER
To the
Supreme Court of Israel
from the
Executive Committee
of the
Messianic Jewish Alliance of America
and the
International Alliance of Messianic Congregations and Synagogues
We mark with grievous concern the decision of the Israeli Supreme Court
on December 25, 1989 regarding Messianic Jews and the Law of Return. The
Jerusalem Post (January 8, 1990) quoted Israeli Supreme Court Justice
Menachem Elon's statement, "(In) the last two thousand years of
history...the Jewish people has decided that Messianic Jews do not belong
to the Jewish nation...and have no right to force themselves on it."
We would like to ask, "When was such a decision made, and by whom?"
If Judge Elon is referring to halachah (rabbinic law and commentary),
most of the Israeli nation is hiloni (secular, religiously unaffiliated),
and does not subscribe to halachah, nor do they wish to give the Orthodox
Jewish community the right to define for them, "Who Is A Jew." If given
the opportunity, these same Orthodox factions would disqualify most of the
current Jewish nation from Jewish identity. If the Israeli nation does not
wish to submit the question of their own Jewish identities to these men,
why do they submit ours?
Judge Aharon Barak said, "the criteria for deciding who is a Jew should
not be halachic, but based on the majority consensus of the Jewish
nation". Why then is he ignoring the results of the l988 Dahaf Poll
published in the Jerusalem Post, which found that 78% of the Israeli
public favored Messianic Jews coming into Israel under the Law of Return,
provided that the olim (immigrants) in question were really of Jewish
lineage, held to their historic heritage, and served in the IDF when
called upon to do so?
The core of the issue in the Supreme Court s decision seems to be that
the right to make aliyah is contingent upon the content of an individuals
faith, and that Messianic Jews faith in Yeshua of Nazareth renders them
non-Jewish. When the issue of Jewishness is discussed, there can be only
two accurate levels of discussion: they are (1) Jewish national identity
and (2) Jewish faith-identity.
Back to Top
NATIONAL IDENTITY
Jewish national identity has never been, nor is at present, contingent
upon the faith held by a person of blood-Jewish lineage. Much of the
modern Israeli nation is patently agnostic, or walking a path widely
aberrant from the one which the Orthodox Jews wish to set for the nation,
yet they are Israeli. The Supreme Court decision referred repeatedly to
the 1970 amendment to the Law of Return, which says that "a Jew who has
willingly professed another faith" is not qualified for Israeli
citizenship. David Ben-Gurion actively adopted the practice of yoga, many
of the Founding Fathers of the nation were widely disparate in their
beliefs, and they all remained Israeli. This is because of a clear
principle: a person who is born Jewish is Jewish. and their national
identity cannot be affected by the content of their faith.
In Israel, one can be an atheist and be Israeli, a Baha'i follower and
be Israeli, a Hindu and be Israeli, a Buddhist and be Israeli, or even a
murderer and still be Israeli. Yet, if a Jew who truly clings to his
national identity and the heritage of his faith happens to believe in the
way hundreds and thousands of Jewish people in the first century did, that
Yeshua of Nazareth is the Messiah of Israel...he is told, "You are not a
part of the Israeli nation." Since even Judge Elon had to admit in his
decision that, "It was true that Messianic Jews were a legitimate Jewish
sect in the first century,' the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America can
only oppose the Court's current stand as discriminatory and inconsistent.
It is the contention of the Messianic Jew that the ultimate arbiter of
Jewish identity is the G-d of Israel who imparted it. The yardstick He has
given is the Holy Scriptures (Tanakh). If the issue is whether Jewish
national identity should be connected with one's faith, the Scriptures are
clear. An individual of Jewish parentage has never been excluded from
identity with the commonwealth of Israel because of religious persuasion
or faith.
One of the many examples of this principle can be found in the life of
the prophet Eliyahu (Elijah). When the entire nation was apostate, as in
the idol worship of the ten northern tribes, the Scriptures state that
Elijah told King Ahab to gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel (I Kings
18:20). Clearly he was referring to an Israeli nation wholly given to Baal
worship. Their national identity was not questioned, only the veracity of
their faith.
Back to Top
FAITH IDENTITY
If the issue in question is whether Messianic Jews are Jews by faith,
it should be clarified that Messianic Jews do not subscribe to the
rabbinic system of Judaism initiated by Yochanan Ben-Zakkai following the
destruction of the Second Temple, nor the Talmudists who succeeded him.
Messianic Judaism recognizes only the Scriptures as Divinely inspired and
absolute, whereas rabbinic Judaism believes that the Oral Law (Mishnah,
Talmud, and other rabbinic commentaries) is equal in authority with the
Scriptures. While Messianic Jews respect the Oral Laws as a source of man-
originated religious thinking, they see no scriptural basis for according
it supernatural authority, and consider its decisions to be the arbitrary
rulings of men.
Messianic Jews believe the Scriptures teach clearly that when G-d
brought eternal atonement for sin to the Jewish people and all the nations
through the sacrificial death of the Messiah Yeshua, the Passover Lamb of
G-d, He removed the Temple and the sacrificial systems because it was His
will to do so. We see no scriptural support for the rabbinic system of
Judaism and consider the Tanakh to be the final authority on Jewish faith.
However, as regards our right to make Aliyah, this is merely a side
point: there are many Jewish people who do not recognize the validity of
the Hebrew Scriptures at all, and they are not denied the right to make
Aliyah! Whatever a person of Jewish birth may believe, it is clear that,
"You don't have to be rabbinic to be Jewish."
Furthermore, if the issue is that our faith in Yeshua of Nazareth
somehow negates our Jewish identity, it should be noted that inclusion in
the nation of Israel has never been based upon an individual's accurate
recognition of the Messiah. In addition to being un-Scriptural, it is also
inconsistent with Jewish history. This is graphically illustrated in the
life of Rabbi Akiva, one of the eminent figures in Rabbinic Judaism. He
declared Bar Kochba to be "the King and Messiah." Bar Kochba was killed,
his messiahship is accepted by no one, and yet the Jewish identity of
Akiva and his followers has never been brought into question. They were
misguided, but they were still definitely Jewish and Israeli at every step
along the way. Messianic Jews have no more professed another faith than
did Akiva and his disciples. Within the context of our Judaism we have
made an assertion, based on the words of the prophets in our own Tanakh,
about whom we believe the Messiah to be.
The matter can be further summarized thus: while we enthusiastically
embrace our Jewish national identity, and are fervent Zionists, we do not
accept the rabbinic system of faith. This attitude is common to the great
majority of the Jewish people, yet their national identity is considered
intact. Ethiopian Jewry, for example, holds this view, and they are
welcomed by Israel for aliyah under the Law of Return.
In the accounting of the six million who perished in the Holocaust,
those people who were annihilated by Adolf Hitler because they had only
one Jewish great-grandparent are reckoned as Jews, even though they were
entirely assimilated and disassociated by choice from their Jewishness.
They were Jewish enough to die for it, and Jewish enough to be numbered
among our honored Jewish dead. We, who are of even more visible Jewish
blood, heritage, and commitment, must be included as well.
If the December 25th decision is not reversed, Messianic Jews will be
the only Jewish people denied access to their homeland on the basis of the
content of their faith. Even more seriously, it introduces the dangerous
judicial precedent of exclusion from Jewish citizenship on the basis of
religious affiliation. Who will be next? Will it be the Reformed, the
Reconstructionists, or some yet-to-be-defined group of Jews who do not
meet the religious criteria of the datim (Orthodox)?
If our people should ever face another Holocaust, is it the intention
of the Government of Israel to shut the doors of our homeland on any Jews
who do not qualify according to the religious standards set by the datim?
For the last 75 years, the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America has
been the leading representative organization for American Jews who believe
in Messiah Yeshua (Jesus). It is estimated that there are now at least
100,000 such Messianic Jews in some 15 countries, including Israel.
Furthermore, there are over 250 known Messianic synagogues worldwide, and
the number is rapidly growing. Can the Supreme Court justly turn its back
on such a large number of Jewish people, as so many nations in World War
II did to our people fleeing Nazi concentration camps? The answer must be
a resounding No. Israel is also our refuge and homeland. In the wake of
the Holocaust, to refuse Messianic Jews, or ANY group of Jewish people,
the right to immigrate as Jews under the Law of Return is unconscionable.
The Messianic Jewish Alliance of America rejects the December 25, 1989
Israeli Supreme Court decision as diametrically opposite to the very
reason for the existence of the State of Israel. As Jews who treasure our
heritage and our tie with our homeland, Eretz Yisra'el, we plead with the
men of the Supreme Court not to issue a White Paper against us like the
infamous one issued in 1939, nor bar us from free immigration to our
homeland. If the modern Israeli nation is to fulfill the destiny her
founding fathers envisioned for her - to be a refuge for the weary,
returning exiles from all nations - how can she shut her doors to her own
children and still retain that destiny?
The decision rendered by the Israeli Supreme Court on the case of Gary
and Shirley Beresford contradicts the original intention of the Law of
Return, which was to ensure the physical survival of the Jewish people. It
was not intended to promote a particular religious persuasion within the
framework of the Jewish nation.
We therefore humbly request, as fellow Jews, and as fervent followers
of the Hebrew Scriptures, that we be accorded the same respect,
recognition, and rights as the rest of the nation whose heritage, history,
and destiny we share. Please, do not let rabbinic halachah be the Decree
of Exile which banishes many tens of thousands of Jewish people from their
Jewish homeland. Ahavat Zion is one of the cornerstones of our lives.
We are Jews. We were born as Jews, and we will die as Jews.
As Jews, we fervently petition the Supreme Court of Israel to reverse
the Beresford Decision, and allow any Jew who so wishes to come home.
Back to Top
This page was last revised on
Saturday November 27, 2010 07:56 PM |
