WASHINGTON George W. Bush granted Messianic Jews a brief shining moment in the spotlight last week and then just as quickly sent them back into the shadows.
The Messianic Jewish Bible Institute in Dallas had advertised Bush as the keynote speaker at its annual fundraiser on Nov. 14, prominently featuring the former presidents appearance on its website alongside pages describing the groups mission to bring Jewish people into a personal relationship of faith with Yeshua the Messiah.
But after a reporter for Mother Jones wrote about the fundraiser, any mention of the dinner disappeared from the institutes site. Otherwise solicitous staff refused comment. Bush went ahead with the speech behind closed doors.
The turn of events is emblematic of what Messianic Jews have faced since their emergence in the 1960s: a tantalizing taste of acceptance followed by a pronounced repudiation by the mainstream Jewish community.
Messianic Jews embrace Jesus as the messiah but observe Jewish holidays and recite Hebrew prayers in services.
Many, but by no means all, are born Jews who accept Jesus.
Mainstream Jewish groups have rejected Messianic Jews, seeing them as luring Jews into Christianity under the pretense that they can maintain their Judaism even while accepting belief in Jesus.
Messianic Jewish Bible Institute officials declined several JTA requests for comment.
But in a statement Monday, Nov. 18, Jonathan Bernis, the institutes chairman, said criticism of his group reflected an intolerance of its beliefs.
Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles said it was laughable for Bernis to suggest that American Jews are not regularly exposed to the claims of Jesus.
It is dishonest, deliberately or inadvertently, to say that one can live in a Jewish faith community and accept another scripture or accept a different G-d, Wolpe told JTA.
Its striking that for thousands of years the definition of being Christian was believing in Jesus, and all of a sudden theyve discovered, no, you can do that and be Jewish.
It is, whether they realize it or not, a marketing tool, not a discovery.
ITS not clear if Bush initially understood what an appearance at a Messianic Jewish event would signify. Sources close to the former president said that an aide recommended accepting the engagement without understanding Jewish sensitivities.
Bush went ahead, the sources said, not because he favored the movements mission of proselytizing but because he thought backing out would be bad form.
Someone looking at this in the American context, who is not well versed in Jewish history, does not look at this and say that is a nuclear issue, said Tevi Troy, a former deputy health secretary and top liaison to the Jewish community under Bush.
Troy emphasized that his boss has always been sensitive to Jewish concerns.
Russ Resnik, the director of the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations, an association of some 70 Messianic congregations around the country, estimates there are some 20,000 Jews affiliated with Messianic congregations.
The recent Pew Research Center survey, which caused such angst among American Jewish leaders, was heartening to Messianic Jews with reporting that 34% of respondents believed it was possible to believe in Jesus and be Jewish.
Resnik says members of his congregation donate to local federations and are accepted to a degree as volunteers, making fundraising calls, visiting the Jewish elderly and teaching English to Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union.
Jewish security professionals also reach out to Messianic congregations in cases of perceived security threats against the Jewish community, according to the Secure Community Network, the security arm of national Jewish groups.
The World Congress of Jewish Studies, which takes place every four years in Jerusalem, featured a panel on Messianic Jews this year something Ariel has been seeking for decades.
The major stumbling block remains the Messianic doctrine of proselytizing. Resnik says Messianic groups try to keep a low profile in mainstream Jewish settings, but proselytizing remains a core principle.
Especially irksome are bids to convert what are seen as vulnerable populations, Russian and Ethiopian Jews in particular.
The Dallas group Bush addressed touts its efforts in that regard prominently on its website.
