From Kenneth Ellman, Email: ke@kennethellman.com.
Tablet Magazine, one of the better on line Jewish news and commentary sites, (http://www.tabletmag.com/) as have other Jewish oriented publications, publish from time to time silly articles reflecting discomfort with Christian support for Israel and the Christian seeking of converts, particularly Jewish converts. I find this both humorous and distressing, sometimes also disgusting and ignorant. The humor is the utter lack of understanding of doctrines of Christianity requiring many Christian denominations to seek converts. The distressing part is that any MOT would be uncomfortable with having friends of Israel, when we need all the friends we can get. It is difficult to choose your friends as it is difficult to choose your enemies. But when someone stands with you against those who would hurt you, common sense dictates extending a hand and saying thank you.

Since these people generally believe in their religion there is nothing wrong whatsoever in their championing their belief and educating others about Christianity. The Jewish objection further forgets that before Christianity, Jews were to a certain extent alone in the monotheistic world facing mostly idol worshipers and barbarians or those who believed the sun, moon, river or cats were somehow worthy to direct their prayers to. So Christianity with all its corrupt political destructiveness aside (which can occur in any human activity, even Judaism), was a great step forward for Jews and humanity in the sense that Jews now were not alone in worshiping G-D. It did not hurt that the Christians adopted a Jewish prophet as their mentor and bridge to G-D. A little strange but not really unusual in human history. Considering that MOT have made the same mistake over history, why should Christians be immune?!

Many Christian denominations have a common thread in recent and current history of viewing the rebirth of the Jewish Nation of Israel as being evidence of their own Christian religion coming to fruition. Yet some MOT denounce these wonderful Christian people who love our Israel and even wish to distance ourselves from them. How truly bizarre to treat our Christian brothers in this manner.

This is particularly so when it comes to what is called “Messianic Christianity” or the overt attempt to convert Jews to Christianity. I can only laugh at the secular oriented Jews who observe little or nothing looking with disdain upon such movements of Messianic Jews or evangelical Christianity of the Liberty Baptist College type. At least they seem to care about our Torah and think it is real.
Something a few MOT need to relearn.

As regards observant Jews who also have distaste for those Messianic Christian or “Jew Converters” they should certainly know better. There is one reason and one reason only why a Jew would seek the comfort of Christianity. That is simply because we as MOT have failed our fellow Jew. We have failed to educate and bring him into the wonderful and warm community of our people and the extraordinary literature that has possessed us and protected us for all of our time as a people.

This failure to our own is certainly not the fault of Christianity or Islam. It is the fault of our own who have abandoned the duty to bring to our brothers, our relatives, our fellow Jews, the learning that has kept us as a people for all of history. Jews, our very nation itself, only exists due to what we have received, created and learned from our very souls of Yiddishkeit passed on by sacrifice of our very lives since the beginning of our people. Two relatively new phenomena which helps to protect and preserve our people have been (a) Chabad and (b) Artscroll/Mesorah Publications. Artscroll has been a true gift to our nation and people Israel and done more to counteract the abandonment of our people by our MOT who should know better, than anything else. Artscroll coupled with the extraordinary efforts of Chabad, to reach out and bring every Jew back into our community may be what keeps our future open and hopeful as a nation and people. Chabad engages in continuous field work knocking on the door of every Jew to help and bring his inheritance to his face. So when I read of criticism of people who support Israel just because they may not followed Yiddishkeit or are ignorant of our full heritage, I feel very uncomfortable and embarrassed and need to speak out. Do not blame Christians for our failings and never forget the efforts of Jews such as Chabad and Artscroll to undue the damage we have done to ourselves. I will post my various comments on this topic in this Yiddishkeit category. Feel free to contact me with your view. Kenneth Ellman

The Article for Tablet Magazine can be found at the below web address:
http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/151968/george-w-bush-speaking-at-messianic-jewish-organization#comments

My comments which seem to have been deleted are found below:

November 11, 2013
From Kenneth Ellman, email:ke@kennethellman.com, Box 18, Newton, NJ 07860
In reference to your article about former President George W. Bush participating in a Messianic Jewish Organization; i.e Christian organization, the comments here are way off the mark.
We as MOT should be grateful that Christians have such a deep concern for our nation Israel. These people stand with us when Israel is threatened and are firm believers in the right of the Jewish people to have their own country. They are some of the best friends we can have and their support for Israel exceeds that of some MOT. Such Messianic Christians are NOT a threat to the Jewish people.

The threat to our people comes from our own failure to educate and hold our community together. The old saying that if you have three Jews you will have four Synagogues is all too true. So often I meet fellow Jews who have little understanding of our own faith, little reading in Chumash and frequently no reading in Talmud. Somehow as a people we have failed to protect our children and community by giving a strong and firm education in Judaism and our own long and proud history. Chabad tries to help fellow Jews with outreach and some other organizations also make the effort. Chabad needs more support.

But these Christians are not a threat to us, they are a blessing due to their religious belief supporting Israel. The threat to us is ourselves. Do not turn away our friends as an excuse for our own failure. We have too few friends in this world and any Christian that wants to stand with Israel is a friend of the Jewish people. I deeply thank those Christians who help protect the rights of Jews to their own nation. The only Jews we lose to Christianity are those Jews we ourselves have failed. Kenneth Ellman, email:ke@kennethellman.com, Box 18, Newton, NJ 07860

November 11, 2013
From Kenneth Ellman, email:ke@kennethellman.com, Box 18, Newton, NJ 07860
In reference to your article about former President George W. Bush participating in a Messianic Jewish Organization; i.e Christian organization, the comments here are way off the mark.
We as MOT should be grateful that Christians have such a deep concern for our nation Israel. These people stand with us when Israel is threatened and are firm believers in the right of the Jewish people to have their own country. They are some of the best friends we can have and their support for Israel exceeds that of some MOT. Such Messianic Christians are NOT a threat to the Jewish people.

The threat to our people comes from our own failure to educate and hold our community together. The old saying that if you have three Jews you will have four Synagogues is all too true. So often I meet fellow Jews who have little understanding of our own faith, little reading in Chumash and frequently no reading in Talmud. Somehow as a people we have failed to protect our children and community by giving a strong and firm education in Judaism and our own long and proud history. Chabad tries to help fellow Jews with outreach and some other organizations also make the effort. Chabad needs more support.

But these Christians are not a threat to us, they are a blessing due to their religious belief supporting Israel. The threat to us is ourselves. Do not turn away our friends as an excuse for our own failure. We have too few friends in this world and any Christian that wants to stand with Israel is a friend of the Jewish people. I deeply thank those Christians who help protect the rights of Jews to their own nation. The only Jews we lose to Christianity are those Jews we ourselves have failed. Kenneth Ellman, email:ke@kennethellman.com, Box 18, Newton, NJ 07860

The article from Tablet Magazine can also be seen below. On the Tablet Website you can have access to all the commentary which in my opinion fails to understand and acknowledge the benefit of Christian support for Israel. The comments also fail to note that those Jews who follow Messianic Christians are doing so because of our failure in the Jewish Community. The above is my opinion only. The facts and logic speak for themselves. The below photograph from the Tablet article is NOT from the Messianic event. The Tablet article says it is from: “Former U.S. President George W. Bush speaks as first lady Michelle Obama, President Barack Obama, former first lady Barbara Bush, and former President George H.W. Bush listen during the opening ceremony of the George W. Bush Presidential Center April 25, 2013 in Dallas, Texas. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)”

George W. Bush Speaking at Messianic Jewish Organization

Former president giving keynote address at group’s annual fundraiser

What’s former President George W. Bush up to these days? Funny you should ask. Sarah Posner reports ^[1] in Mother Jones that W. has signed on to give the keynote address at a fundraiser next week for the Messianic Jewish Bible Institute, an organization that is exactly what it sounds like. (Glenn Beck headlined last year’s fundraiser.)

The organization’s goal, Posner explains, is quite straightforward: “to ‘restore’ Israel and the Jews and bring about about the second coming of Christ.”

Naturally, people aren’t pleased about the former president endorsing such an organization, particularly given that this fundraiser is being thrown in order to raise money for the group’s “proselytizing operations.”

Asked about Bush’s upcoming appearance at the Messianic Jewish Bible Institute (MJBI) event, Rabbi David Saperstein, the director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said, “It’s disappointing that he would give his stamp of approval to a group whose program is an express effort to convert Jews and not to accept the validity of the Jewish covenant.”

Tickets range from $100 to $100,000, with the opportunity for high-paying attendees to attend a VIP reception (plus photos!) with Bush, as well as receive a signed copy of his book and passes to the brand new George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.

It’s a surprising engagement for Bush, given his public commitment to Judaism in the past and considerable grasp of the religion. His chief of staff, Josh Bolten, told ^[2] Tablet’s Yair Rosenberg last year that the Bushes “were very open to and respectful of faiths of all kind, but particularly Judaism.” Barbara Bush would even make sure there was a vegetarian option for Bolten, who keeps kosher, starting at campaign events in 2000.

“I worked for a boss, President Bush, and the First Lady Laura Bush, who were very interested in and sensitive to other faiths. They were often cartooned as being sort of fundamentalist Christians who were disrespectful of other faiths, but the exact opposite was true.”

So what’s behind Bush suddenly shilling for a messianic organization? Your guess is as good as mine.