MESSIANIC JUDAISM is a religious movement or sect whose congregants comprise both ethnic Jews and Gentiles who believe that Jesus of Nazareth, whom they call Yeshua, is both their savior and the resurrected Jewish Messiah.By 1993 there were 160,000 adherents of Messianic Judaism in the United States and 350,000 worldwide. By 2003, there were at least 150 Messianic synagogues in the U.S. and over 400 worldwide. While Messianic Jews practice their faith in a way that they consider to be authentically Torah-observant and culturally Jewish, all Jewish denominations, as well as national Jewish organizations, reject that Messianic Judaism is a form of Judaism. Most Christians also do not consider Messianic Judaism to be a form of Judaism. Messianic Jews are also not considered Jewish under the State of Israel's Law of Return. According to Israeli Supreme Court Justice Menachem Elon, “In the last two thousand years of history the Jewish people have decided that Messianic Jews do not belong to the Jewish nation. He wrote, “those who believe in Jesus, are, in fact, Christians.”

Jewish objections to Messianic Judaism begin with objections to the term "Messianic Judaism" itself, and to Jesus' messiahship and divinity. According to the Central Conference of American Rabbis:

"For us in the Jewish community, anyone who claims that Jesus is their savior is no longer a Jew and is an apostate. Through that belief they have placed themselves outside the Jewish community. Whether they care to define themselves as a Christian or as a 'fulfilled Jew,' 'Messianic Jew,' or any other designation is irrelevant; to us, they are clearly a Christian."

According to 1998 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents issued by Canadian B'nai Brith, "One of the more alarming trends in antisemitic activity in Canada in 1998 was the growing number of incidents involving messianic organizations posing as "synagogues". These missionizing organizations are in fact evangelical Christian proselytizing groups, whose purpose is specifically to target members of the Jewish community for conversion. They fraudulently represent themselves as Jews, and these so-called synagogues are elaborately disguised Christian churches."

JEWS FOR JESUS

Jews for Jesus is a Christian evangelical organization based in San Francisco, California, whose goal is to convince Jews that Jesus is the Messiah and God. Jews for Jesus defines "Jewish" in terms of parentage and as a birthright, regardless of religious belief. Identification of Jews for Jesus as "Jewish" is overwhelmingly rejected by Jewish religious denominations, secular groups and the State of Israeldue to the Christian beliefs of its members.

Jews for Jesus is a member of numerous evangelical Christian groups, including The World Evangelical Alliance, the National Association of Evangelicals, the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, the World Evangelical Fellowship, and the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. The organization was founded under the name Hineni Ministries in 1973 by Moishe Rosen, an ordained Baptist minister who was born Jewish but converted to Christianity at the age of 17. The group's financial support largely comes from a variety of Christian groups, described as "a number of Bible schools, and individual Christian donations...". It has "a full-time staff of 150 employees running branch offices in nine cities across the United States. There are also branch offices in Australia, Brazil, Canada (Montreal, Toronto), France, Germany (Essen), Israel, Russia, South Africa, United Kingdom, Ukraine (Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Kiev, Odessa). In addition to English language, the group runs websites in Hungarian, Persian, Italian, Spanish, and Korean languages.

The organization is known for targeting populations of Jews such as recent immigrants, college students, senior citizens and interfaith couples. Evangelists are trained to recite phrases from the Hebrew Bible and to use Yiddish words in order to convince potential converts that Jews for Jesus maintain Jewish traditions. They use deceptive tactics in its attempt to convert Jews to Christianity. Critics claim that JfJ uses the ambiguity in the definition of "Jew" and "Jewish" to confuse their prospective converts into believing there is a possibility of one being a follower of both Judaism and Christianity simultaneously.

In 1993, the Task Force on Missionaries and Cults of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York (JCRCNY) issued a statement which has been endorsed by the four major Jewish denominations: Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism, Reform Judaism, and Reconstructionist Judaism, as well as national Jewish organizations. Based on this statement, the Spiritual Deception Prevention Project at the JCRCNY stated:

“On several occasions leaders of the four major Jewish movements have signed on to joint statements opposing Hebrew-Christian theology and tactics. In part they said: "Though Hebrew Christianity claims to be a form of Judaism, it is not ... It deceptively uses the sacred symbols of Jewish observance ... as a cover to convert Jews to Christianity, a belief system antithetical to Judaism ... Hebrew Christians are in radical conflict with the communal interests and the destiny of the Jewish people. They have crossed an unbridgeable chasm by accepting another religion. Despite this separation, they continue to attempt to convert their former co-religionists."

The Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington, an umbrella organization that includes Muslims, Jews, and church groups from the Roman Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran and Presbyterian churches, has condemned Jews for Jesus as promoting activities "harmful to the spirit of interreligious respect and tolerance." The conference also denounces the group's "deceptive proselytizing efforts", stating that when practiced on "vulnerable populations" such as the young or the elderly, these efforts are "tantamount to coerced conversions." The Board of Governors of The Long Island Council of Churches, voiced similar sentiments in a statement that "noted with alarm" the "subterfuge and dishonesty" inherent in the "mixing [of] religious symbols in ways which distort their essential meaning.” In 1996, Pope John Paul II said Jews shouldn't be targeted for conversion. Christian denominations that have issued statements criticizing evangelism of Jews include the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the United Church of Christ and the Presbyterian Church USA, which said in 1988 that Jews have their own covenant with God.

(The forgoing was edited from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)