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The Hebrew Christian movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries consisted of Jews who converted to Christianity, but worshiped in congregations separate from denominational churches. [1] In many cases, they retained some Jewish practices and liturgy, with the addition of readings from the Christian New Testament. The movement was incorporated into the parallel Messianic Jewish movement in the late 1960s.
From the Jewish origins of Christianity through the split of early Christianity and Judaism and development of Christianity in the 1st century, the Christian mission to Jews was primarily led by the established (Gentile) churches, with Jewish converts sometimes proselytizing to their own people.
The general missionary movement awakening in the Protestant church during the latter 18th century and the early 19th century motivated many missionaries to proselytize to Jews in a more 'humane' manner. With societies in England, Scotland and Germany, missionaries went all over Europe and had some success, as Aaron Bernstein noted in a number of examples. The 19th century saw at least 250,000 Jews convert to Christianity according to existing records of various societies. [2]
Beginning in the 19th century, some groups had attempted to create congregations and societies primarily of Jews who had converted to Christianity. The London Society for promoting Christianity amongst the Jews (currently known as "Church's Ministry Among Jewish People") was formed in 1809 with the motto “Jesus Christ is the Messiah.” [3]
The first identifiable congregation made up exclusively of Jews who had converted to Christianity was established in the United Kingdom in 1813; [4] a group of 41 Jewish Christians established an association called "Beni Abraham", and started meeting at Jews' Chapel in London for prayers Friday night and Sunday morning; [5] In 1885, the first Hebrew Christian church was established in New York. [6] In the 1890s, immigrant Jews who converted to Christianity established the "Hope of Israel" mission on New York's Lower East Side while retaining Jewish rites and customs. [7] In 1895, Hope of Israel's Our Hope magazine carried the subtitle “A Monthly Devoted to the Study of Prophecy and to Messianic Judaism.” Hope of Israel was controversial: other missionary groups accused its members of being Judaizers, and one of the two editors of Our Hope magazine, Arno C. Gaebelein, eventually repudiated his views, and, as a result, was able to become a leader in the mainstream Christian evangelical movement. [8] In 1915, when the Hebrew Christian Alliance of America (HCAA) was founded, it "consistently assuaged the fears of fundamentalist Christians by emphasizing that it is not a separate denomination but only an evangelistic arm of the evangelical church", and insisted that it would be free of these Judaizing practices "now and forever". [9] In the 1940s and 50s, missionaries in Israel adopted the term meshichyim ("Messianic") to counter negative connotations of the traditional word notzrim . [10]
The Hebrew Christian Alliance was formed in Britain in 1860.
The Hebrew Christian Alliance of American (HCAA) was founded in 1915, in part to emphasize to fundamentalist Christians that while it used Jewish forms, it was a cooperating evangelistic arm of the evangelical church.
In 1975, the HCAA changed its name to the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America.
Christianity began as a movement within Second Temple Judaism, but the two religions gradually diverged over the first few centuries of the Christian Era. Today, differences of opinion vary between denominations in both religions, but the most important distinction is Christian acceptance and Jewish non-acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah prophesied in the Hebrew Bible and Jewish tradition. Early Christianity distinguished itself by determining that observance of halakha was not necessary for non-Jewish converts to Christianity. Another major difference is the two religions' conceptions of God. The Christian God consists of three persons of one essence, with the doctrine of the incarnation of the Son in Jesus being of special importance. Judaism emphasizes the Oneness of God and rejects the Christian concept of God in human form. While Christianity recognizes the Hebrew Bible as part of its scriptural canon, Judaism does not recognize the Christian New Testament.
Judaism is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and widely an ethnic religion. It comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jewish people, having originated as an organized religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age. Contemporary Judaism evolved from Yahwism, the cultic religious movement of ancient Israel and Judah, around the 6th/5th century BCE, and is thus considered to be one of the oldest monotheistic religions. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of observing the Mosaic covenant, which was established between God and the Israelites, their ancestors. Along with the Samaritanism, Judaism is one of the two oldest Abrahamic religions.
Jews for Jesus is an international Christian missionary organization headquartered in San Francisco, California that is affiliated with the Messianic Jewish religious movement. The group is known for its proselytism of Jews and promotes the belief that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God. It was founded in 1970 by Moishe Rosen as Hineni Ministries before being incorporated under its current name in 1973.
Messianic Judaism is a modernist and syncretic movement of Protestant Christianity that incorporates some elements of Judaism and other Jewish traditions into the Christian movement of evangelicalism.
Carol Harris-Shapiro is a lecturer at Temple University in the Intellectual Heritage Department. She has written a controversial book on Messianic Judaism, a belief system considered by most Christians and Jews to be a form of Christianity, adhered to by groups that seek to combine Christianity and Judaism.
A number of religious groups, particularly Christians and Muslims, are involved in proselytization of Jews: Attempts to recruit or "missionize" Jews. In response, some Jewish groups have formed counter-missionary organizations to discourage missionary and messianic groups such as Jews for Jesus from using practices that they say are deceptive.
Chosen People Ministries (CPM) is an evangelical Christian nonprofit organization which engages in proselytization of Jews. It is headquartered in New York City and currently led by Mitch Glaser, who was raised Jewish and converted to Christianity.
Religion in Israel is manifested primarily in Judaism, the ethnic religion of the Jewish people. The State of Israel declares itself as a "Jewish and democratic state" and is the only country in the world with a Jewish-majority population. Other faiths in the country include Islam, Christianity and the religion of the Druze people. Religion plays a central role in national and civil life, and almost all Israeli citizens are automatically registered as members of the state's 14 official religious communities, which exercise control over several matters of personal status, especially marriage. These recognized communities are Orthodox Judaism, Islam, the Druze faith, the Catholic Church, Greek Orthodox Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Armenian Apostolic Church, Anglicanism, and the Baháʼí Faith.
The Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations (UMJC) is an international Messianic Jewish organization which supports Messianic Jewish congregations. It is based in Florida, US.
The Messianic Jewish Alliance of America (MJAA) is a Messianic Jewish denomination with roots in the Hebrew Christian movement. Founded in 1915 as the Hebrew Christian Alliance of America, it adopted its present name in 1975. It follows on from the International Hebrew Christian Alliance between the Hebrew Christian Alliance of Great Britain and that of America.
Leopold Hoffman Cohn was a Jewish convert to Evangelicalism who formed the Brownsville Mission to the Jews, an organization that now exists as Chosen People Ministries. Cohn lived in Hungary, and, shortly after his arrival to the United States, converted to Evangelicalism. He was ordained a Baptist minister. In his day, he was one of the most successful and controversial Christian evangelists to the Jews. In 1930, Cohn was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity by Wheaton College, an Evangellical college.
The Church's Ministry Among Jewish People (CMJ) is an Anglican missionary society founded in 1809.
Penina Taylor is an American-born international Jewish inspirational and motivational speaker, life coach, and author. She became well known for the story of her spiritual journey, but now speaks on topics related to personal growth and marriage, as well as spirituality. Penina is the Executive Director of the Shomrei Emet Institute for Counter-Missionary Studies, and the founder of Torah Life Strategies. Shomrei Emet was briefly affiliated with the counter-missionary organization, Jews for Judaism, Jerusalem, during 2008.
The Hebrew Christian Alliance of Great Britain, known today as the British Messianic Jewish Alliance, was founded in 1866 by Carl Schwartz "to promote the combination of Jewish heritage and Christian theology." It incorporated the Hebrew Christian Prayer Union, founded by Henry Aaron Stern in 1882.
Christian mission to Jews, evangelism among Jews, or proselytism to Jews, is a subset of Christian missionary activities which are engaged in for the specific purpose of converting Jews to Christianity.
The Fellowship of Christian Testimonies to the Jews (FCTJ) was formed in the 1950s by Fred Kendal, founder of a Jewish mission called Israel's Remnant and Emil Elbe as a Christian mission to Jews. In 1975 the body condemned the Messianic Judaism movement.
August Ferdinand Carl Schwartz DD (1817–1870) was a Hebrew Christian clergyman and minister of the Free Church of Scotland serving in Amsterdam and London.
Daniel C. Juster is an author and advocate of Messianic Judaism. He has served in the Messianic Jewish movement since 1972.
Arnold Genekowitsch Fruchtenbaum is a Russian-born American theologian. He is a leading expert in Messianic Judaic theology and the founder and director of Ariel Ministries, an organization which prioritizes the evangelization of Jews in an effort to bring them to the view that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. He lectures and travels widely.
...emerged as a group of Jewish converts to Christianity in the early nineteenth century, at the same time as the first translation of the New Testament into Hebrew (1838). The Hebrew Christian movement was established initially in....
On 9 September 1813 a group of 41 Jewish Christians established the Beni Abraham association at Jews' Chapel. These Jewish Christians met for prayer every Sunday morning and Friday evening.
In the 1890s, an unusual religious group convened on the Lower East Side of New York: immigrant Jews who had accepted the Christian faith yet contained to retain Jewish rites and customs. Established by Methodist missionaries, the "Hope of Israel" mission aimed at propagating the Christian gospel among the Jews, while promoting the idea that Jewish converts should not abandon their cultural and religious heritage.
