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Counterculture and Mission: Jews for Jesus and the Vietnam Era Missionary Campaigns, 1970-1975

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2018

Yaakov Ariel
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Extract

In the early 1970's, Americans noticed a striking group of people: young men and women who stood in crowded city areas, wearing T-shirts with the motto “Jews for Jesus” and distributing leaflets calling upon Jews to embrace Jesus as their savior. These people made such a strong impression and attracted so much attention that, in the eyes of many, Jews for Jesus became associated with all attempts to evangelize Jews in America, as well as becoming one of the better known groups among the Jesus Movement. Directing its attention to members of the new counterculture and adapting to the young people's style and manners, Jews for Jesus differed sharply from evangelizing organizations of the earlier period. Whereas the older generation of missionaries strictly adhered to mid-century norms of conservative evangelical propriety, the new organization believed that its more daring approach would prove more effective with the younger generation and would eventually gain evangelical approval.

Type
Research Article
Information
Religion and American Culture , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , Summer 1999 , pp. 233 - 257
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture 1999

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References

Notes

1. See, for example, Palms, Roger, “Jews for Jesus,” Home Missions 44 (January 1973): 7–9 Google Scholar; and Kaufman, Ben, “Jews for Jesus,” Cincinnati Enquirer, February 10, 1973, 37.Google Scholar

2. Hineni, meaning “here I am” in Hebrew, refers to Isaiah 6:8. It conveys the self-understanding of the group as dedicated to promoting the word of God. “Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then said I, Here I am, send me.”

3. On the place of the Jews in American premillennialist thought, see Ariel, Yaakov, On Behalf of Israel: American Fundamentalist Attitudes towards Jews, Judaism, and Zionism, 1865-1945 (New York: Carlson, 1991).Google Scholar

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11. Leaflets in possession of the author.

12. See Rosen and Rosen, Share the New Life. This basic claim repeats itself throughout the book. Following the Israeli Yom-Kippur War (1973), Rosen had a discussion on that topic with Menahen Ben Hayim, a leader of the Christian messianic Jewish Community in Israel. Ben Hayim referred to the death of a medic in the war while saving the life of another soldier and voiced his opinion that the medic was saved since, in his self-sacrificing deed, he followed the example of Jesus Christ. Rosen did not agree and insisted that only the born-agains were saved. Interview with Menahem Ben Hayim, Jerusalem, July 1994.

13. On such evangelists and groups, see Streiber, Lowell D., The Jesus Trip: Advent of the Jesus Freaks (New York: Abingdon, 1971).Google Scholar

14. Cf. photographs of Jews for Jesus demonstrating or distributing leaflets dressed in denim and with long-grown hair with those of other such groups. See, for example, Lindsay Miller, “Jews as ‘Jesus Freaks,’” New York Post, September 2, 1972; and Streiber, , The Jesus Trip, 30.Google Scholar

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21. Glock, Charles Y. and Stark, Rodney, Christian Beliefs and AntiSemitism (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1966)Google Scholar; and Lynne Ianniello, “Release for the Press,” Anti-Defamation League, New York, January 8, 1986.

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27. See the biographical accounts in Rosen, , Jesus for Jews, 82, 141-42, 198, 211, 239Google Scholar; see also Lipson, , Jews for Jesus, 26–60.Google Scholar On the sense of Community, see Rosen, , Jesus for Jews, 199–200 Google Scholar; on the parents' acceptance, see Lipson, , Jews for Jesus, 50.Google Scholar

28. Rosen, , Jesus for Jews, 139, 196.Google Scholar

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35. Goldstein, “Profile of American Jewry,” 90.

36. Lipson, , Jews for Jesus, 27–28.Google Scholar

37. Eichhorn, , Evangelizing the American Jew, 172-76.Google Scholar

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39. On the number of Jews joining other religions, see Goldstein, “Profile of American Jewry,” 77-173.

40. See, for example, Hopkins, Oz, “Jews for Jesus Give Mission ‘Bad Name,’” Oregon Journal, July 27, 1973, 2.Google Scholar

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43. Rausch, David, Messianic Judaism: Its History, Polity, and Theology (New York: Edwin Meilen Press, 1982), 89, 159, 202.Google Scholar

44. See, for example, Hopkins, “Jews for Jesus Give Mission ‘Bad Name,’” 2.

45. Minutes of the February 1975 meeting of the Fellowship of Christian Testimonies to the Jews, Pennsauken, New Jersey, the Official Secretary's Book of the F.C.T.J., formerly in the possession of the A.M.F.International, Lansing, Illinois.

46. See Herberg, Will, Protestant Catholic, Jew (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1960).Google Scholar

47. In March 1972, the Northern California Board of Rabbis circulated a letter to Hillel houses and Jewish communities advising against such invitations. See Rausch, , Communities in Conflict, 126.Google Scholar

48. In Eisenberg, Gary, Smashing the Idols: A Jewish Inquiry into the Cult Phenomenon (Northvale, N.J.: Jason Aronson, 1988), 41–48.Google Scholar

49. See Cox, Harvey, “Deep Structures in the Study of New Religions,” in Understanding New Religions, ed. Needleman, Jacob and Baker, George (New York: Seabury Press, 1978), 122-30.Google Scholar

50. Rabbi Shamai Kanter quoted in Eisenberg, , Smashing the Idols, 178 Google Scholar; Fisch, Dov Aharoni, Jews for Nothing: On Cults, Intermarriage, and Assimilation (Jerusalem and New York: Feldheim, 1984), 12–13, 28-29Google Scholar; Elie Wiesel quoted in Eisenberg, , Smashing the Idols, 162.Google Scholar On the criticism of Jewish religious life, see Eisenberg, Smashing the Idols, introduction, xv. Fisch's views are expressed in Fisch, , Jews for Nothing, 12–13.Google Scholar

51. Rosen, and Proctor, , Jews for Jesus, 12–13, 114 (quote).Google Scholar

52. See, for example, Fisch, , Jews for Nothing, 21–71.Google Scholar

53. See, for example, Litteil, Franklin, “Amsterdam and Its Absentees,” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 16 (Winter 1979): 111-12.Google Scholar

54. Tannenbaum, Marc H., Wilson, Marvin R., and Rudin, A. James, eds., Evangelicals and Jews in Conversation (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1978).Google Scholar

55. On the Jewish reaction to Key 73, see Rausch, , Communities in Conflict, 114-21Google Scholar; Graham's Statement is found in “Billy Graham on Key 73,” Christianity Today, March 16, 1973; the pamphlet What Evangelical Christians Should Know about Jews for Jesus (San Francisco: Jews for Jesus, n.d.) is an example of Jews for Jesus' response.

56. On American missions towering over the missionary field in the latter decades of the twentieth Century, see, for example, articles by Pierard, Richard V., Koop, Allen V., and Van Engen, Charles E. in Earthen Vessels: American Evangelicals and Foreign Missions, 1880-1980 (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1990), 155–234.Google Scholar

57. See Moore, R. Laurence, Selling God: American Religion in the Marketplace of Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 238-55.Google Scholar