Messianics are not Jews

Shame on you for printing a misleading propaganda article for a missionary organization (“‘Messianic Jews’ want in,” November 22).

First of all, the article accepted at face value that there are 20,000 members of the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregation. How does the author know that? Many of the so-called congregations are either storefronts or paper organizations. Many of its members are not Jewish.

Secondly, who is this Professor Ariel who is championing this organization? Who are the federations who knowingly permit so called Messianic Jews to participate in Federation activities? I do not know of any.

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Jews who accept Jesus as their messiah cannot be in any way part of the Jewish people. Acceptance of Jesus makes the last two thousand years totally irrelevant and makes a mockery of Jewish martyrdom. The very fact the spokesman for this organization can make this claim indicates that our community has done a lousy job of self definition.

What was left out of this article is why Jews resent proselytization. The reason is that the bulk of identifying Jews have a strong sense that they are heirs to religious, cultural, and historic heritage, whatever their level of observance is. To tell the Jew he must accept Jesus devalues that heritage. Other non-Christian believers have the same reaction.