Table of Contents

All in the family

by Marvin Olasky

Cover Story | As Jews and Christians face a common threat in radical Islam, is there a way beyond sad history and good vibrations for the adherents of the two religions to enjoy decent relations? Such a new relationship starts with truthful acknowledgments-and an understanding of Jewish-Christian relations over the centuries, and now. This special report is a starting point for just such an understanding. Passover and Easter are the only Jewish and Christian holidays that move in sync, like the ice

[http://www.worldmag.com/2002/03/all_in_the_family]

Listening and learning

by The Editors

Cover Story | Let's start with an acknowledgment that Christians have much to learn from Judaism, starting with its emphasis on every-hour thanksgiving as a key to worship. Carrying out the injunction, "Thank the Lord for His goodness" (Deuteronomy 8:10), rabbis traditionally have emphasized training in short prayers that punctuate the day, with thanks to be offered on hearing news, eating food, drinking wine, or taking in fragrant smells or violent weather. Some 100 berakhot (blessings) are standard.

[http://www.worldmag.com/2002/03/listening_and_learning]

Hermits in a shopping mall

by The Editors

Cover Story | Let's dive into that history, beginning with God's commands to the Israelites to be holy, which meant they were to separate themselves from the unholy cultures that surrounded them in Canaan. The Old Testament also records God's giving to the Israelites a narrow land of milk and honey distinct from the desert areas to the east. Separation from other cultures was difficult, particularly in Canaan. God could have given the Israelites some out-of-the-way venue. Instead, He placed them on a

[http://www.worldmag.com/2002/03/hermits_in_a_shopping_mall]

Appeasers, separatists, and transformers

by The Editors

Cover Story | The battle within Israel of those three groups raged for centuries. The first major political upheaval of the post-Old Testament era began in 333 B.C. when Alexander the Great swept through West Asia and conquered many nations, including Israel. Some Israelites separated from Greek-influenced society and formed a community near the Dead Sea at Qumran. (Two thousand years later their records were found and called "The Dead Sea Scrolls.") Others became Hellenistic appeasers, aping the

[http://www.worldmag.com/2002/03/appeasers_separatists_and_transformers]

Judaism persecuted

by The Editors

Cover Story | Only 10 years after the Edict of Milan some Christian leaders began using their new governmental power to give their position the advantage. In 325 the Council of Nicea, along with formulating the classic Nicene Creed, restricted the political and religious rights of Jews. In 337 legislation in the eastern half of the Empire forbade Jews from owning slaves, Christians and Jews from intermarrying, and women from converting to Judaism. During the following centuries some localities went

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Judaism refusing to give in

by The Editors

Cover Story | Let's go back to the problem rabbis had to solve from the second through the sixth centuries A.D. Faced with the end of Temple worship and the rise of Christianity, and without a country of their own, how would Jews remain Jews? With appeasement obviously not satisfactory and societal transformation becoming the activity of Christians, separatism began to rule Judaism. How to separate is a major focus of the Mishnah and the Gemara, the great Jewish books that together comprise the Talmud

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Virtual reality?

by The Editors

Cover Story | Menahoth 110a of the Babylonian Talmud spells out one point, quoting Rabbi Johanan's statement that studying the laws of Temple service is the equivalent of actually carrying them out. Donald Akenson's book, Surpassing Wonder, quotes that statement as evidence of Talmudic teaching that God counts as a virtual sacrifice the recitation of material about the sacrifices of old. A sacrifice studied was a sacrifice made: In God's eyes, the study was as meritorious as a sacrifice made in

[http://www.worldmag.com/2002/03/virtual_reality]

Messianic disappointment

by The Editors

Cover Story | Two other ways of staying alive amid persecution also emerged. Hope for a Messiah sprang eternal. The Messiah would not be the "suffering servant" Isaiah described and Christians embraced. (Rabbis interpreted the suffering servant as Israel itself.) No, the Messiah would be a political and military leader, and many hoped to fill that spot. They all failed, leaving most of their followers frustrated and disenchanted, and some suspecting that the Messiah already had come, in the person of

[http://www.worldmag.com/2002/03/messianic_disappointment]

Great escapes

by The Editors

Cover Story | Throughout the centuries some Jews, rebelling against constant Talmudic and occasional Messianic excitement, explored an almost unspeakable alternative: becoming a Christian. Ironically, pressure to "convert" from church, government, or mob made true conversion more difficult-for what honest person would make for material reasons a decision about the most important spiritual question? Nevertheless, some Jews over the years responded to Christ as did early Jews like Peter the apostle: "You

[http://www.worldmag.com/2002/03/great_escapes]

Gradual emancipation

by The Editors

Cover Story | In Western Europe and America the 17th through 19th centuries brought new opportunities. Protestant Reformed leaders in Holland welcomed Jews there, as did Oliver Cromwell in England. Jews expelled from Portuguese Brazil in 1654 made it to New Amsterdam (now New York City), and their descendants built a synagogue building there in 1730. New York rabbi Gershom Mendes Seixas received an invitation to George Washington's 1789 inaugural. In 1778, Europe's first modern Jewish school-one that

[http://www.worldmag.com/2002/03/gradual_emancipation]

Abandoning Orthodoxy

by The Editors

Cover Story | In both of those centers, most Jews deserted Orthodox belief and practice during the 20th century, in a way that probably was inevitable once they took Moses Mendelssohn's advice to enter the modern world. Rabbis had no practical answer to the Jewish version of the song from early in the century, "How you gonna keep them down in the Talmud, after they've seen Pa-ree?" Persecution of Jews and Talmudic separatism had gone together, and when persecution slackened modernity beckoned. Talmudic

[http://www.worldmag.com/2002/03/abandoning_orthodoxy]

Today's appeasers, separatists, and transformers

by The Editors

Cover Story | The data, however, do indicate that Christians who see Jews through a 17th-century lens, believing that most are thoroughly religious, are thoroughly wrong. Talking with a typical Jewish American is largely the same as talking with his gentile counterpart. Both are aware of Seinfeld and Madonna, bagels and KFC. Both are likely, if they feast at a religious table at all, to be shuffling through the cafeteria, choosing whatever spiritual dish suits their fancy at the moment. Many Jews have

[http://www.worldmag.com/2002/03/today_s_appeasers_separatists_and_transformers]

Searching for the afikomen

by The Editors

Cover Story | In both Jewish and Christian families at Passover and Easter time, children search for either Easter eggs or the afikomen, a piece of matzoh (unleavened bread) broken from the middle of three larger matzohs and hidden by the father. Christians and Jews interpret the symbolism of that act differently, but the Greek word afikomen itself can mean "that which is coming" (dessert) or "he who is coming." Jewish tradition requires that a place be left at the Passover table for Elijah, who will

[http://www.worldmag.com/2002/03/searching_for_the_afikomen]

Timeline of notable Jewish Christians of the past five centuries

by The Editors

Cover Story | How many Jewish believers in Christ live in the United States?

[http://www.worldmag.com/2002/03/timeline_of_notable_jewish_christians_of_the_past_five_centuries]

Some 20th-century notables who almost crossed over...

by Marvin Olasky

Cover Story | Sholem Asch, a popular novelist who emigrated from Poland to the United States, grew up within an Orthodox family. During the first half of the 20th century he created characters who "like their creator, yearn for an ideal and search for a faith," according to The Encyclopedia Judaica. His novels about early Christianity-The Nazarene (1939) and others-dropped him into trouble. Jewish publications attacked him, and the Yiddish Daily Forward, to which he had regularly contributed, attacked

[http://www.worldmag.com/2002/03/some_20th_century_notables_who_almost_crossed_over]

In this issue: "All in the family," March 2, 2002

Dispatches

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The Buzz

by The Editors

TV NEWS COOKS UP CONTROVERSY OVER MORAL CLARITY IN BUSH'S FOREIGN POLICY Seeing evil President George W. Bush's trip to South Korea sounded on the network…

[http://www.worldmag.com/2002/03/the_buzz]

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Flash Traffic

by Joel C. Rosenberg

Political buzz from Washington

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Quotables

I feel that I have cast upon myself responsibilities that go beyond parties. Sen. Jim Jeffords, the Vermont former Republican whose defection handed Senate…

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Voices

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The pride game

by Joel Belz

It got us into this mess in the first place

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Jewish evangelism

by John Piper

Is it conceit or compassion?

[http://www.worldmag.com/2002/03/jewish_evangelism]

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Two halves

by Marvin Olasky

Christ radically changes lives

[http://www.worldmag.com/2002/03/two_halves]

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Mailbag

Boneless wonders Thank you for your excellent reporting on President Bush's decision to freeze funding for the United Nations Population Fund in China…

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