But after a reporter for Mother Jones wrote about the fundraiser, any mention of the dinner disappeared from the institute's site. Otherwise solicitous staff refused comment. Bush went ahead with the speech behind closed doors.
"THE TURN OF EVENTS IS EMBLEMATIC OF WHAT MESSIANIC JEWS HAVE FACED SINCE THEIR EMERGENCE IN THE 1960S: A TANTALIZING TASTE OF ACCEPTANCE FOLLOWED BY A PRONOUNCED REPUDIATION BY THE MAINSTREAM JEWISH COMMUNITY."
"I think there's a distinction between the gatekeepers and the general community within the wider Jewish community," said Rabbi Russ Resnik, the director of the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations, an association of some 70 Messianic synagogues around the country. "The gatekeepers have to be vigilant and at times overdo the vigilance. But the wider community is receiving and friendly."
"MESSIANIC JEWS EMBRACE JESUS AS THE MESSIAH BUT HEW TO JEWISH TRADITIONS, OBSERVING JEWISH HOLIDAYS AND RECITING HEBREW PRAYERS IN SERVICES. MANY, BUT BY NO MEANS ALL, ARE BORN JEWS WHO HAVE COME TO ACCEPT JESUS AND SEE THEIR PRACTICES AS LEGITIMATE EXPRESSIONS OF JUDAISM."
Mainstream Jewish groups generally have rejected Messianic Jews, seeing them as luring Jews into Christianity under the pretense that they can maintain their Judaism even while accepting belief in Jesus. full story here
Reference: wiccalessons.blogspot.com
