1.2 Why is it important?

Those of us concerned with Jewish evangelism need a clear understanding of the nature of Jewish identity, so that we may more effectively share the Good News of the Messiah. One charge that has often been levelled against us is that our understanding is too simplistic, and results in the failure of our evangelistic efforts. Irving Horowitz's keynote address at a recent conference on "Jewish survival and the identity problem at the close of the twentieth century" claims that our inability to "convert Jews" is due to a lack of understanding of the complexity of the issue. He writes:

"Jewish identity.. .can not easily be destroyed or eliminated: but neither can it be easily synthesised into a single supreme frame of reference. The universalism, or if one prefers, the very porosity of Judaism, even if it causes moments of grief to Israel's particular concerns, provides residual strength to Jewish survivalist impulses. One indicator of this strength is the multiple problems encountered in conversion efforts. The source of so many failures in evangelical efforts to "convert" Jews is the narrow fundamentalist definition of what constitutes Jewishness. Christian fundamentalism tends to limit its interests in Judaism to one of theology. Consequently their efforts to eliminate Judaism via theological conversion have had limited success. Jewish strength resides in its plurality, clerical and secular alike. The gigantic historical ambiguity involving God, ethnicity and nation is a positive factor in Judaism's survival. But it also makes it exceedingly difficult to reach a definitive answer to the question (..of how central Israel is to Jewish life") (Horowitz in Krausz 1998:12)

Horowitz himself is guilty of oversimplification in asserting that we have a "narrow fundamentalist definition of what constitutes Jewishness" and is plainly wrong to suggest that we are attempting to "eliminate Judaism". Yet despite his polemical agenda, he correctly points to the multifaceted nature of Jewish identity, the "gigantic historical ambiguity involving God, ethnicity and nation". Our response would be that we are not only well aware of the difficulty of the subject, but that we are also in a position to make a unique and significant contribution to its understanding, through our appreciation of the gigantic historical event of the coming of Israel's Messiah, Jesus.