Purely Commentary

The 'Jesus Cult' and Its Resultant Panic

Large-Scale
Budgeting in Our Democratic Community
Planning to Assure Proper Domestic as Well as Israel
Support . . . The Jesus Freaks and the Developing Panic

By Philip
Slomovitz

The Community's Fund-Raising Record, Escalations in Appropriations, Need for Evaluative Studies

There is panic in religious ranks. A rumor about
apostasy has developed in many quarters. "Love Jesuit."
"Jews for Jesus" and a variety of other slogans about the
image of the Jew Jesus enticing his kinsmen into a new
pontifical sphere seem to have created something akin to
terror.

Our community has made great progress. We have reached many positive stages. Our fund raising has been
most successful. Planning communal actions has attained ■ democratic role as proven by the discussions at budgeting
conferences. Now we have new lessons emerging from the experiences of nearly half ■ century. While much of the
emphasis in selecting priorities has been on Israel, allocations for educational and health services have mounted ten-fold.
Yet, at the budgeting session last Sunday there were proposals for revisions of formulas with the aim of giving
even greater priority to local needs.

Bnai Brith doesn't Join in the fears. Neither do we. We
are puzzled by the fears.
Apparently, there Is some truth to the revelations, as
reported to the final lirith board of governors' meeting in
Washington last week, that there have been a few con-
versions. If it is true that only 15 out of the hundreds of
campuses in this country reported conversions of not more
than five at each, that a few recorded abandonment of
the Jewish faith by 25 to 30, then it is serious enough. But
does this mean that ''a disaster area" exists for young
Jews on American campuses^ We consider the panic sheer
nonsense. Yet we are ready to admit that even one con-
version is cause for concern.
There was a time when missionaries ran rampant in
the Jewish community. There was always a meshumad-
an apostate-who, as we viewed him, was out to capture
Jewish souls. We viewed him as a merchant of religious
merchandise. Detroiter% will recall the era of the meshumad
who utilized the soap box on Ilastings Street, later on
Westminster, to preach his gospel. You ng Jews followed
him to express their derision. Some resorted to rotten eggs
and tomatoes with which to express their contempt toward
a former Jew.
Now the missionaries are resorting to advertising in
newspapers. There is a small weekly ad in the New York
Times, always next to announcements of synagogue and
temple services, advocating the Jews for Jesus movement.
In this age of free speech the missionary has a heyday.
And he has found a way of propagating his cause among
young Jews, some of whom apparently have been enticed
into strange folds, and a handful into conversions.

It will he in our community's interest that the fund-raising record should he studied carefully. From incomes
of less than $2.50,000 a year we have grown to last year's $14,000,000 sum. Every agency benefited from the gains.
There have been constant increases in allocations, in granting salary increases, in providing necessary provisions to
assure wholesomeness in communal actions. Note the increases in this tabular outline that was presented to budgeting
conferees on Sunday:

Dr. Alfred Jospe, national director of Hillel Founda-
tions, analyzing the exaggerated reports about conversions,
calls a report about 7,000 Jewish conversions as being
"zealously overblown." and Bnai Brith's president, David M.
Blumberg, believes there are more non-Jews converted to
Judaism than the reverse. But the very figure of 7,000 out
of a total of 400.000 Jewish college students is so grotesque
that the panic should have faded by this time.
An increase in intermarriage causes concern enough
because offsprings of such mixed marriages seldom remain
Jews. The hopes of the Jewish community are that there
will be conversions to Judaism on the part of non-Jewish
partners of such mixed marriages. But the fact is that in
the main there is indifference to both faiths on the part
of such wedded couples, rather than abandonment of the
Jewish allegiance entirely by the Jewish partner. It is one
of the proofs of an exaggeration of the extent of the "Jews
for Jesus" movement-

Naturally, we are concerned when there is even a
single estrangement from our ranks. We feel that way
about the deluded New Left. We don't like it when our
offspring do not retain allegiance to people and faith. But
the fright puzzles us. Could it be an expression of guilt
in some Jewish ranks over the failure to create greater
loyalty to Jewry among many of our youth?

Yet, there are more young Jews enrolled in Jewish
ranks than perhaps in most of the last half century's ex-
periences. Israel entices many. Jewish traditions do not
entirely repel our young people.
We prefer to have more confidence in the youth than
to believe that they yield in large numbers to apostasy, to
meshumadut.
Many stories have accumulated about meshumadim
and meshumadut. In the early years of Jewish imigration,
when poverty stifled many, some were known to have
turned to missionaries for help to tide them over. They
received food, clothing, some cash-and eventually resumed
their Jewish affiliations. There is one story about such a
group that waited to be converted. It took time for the
ceremony to commence, and one of the group said to his
associates, "Since we have to wait, let's 'Map arein a
Minkhele' - let's take advantage of available time and
daven Minkha."
There is the factual episode involving a very famous
Yiddish writer who came to Montreal, from Russia, penni-
less, shabbily clothed, with no funds to take him to friends
and literary associates in New York. He went to a mission
house, "converted," received a few dollars. From there, he
went to another denominational missionary, then to a third,
collected enough money, the extra pairs of shoes, some
clothing, and in New York he gained his rightful place
in Jewish society. We don't know of anything to match it
in our time, but neither do we have comparisons for our
day to match the delusions that have set in, the distressed
minds in our sick society. But the sick In mind are ■ very
small minority. We need to cure them, but we would be
just as sick If we headached over It irrationally.
Of course, we can not brush aside the warnings about
the Key 73 movement reportedly involving 73 denominations
that have set out to evangelize America. If, as Prof. Richard
Gelwick warns, "While the Jesus Revolution is not intention-
ally anti-Semitic, its peculiar type of enthusiasm and Jesus
worship have been shown to be principal ingredients of
anti-Semitic attitudes," then this is a crusade to be fought
against a re-emerging Christian prejudice. If the threat of
a revival of religious anti-Semitism is real, then the chal-
lenge must be directed at the churches.
It may sot be so funny for Christians that as a part

2-Friday, Doc. 22, 1972

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Year
1926-28
1929

Amount Pledged
$
738,242
130,473

19 30
19 31
19 32
19 33
1934
1935
1936
1937
1938
19 39

3,185
1,599

326,017
218,270
140,113
112,913
139,506
220,454
318,421
350,690
390,732
651,889

5,047
4,646
4,302
3,330
4,752
8,063
8,235
9,908
13,374
19,080

1940
1941
1942
1943 (War Chest)
1944 (War Chest)
1945 ('Jar Chest)
1946 (incl. War Chest 0912,091)
1947
1948
1949

735,970
835,633
897,341
850,000
960,000
1,135,940
3,744,351
3,968,572
5,756,133
5,409,276

20,440
21,118
22,445

30,734
28,923

1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959

4,650,538
4,733,354
4,354,228
4,469,252
4,150,612
4,148,639
5,296,804
5,918,268
4,943,739
4 . 895,939

28,003
28,533
28,625
28,401
26,795
26,583
25.319
25,960
24,525
25,031

1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
,.965
1966
1967
1967 Israel Emergency Fund
1968 AJC & IEF
1969 AJC & IEF

4,860,022
4,632,909
4,825,026
4,622,772
4,712,151
5,175,092
5,627,136
5,160,000il
6,188,369"
5,950,000* & 3,606,122
6,200,000* & 4 ,173.958

24,072
23,678
21,764
23,588
23,512
23,524
23,449
23,605
11,052
24,264
24,424

1970 AJC & IEF
1971 AJC & IEF
1972 AJC & IEF (Inc.)

6,600,000ll & 4 .899.759
7,250,000ll & 5,117.071
8,000,000ft & 6,000,000

24,632
24,692
24,750

22,120

27 . 451

.1

*The amount raised beyond this total was added to the IEF.

**Supplementary Campaign, including $500,000 grant frog United Jewish
Charities.

In spite of the progress indicated in raising ever-increasing incomes, the demand now is for more funds
for local services. This presents a challenge. Are we spending wisely? Is the revolution in the educational sphere-
the demand for day school support on the one hand and the admission of a decline in United Hebrew Schools enroll-
ments on the other - being confronted wisely? Are those who ask for aid for the retarded justified on the basis of
achievements to date, and are many among those who demand new formulae backed up factually?
If there is to be a revision in formulas of spending, there also must be a new approach in studying the needs
and in evaluating the demands. Perhaps the Jewish Welfare Federation should take Into account the workability of
democratic approaches and should think In terms of a week's sessions for review of the demands made upon us. The
duties are too serious to be treated lightly. If there are to be greater allocations to local agencies, they must be made
out of increased incomes and not at Israel's expense. If planned properly, we can get the good results we have

always secured from a community as responsive as ours.

of the Jesus Revolutionary Crusade there should have been
hoisted on the Ilofstra University campus a sign that
reads: "Jesus is kosher." Many years ago, the late Dr.
Stephen S. Wise also wanted to kosher Jesus. He urged
the acceptance of Jesus Into the ranks of the great historic
Jewish personalities. Rabbi Wise, although be was an
extremist In Reform Jewish ranks, was beloved by the
Orthodox. But his proposals about a ball century ago
caused one belluva stir ha Jewish ranks. But it blew over.

Jesus was viewed historically, and continues so to be
judged by Jewish scholars.
Insofar as the fad of a Jesus cult is concerned, we
doubt whether it is much more dangerous than the dozens
of fads that spring up from time to time. We can't fight
delusions and mental disturbance. We can hope to cure
them. If we lose a few in the battle for Reason and Ration-
alism, it's part of being a minority amidst many religious

groups.