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38
FRIDAY, JULY 26, 1991
`Shemad' Is Always
Held In Contempt
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor Emeritus
B
eginning as early as
in the time of Saul of
Tarsus, the Jewish
founder of Paulene Chris-
tianity, there has always
been an endless stream of
missionary movements to
convert Jews. Large sums of
money were spent to ac-
complish it. There have
always been discussions
about the efforts utilized to
win Jewish souls for Chris-
tianity. An excellent
chronology is provided in a
highly recommended essay
in the Universal Jewish En-
cyclopedia. The failures of
these movements are sum-
marized in the following
published in the mid-1940s:
Missionary programs
specifically designed to
reach American Jews cost
in 1942 about $600,000 a
year. On the basis of mis-
sion reports, the average
annual harvest does not
amount to more than four
hundred individual Jews.
Excluding Jewish Chris-
ti an Scientists, the
number of Christian Jews
in the United States and
Canada is quite insignifi-
cant. The Hebrew Chris-
tian Alliance of America,
which is more than a
quarter-century old, has
about two hundred mem-
bers, mostly professional
missionaries.
Now there are new
movements which must be
given attention. The very
term shemad needs to be
understood in considering
the problems confronting us.
It also commands attention
to the person designated as a
meshummad who submits to
the niissionizing. A descrip-
tion of both is provided by
Rabbi Philip Birnbaum in
his Jewish Concepts:
The Hebrew word
shemad denotes both
persecution and conver-
sion from Judaism. An
apostate from Judaism is
called meshu.m.mad. Some
scholars are of the opi-
nion that the word
meshummad is derived
from a Syriac verb mean-
ing to baptize; hence a
convert to Islam, for ex-
ample, is not described as
meshummad (baptized)
but as mumar, a term fre-
quently used in a wider
sense to designate an
open opponent to Jewish
teachings and practices.
The term meshummad
meaning a deserter who
has forsaken his people
has a much more un-
favorable connotation
than that of convert. It is
felt that the meshummad
has changed his religion
for selfish purposes and
not from conviction or
self-protection.
The newest missionary
aspirations now involve at-
tempts to reach out for the
souls of Soviet Jews involved
in the new exodus as well as
into Jewish communities
like ours. The angling for
our fellow Jews is described
in a study conducted by the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
compiled by Aliza Marcus in
two releases dated June 19,
The newest
missionary
aspirations now
involve attempts to
reach out for the
souls of Soviet
Jews involved in
the new exodus as
well as into Jewish
communities like
ours.
20 under two titles:
"Messianic Jewish Groups
Targeting Soviet Jews
About Judaism" and "Jews
Targeted by Messianic
Groups Before They leave
the Soviet Union."
Aliza Marcus' articles
reveal that large sums of
money have been secured by
the sponsors of these mis-
sionary campaigns. For
more than 20 years such
tasks were sensationalized
as Jews for Jesus: Igor
Gugil, a 22-year-old Soviet
Jew who attends a
"messianic Jewish" con-
gregation in Brooklyn's
Brighton Beach neigh-
borhood, sees no con-
tradiction between the
Star of David hanging
around his neck and the
name Jesus written inside
it ...
Gugil became a mes-
sianic Jew or a Jew
who believes Jesus was
the Messiah under the
influence of his Soviet
Jewish wife, who was
converted by Russian
Pentacostalists over a
year ago while waiting in
an Italian transit center to
come to United States.
Messianic Jews have
greeted the exodus of
Soviet Jews with great joy
and have been working
actively to convince them
to believe in Jesus .. .
Soviet Jews, who usual-
ly have had little if any
Jewish education, are
more likely than Ameri-
can Jews to become
"Jewish believers" in
Jesus, says Rabbi A.
James Rudin, the Ameri-
can Jewish Committee's
national director of inter-
religious affairs.
Now we must take into
consideration a Detroit
counterpart to this mis-
sionary soul capturing. Ac-
tivities in such efforts in our
midst were reported in our
July 5 issue by Phil Jacobs
as he described church-
oriented messianic con-
gregations in our area. The
Jewish News article in-
dicates an emphasis that the
missionaries place on the
term Yeshua. The term had
been a means of persecuting
Jews and submitting them
to pogroms. Therefore, the
term had to be erased from
Jewish liturgy. The action of
nearly 600 years ago is
related by Philip Birnbaum
as follows:
In 1399, many Jews of
Prague were imprisoned
because a meshummad by
the name of Peter charged
the Jews with uttering
blasphemy in the aleynu
prayer. He said that the
numerical value of the
word voraik (and idle)
corresponded to that of
the name yeshu (316),
although the phrase hevel
voraik was borrowed
from Isaiah 30:7. Many
were murdered because
of this accusation.
Through fear of the offi-
cial censors, the following
words were excluded
from the aleynu prayer:
"they, the pagans, bow to
vanity and emptiness and
pray to a god that cannot
save."
Is there any wonder that
shemad and meshummad
are treated with contempt ?
Missionary movements
need to be watched to
avoid misconceptions, mis-
understandings, misinterpre-
tations. Historical truth and
facts of life need to be ap-
preciated. We retained a few
of them here to eliminate the
vindictiveness aimed at the
Jewish people.
Dr. Jacob R. Marcus, in the
second of a four-volume work
on United States Jewry,
deals extensively with the