Journal: Global Journal of Classical Theology
Volume: GJCT 16:3 (Feb 2020)
Article: Modern Jewish History And The Making Of Messianic Identity
Author: Alan M. Shore

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Modern Jewish History And The Making Of Messianic Identity

Alan M. Shore

Abstract: Dr. Alan Shore is a Jewish believer who serves with Chosen People Ministries. His work emphasizes the Jewish roots of Christian faith. In “Modern Jewish History and the Making of Messianic Identity,” he discusses

This paper will focus upon some of the elements that form modern Jewish identity and particularly Messianic Jewish identity. I came to this interest not only because I am a Jewish believer, but also because of a lengthy relationship with a variety of Christians during a period of over four decades. I have an immense debt of gratitude toward my non-Jewish brothers and sisters in Messiah who have nurtured and encouraged me these many years. But over time, I have noticed that in many instances their philosemitism is based on a constructed image – a generous dollop of Christian Zionism topped with a sprinkling of dispensational theology and quite often not based on relationships with actual Jews. I see this particularly on trips to Israel that I have helped to escort over the years. Christian travelers to Israel sometimes treat the modern state like a vast outdoor biblical theme park, God bless them, and often exhibit next to no interest in contemporary Israeli society. It is as though nothing has happened in the intervening two thousand years between the first and twenty-first centuries.

But as I began to examine myself, I became equally critical of my own ignorance regarding the forces that have shaped modern Jewish identity, especially in Europe, from where most of us Jews in America trace our roots. I began to ask, for all our talk about the Jewish roots of the Gospel, right enough, what have been the more recent forces that have been, in truth, much more relevant in preparing modern Jews to encounter and hopefully embrace the Gospel? These concerns compelled me to pursue further study.

My academic field of research is in the area of modern Jewish history and culture, Yiddish language and literature, and the modern Jewish encounter with Jesus and Yeshua in scholarship, art and history. I say Jesus and Yeshua for a specific reason in this context, because for many Jews they are actually two distinct figures.

Jesus we know – the Christian Jesus with whom we feel no heartfelt connection. This continues to this day, where images of a blond-haired, blue-eyed white man Jesus pervade the church and popular culture. Essentially, a goy. Someone it is therefore easy to place on the other side of a well-defined Jewish border separating us and not-us. A distant figure, whose distance has nonetheless served us as a survival mechanism that has enabled Jews to maintain a distinct identity, long after so many of us abandoned religious faith, defined quite frequently as simply “not Christ...

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