The Ultimate Act of Friendship is to Respect your Friend

May 24, 2020

4 min read

I am a very proud Jew who believes deeply in the mission and unique destiny of the Jewish People. There are many far more learned than me, but I have a bedrock conviction in a benevolent G-d and my prooftext for His existence is no more and no less than the continued existence of the Jewish People.

It is inconceivable to me that the Jews could not have survived the millennia of our travails without the sheltering hand of Him with whom we share an unbreakable, eternal Covenant.

I also have the great privilege to serve as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Im Tirtzu, Israel’s largest grassroots Zionist organization. Im Tirtzu not only maintains an unshakeable faith in the decency, righteousness, and goodness of a democratic and Jewish State of Israel, but also embraces non-Jews from all faiths who themselves embrace and support Israel.

It is in this context that I have had the great pleasure to meet and befriend a great many Christian Zionists.  Without exception, these have been people of integrity, character and decency.

These friends have expressed an unvarnished, unambiguous love for Israel that leaves me humbled and frankly, a bit embarrassed. Why? Because of many of my own brethren, particularly in the US, where I originally hail from, are not this way. They hem and haw, qualify their support, and find no shortage of issues to criticize Israel for.

Not so my Christian Zionist friends. In short, they get it.

And it is in this context of appreciation, that I have read about the controversy about God TV. My real concern is not the details of what exactly is being preached, but the potential for damage in trying to dissect the motivations of the broadcasters and the reaction to them.

Without seeking to wade into the weeds of this group’s activities, it needs to be noted that they are former Jews, who, like many Jewish converts over the years, feel the need to both prove their bona fides to their now fellow Christians, and to rationalize to their former fellow Jews the rightness of their decision to abandon their faith.

But to us, their Jewish audience, their message is offensive, coercive, frightening, and frankly, unacceptable.

Importantly, however, theirs is not an endeavor of the Christian Zionists I have come to call friends.

I think that most of my Christian friends understand that there is a mixed history between us: some quite wonderful, but also a great deal quite horrific and painful. There is I venture to say a part of the Jewish DNA which I would call a residual PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) reaction to that which smacks, even potentially, of coercion.

What is seen as the natural and joyful activity for many Christians, of spreading the good news, is seen by Jews as the beginning of a slippery slope to religious coercion and then persecution. Our antennae are exquisitely sensitive in this regard, and this has absolutely nothing to do with any subconscious worry that I or anyone else would be susceptible to such messaging.

I think that a great many of you will agree with me when I say that much of one’s wisdom about life comes from being a parent, the most humbling of life’s endeavors. Parenting demands that we learn to see our children for who they are, not what we wish they were.

The highest form of parental love is to maintain the unconditional love of a child, while not always endorsing that child’s choices in life.

This same wisdom also applies to spousal relationships and in friendships. The highest form of spousal love, and the truest aspect of friendship is respect: respect for who the other person is, without a desire to change who that person is.

Let us, Jews and Christians, friends and fellow travelers, embrace and take to heart this great wisdom. Christians might wish that all accept the idea that Jesus is the Messiah, but should understand that the Jewish refusal to do should not prevent us from linking arms on so many other issues of common concern.

Jews need to understand that most Christian Zionists are true friends, and are indeed willing and able to contextualize their theological desires from their love of the Land and, yes, the People of Israel.

A great many people of good will, Rabbi Tuly Weisz of Israel365 among them, have worked hard to find the common ground and the mutual respect that can bind Jews and Christians together in a joint appreciation for the blessing of a sovereign Israel, and all that it represents.

It would be a tragedy, indeed a desecration of God’s Name, to let the cynical and self-serving machinations of a very few tear and destroy the beautiful fabric that we have woven together.

Perhaps the best expression of how Jews and Christians should approach each other was voiced by the late great Mayor of New York, Ed Koch. Asked about his making common cause with Christian Zionists, Mayor Koch famously opined:

“I believe in the one-question rule. What that means is when the Messiah comes, we will ask one and only one question: is this your first time or your second? Depending on what he says, we will take our cues accordingly. Until then, I am perfectly happy to have Christian friendship and support.”

Amen.

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