From the Editor – Issue 45

I’m writing these words shortly after the November 7 Amsterdam Pogrom, a widespread, open attack against Jews in the storied Dutch city. The alleged trigger was a match between Israeli and Dutch soccer teams but in a wider context this attack was only one event in months of mounting antisemitic outrages worldwide since October 7, 2023.

Even against this backdrop, however, Jewish assimilation can be seen as an even greater threat than antisemitism. Antisemitism often stiffens our resolve to live as Jews and pass the heritage on to our children; assimilation can lull us into letting all that go. Critics of Messianic Judaism sometimes claim that we fuel assimilation by affirming the same Messiah and New Testament as our Christian neighbors. Such critics have said: “OK, you may still be Jewish, but what about your grandchildren?”

This issue of Kesher addresses such concerns by focusing on Jewish continuity within Messianic Judaism. In our lead article we ask a panel of younger leaders how Messianic Judaism can be, or become, a multi-generational, grandchildren-producing community. The panelists agree that the Messianic Jewish community needs to promote clearer identity among its Jewish members and a stronger connection to the wider Jewish world.

In the following article, I trace the priority of Jewish continuity within our community, and particularly within Kesher, over the years, framing this theme within a personal memoir as I prepare to step down as editor-in-chief after this issue. Like the panelists, I argue for strong connection to Jewish tradition and to the Jewish community in order to counter assimilation as we continue to maintain our allegiance to Yeshua as Israel’s Messiah.

Next, M. Div. student Katherine Pia Glickler adds to the discussion of continuity with “Patrilineal Descent in Determination of Jewish Identity.” She puts forth the biblical precedent for defining Jewish identity through the father’s line, notes the “growing acceptance” of this standard in the Jewish world, and urges the Messianic community to follow suit. Glickler also exemplifies our theme of continuity as a younger, emerging scholar. The same can be said of Elisa Norman, a recent D. Min. graduate, who continues her Kesher 44 discussion of women in leadership with “Intersections of the Dorot and Chetzi Am Studies” in this issue. MJTI’s Dr. Stan Meyer follows with a fascinating study of Un’taneh Tokef, “perhaps the most moving prayer in the High Holiday services,” and its interconnection with two well-loved prayers in the Christian tradition.

Finally, reviews of four books fill out Kesher 45: Mark Kinzer’s Stones the Builders Rejected, a collection of essays reviewed by Rich Robinson; a series of Torah study books by Rabbi David Fohrman, reviewed by Jon C. Olson alongside Asking Better Questions of the Bible by Marty Solomon, a Jewish follower of Yeshua who draws on Fohrman’s work; The Fundamentals of a Recovering Fundamentalist by Gabriel Gordon, a self-described “Jewish Anglo-Orthodox Episcopal follower of Yeshua,” reviewed by Stephen Burnhope; and A Jewish Paul: The Messiah’s Herald to the Gentiles, by the influential younger theologian Matthew Thiessen, reviewed by Rich Robinson.

As I wrap up six years as editor of this unique and essential journal, my gratitude for your interest and support is especially heartfelt. It has been an honor and a blessing to serve you, and I look forward to continuing on in new capacities together.

— Rabbi Russ Resnik