Called to Controversy (44 page)

In some ways, David was more fully formed than most of the first generation of Jews for Jesus had been at his age. He already had the spiritual framework and upbringing that Moishe, to some extent, had provided for many of the core volunteers and early staff. Perhaps that had some bearing on why David, who considered Moishe to be his mentor and one of the most influential people in his life, didn't experience the kind of transition in his relationship with Moishe that some of the others did in the 1980s.

Once Moishe made up his mind to do or say something, it was difficult to get him to change course. Difficult, but not impossible.

Jhan recalled, “I remember it was in the middle eighties in a council meeting in Chicago when Susan and Mitch and I really pushed Moishe to go international. An opportunity in England was opening up, some of us really believed God was paving the way, and Moishe never wanted to go international. His maximum was one hundred twenty missionaries. That was it; that was all he felt he could manage.” But eventually, Moishe relented, and Jews for Jesus incorporated several international branches during his tenure as executive director, including South Africa, Russia, the UK, and France.

Moishe preferred to help and encourage missionaries “across the pond” to stay with their own mission agencies rather than come under the auspices of Jews for Jesus. This was certainly the case with a young Jewish believer named Richard Harvey, whom he met in the late 1970s in London, and mentored in the 1980s. He eventually brought Richard on staff but only after realizing that he would not otherwise remain in the field of Jewish evangelism.

Richard recalled how he first met Moishe at a conference at London Bible College (now London School of Theology) where there were about 20 young Jewish believers in Jesus. “I remember clearly what he said to us. He spoke about what was happening in the USA, and said, ‘You may think you are a small number, but God can do great things through you.' I remember this big man with a booming voice and his American accent. But it was the content of what he said, a prophetic word to me as a young believer, that impressed me.”

In the years to follow, when Moishe flew to Israel or South Africa, he often had a layover in London, and frequently invited Richard to join him for a meal. Richard recalled,

Even though I was working with another mission at the time, he [Moishe] never tried to recruit me. Rather he mentored me, listening to my issues and concerns, teaching me about Jewish mission history, sharing his own perspectives, philosophies, joys, and trials. I remember him in the UK just after his father had died; he was grieving, but he shared of himself and his feelings.

I got from Moishe that “almost-family” bond. . . . He became a sort of spiritual father . . . who knew the ways of Jewish mission and could teach me so much about evangelism, media, leadership, character.

In media, I saw a master at work. In humour, I saw a zany prophetic edge, in strategy, I saw a military cunning. Often when he would phone from San Francisco I would take copious notes during the conversation. I would come downstairs with my head buzzing with new ideas and a smile on my face, and my wife Monica would say: “You've been on the phone to Moishe, haven't you?” It wasn't hard to tell.

That is not to say that Richard Harvey's experiences with Moishe were all positive. Richard was on staff with Jews for Jesus from 1990-1997. As the London branch leader supervised by Moishe, he experienced the same difficulties mentioned in previous chapters. Having acknowledged those difficulties, Harvey concluded,

[These negatives] never, never outweighed the sense of being with someone who was not only larger than life, but cared, loved, and was passionate about what they sincerely believed. I did not always agree with Moishe . . . but who cares? He was a genius, master strategist, and rare eccentric who could bring a new perspective.

Richard Harvey spoke of Moishe as a man who filled the role of “one of the most encouraging people in my life.”

Moishe was a tremendous support to Monica and me when we arrived in San Francisco having just suffered the loss of a near full-term pregnancy. He was able to share with me his suffering through a similar experience. And, when my back was so bad I could only lie down on the floor at the international LCJE meeting at All Nations, he would lie down on the floor next to me!

Years later Harvey authored a book on messianic Jewish theology
*
and expressed concern that “although I found eight or nine types [of messianic Jewish theology], there is one type that is missing, which is ‘Jews for Jesus/Moishe Rosen' messianic Jewish theology.” He went on to say:

I don't think it is correct to sum up his [Moishe's] theology as “Conservative Baptist with a dispensationalist edge”—this may be accurate from one perspective (official, church-based)—but I think there is a lot more depth and subtlety to his position. Unfortunately, it does not seem to have been formulated systematically. I think [Moishe] has had a pivotal influence in causing other messianic Jews . . . to formulate their own positions, often in reaction to or imitation of Moishe's unsystematic and implicit theological system.

Moishe's theological positions probably did have more depth and subtlety than some might think. Over the years, I had many discussions with my father about spiritual and philosophical matters. It was probably in the last year or two of his life that I expressed to him that as time went by, it grew easier for me to hold certain matters in tension, in large part because of an expanded awareness of many biblical realities as mysteries, now known only in part, leaving room for some amount of wondering and/or respectful differences of opinion. He nodded and said that he'd had similar thoughts.

To codify or categorize a system that would go beyond the basics of the gospel would have been counterproductive to Moishe's determination to remain single-minded in his efforts. Moishe was a dreamer, but he was also extremely practical and dead set on avoiding distractions from the cause to which he had dedicated himself. He staked his life on the belief that God had called him to communicate the gospel to his people. He spent his life pointing out that Jesus is the only solution offered by God to breach the gap between his holiness and sinful human beings, be they Jewish or Gentile. Moishe identified with particular theological leanings to a certain extent, but resisted being defined by any detailed and systematic description of theology.

Moishe also concerned himself with preserving the right to proclaim the gospel freely in public venues. In 1981 he was arrested for handing out broadside tracts at the Portland airport. The charge was violating a port ordinance “requiring advance registration by those desiring to exercise First Amendment rights at the terminal.” Although the ordinance was upheld by the district court, the Ninth Circuit ruled it unconstitutional. It was a precedent-setting case.

In 1986 Moishe hired a young Jewish believer in Jesus, Jay Sekulow, to serve as the organization's general legal counsel. Jay had answered the invitation to follow Jesus at a Liberated Wailing Wall concert. Moishe wanted him to try a case in which Jews for Jesus missionaries had been arrested for handing out tracts at the Los Angeles International Airport. Sekulow had to get special permission to argue the case before the Supreme Court of the United States in 1987 because of his age (he was only thirty years old). Nevertheless, he won.

When Jay formed his own ministry, Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism, Moishe encouraged him to buy a property not far from the Supreme Court: “Because you'll be coming back here often.” At the time, Sekulow did not take Moishe's suggestion seriously. Later in his career,
*
after trying multiple cases before the Supreme Court, he recognized that Moishe's suggestion had been somewhat prophetic.
**

Moishe had been adamant that Jews for Jesus fight to maintain the right of free speech at a time when few Christians were willing to file the lawsuits necessary to protest actions that would quash those rights. He recognized that it was not only fascists and totalitarian governments that threatened to deprive people of those rights, but bureaucrats, desk jockeys, and a growing number of uptight citizens who were already developing a somewhat Orwellian notion of tolerance. He wanted Jews for Jesus to be the first to meet a challenge to free speech and to keep the way paved not only for themselves, but also for others.

Throughout the 1980s, Moishe had seen his persistence in pressing the right to free speech pay off. Other struggles remained an uphill battle. His weight spiked and his energy began to lag. At one council meeting, he told the senior staff that while it was important to the ministry for him to travel and speak, he wasn't sure how to balance a travel schedule with his health needs. The staff suggested he always have an assistant while traveling.

He also knew he needed help with his weight, though that was a far more sensitive subject. Meals had always meant more than mere sustenance to him. Sharing good food meant fun and fellowship. In 1986 Moishe went to the Cooper Clinic (of Kenneth Cooper “Father of Aerobics” fame) for a thorough health check and recommendations on weight loss. He was so impressed by the consultation that he wanted the senior staff to have opportunities to be examined by the Cooper Clinic as well.

During Moishe's tenure as executive director, this was a benefit that Jews for Jesus career missionaries received regularly at three-to-five-year intervals. More than one staff member discovered a medical condition that, if left untreated, could have had very serious consequences.

Nevertheless, he didn't always follow his own path to good health. Although he lost a significant amount of weight, most of it returned, and Moishe faced a sobering reality: a crisis in his health could leave Jews for Jesus in a quandary over the selection of his successor.

Moishe thought through a painstaking plan by which the next executive director ought to be nominated not by him, but by the senior missionaries. He then secured the understanding of the board that they would accept a nomination so long as it came from a unanimous vote of the Jews for Jesus council. The strategy for selecting the next executive director became an official board document, and Moishe was satisfied that a chapter of history he had witnessed at the ABMJ
*
would not be repeated.

*
Scriptures inscribed on parchment, encased in small leather boxes to be strapped on the arm and forehead for prayer.

*
This was also true of David's older sister, Martha, and her husband, Loren, both of whom served with Jews for Jesus for many years.

*
Harvey's PhD is from the University of Wales (Lampeter). His dissertation was published as
Mapping Messianic Jewish Theology: A Constructive Approach
(Carlisle, UK: Paternoster/Authentic Media, 2009).

*
Sekulow eventually became known for his role as chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice.

**
He bought the property and in 2010 named it the Moishe Rosen House in memory of Moishe.

*
Regarding selection of Joseph Hoffman Cohn's successor.

TWENTY-NINE

The quality of your life is shaped by what you really believe, not just what you say you believe.

—MOISHE ROSEN

A
clear, cool night had settled over Hertfordshire, England, and almost all was peaceful on Chalk Hill. Almost, but not quite all: a couple of visitors had made their way to the residential neighborhood to protest the presence of the missionary music team, the Liberated Wailing Wall, at Bushey Baptist Church. The two young visitors, both wearing yarmulkes, had arrived late, possibly expecting to slip in unnoticed. However, they never made it past the lobby because as they entered, Richard Harvey immediately recognized them. Moishe was there, too, in town for a meeting of the European Board of Jews for Jesus. He was prone to intermittent back spasms and found it difficult to sit in pews for long, so he had settled into one of the more comfortable chairs in the church lobby.

Moishe knew that several church members had brought Jewish friends to hear the Liberated Wailing Wall, but he sensed that these two had not come to enjoy the concert. He could imagine that one young man observant enough to wear a yarmulke might come out of curiosity, but two? Few Orthodox Jews would feel comfortable being seen by their friends in a Baptist church, he reckoned. With some effort, he rose from his chair to meet them.

Richard rose simultaneously. “Hullo, Daniel. Hullo, Andrew,” he said amiably.

“You know these guys?” Moishe kept his voice neutral as he eyed them.

Richard said, “I can't say I know them, but I know who they are. I see them most every week at Speaker's Corner, don't I?” He continued speaking to Moishe but was watching the two men. “They're antimissionaries, Moishe, hecklers, as you'd call them.”

As though to verify this, Moishe demanded in his most sonorous voice, “Have you come here to worship Jesus?”

One snorted in contempt as the other said derisively, “Of course not! We're
real
Jews. We've come to make sure you don't deceive—”

“You're not welcome here,” Moishe announced bluntly.

The intruders protested that they had a legal right to be there.

“I know what the law says.” Moishe moved closer to them. “Call the police,” he instructed Richard.

“Right, Moishe,” and off Richard went to find a phone.