Jews for Jesus CEO to 'Post': I see us as brothers and sisters, not enemies

The three words “Jews for Jesus” can rouse all sorts of associations for Jews, ringing bells ranging from vague to a glaring one of warning.

Started as a grassroots organization in 1973 by Moishe Roisen, Jews for Jesus has quietly ballooned to a global network numbering close to 300 staff members, headquartered in San Francisco, with its largest branch in Israel.

In June, it named Aaron Abramson its new CEO, the first to take the position with an Israeli background, knowledge of the language and culture, and a unique, forward-looking vision for the organization.

Born in the throes of the American Christian Messianic movement in the 1970s and 1980s, the organization, with its name, was and continues to be met with valid suspicion from the Jewish community. But it has morphed over the past 50 years, along with the rest of the Jewish community as a whole, grappling with issues new and old.

The faith tenet of Jews for Jesus – which goes against all of mainstream Judaism – is that the Jewish Messiah has already come and it was Jesus, Abramson explained in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.

“We believe that that changed history, and is relevant to us as Jewish people today. The New Testament is a thoroughly Jewish book in terms of what Jesus is grappling with. Through it, Jesus has given us a deeper understanding as to what our Jewishness means,” he said.

The Christian missionary effort as a whole is one that aims to convert Jews into believing that Jesus was the Messiah. There is broad consensus among Jews that this is not the case, and so missionary streams are not viewed by the community as legitimate strains of Judaism.

How and where do you draw the line between “I resonate with Jesus’ teachings and ideas” and saying he is the promised Messiah? Today, Jews across the board, though they will disagree on nearly everything else, all agree that the Messiah hasn’t come yet.

There is a range of ways to broach the subject, Abramson explained. They range from denying Jesus’ existence completely; accepting it but morally castigating him; and agreeing that he was a leader and a rabbi but took things too far. 

After that point is where you reach the Messianic camp, which accepts the texts because they “challenge us in a deeper way, beyond the ethical teachings of the Torah, to asking ‘Who do you say that I am?’ The claims that Jesus and his followers make are deep ones; you can accept or reject them.... Messianic Jews believe that the Jewish Messiah people were waiting for are indeed fulfilled with the coming of Jesus,” said Abramson.

“There are 1.5 billion people in the world who love the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because of this one Jewish person; the spreading of monotheism in a big way through the teaching of the Old Testament. Christians read it – they might interpret it differently than Orthodox Jews, but there is a surprising amount of overlap,” he added.

The Jewish response, though, to you would be, “How are you different from Christians?”

“‘Christian’ is a broad term. There are a lot of groups, so my faith would align with some and not others. I align with people who love the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; I align with the view that God’s word was given to us in the form of the Tanach, for us to live through and to guide us, to orient our lives. That can look different and we can disagree. The Tanach is oriented towards something greater, that ultimately God is going to step more directly into history through this idea of the Messiah, who would teach, orient, and give us a greater understanding [of life], but also [reprimand us] when we are a wayward people. The New Testament teaches that Jesus came to reorient that relationship, which extends outward to the rest of the nations. God created us as Jews; we don’t turn in our Jewish card, believe in Jesus, and walk away – ideas that are prevalent in Christianity.... Since the first century, both faiths went in separate ways, reacting to each other.”

Within the Messianic community [and beyond it], your organization is known, and the argument of proselytizing and missionizing comes up. How do you respond to and contend with that?

“It’s a good question that we get; we don’t hide who we are; we’re open and talk about it. What we don’t want to do is push something that we believe onto someone that doesn’t agree,” he said.

“Just like everyone else in the faith space, we are presenting a viewpoint. We realize it is perhaps marginal within Jewish circles, yet we still think it is a significant one, that there is something valuable in presenting that to the broader Jewish community. We’re not encouraging someone to leave their Jewishness, stop their Jewishness, or walk away from something that they believe [in], but we do present a different way of seeing things,” he explained.

He added, “We obviously have our views of things, but we understand people have different ones, so the space we have is extremely inclusive. [If you’re involved with us,] we’re not coming and saying, ‘You need to adopt this viewpoint or accept this.’ Ultimately though, we won’t hide who we are.”

Since its founding, the organization has expanded to 12 major cities. The largest community centers today are in the US and Israel, the latter of which has grown significantly over the last decade. When Abramson first encountered it in Jerusalem while he was living there, there were two staffers; today, there are 55. The organization pivoted its work as well; It used to be more social-activist oriented, which attracted specific people but perhaps alienated others. Today, it is broader and three-dimensional, with more operational channels.

With the expansion you’ve had over the last decade, how is that not missioning? The idea that Jesus was the Messiah stands fully against mainstream Jewish tradition and faith.

“Everybody in the world, any organization, has their views of how they think they can make the world a better place, how things can be improved,” he responded.

Abramson told of a girl he met who was previously hassidic, who asked him exactly that – “You’re Jews for Jesus; don’t you convert people?”

“I told her, ‘Listen, I have a worldview, you have a worldview, everybody does, and we’re encountering each other like that.’ Everybody is selling something that they believe is going to make the world a better place. That’s what we’re doing,” he said.

Abramson added that “there is a long history of very dark conversion within the past Christian circles towards Jewish people; there’s trauma there. That history, that is something we also hate, and we want to move away from that. People were forcibly converted; I myself have family from Eastern Europe that moved away to escape those things and come to the US.

“We recognize that, experience that, and are sensitive to it. But we also don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, because we do believe that Jesus was Jewish, and that the writings in the New Testament are thoroughly Jewish. As Jews, we have abandoned that, and so we want to bring that back into the focus and give people the opportunity to explore that, if they are interested. If they say, ‘That’s not for me,’ my response is, ‘100%,’ none of us are looking to challenge that.”

He continued, “Historically, there was valid concern about people leaving the Jewish circle. We never tell people they can’t be part of a local synagogue or community, or must abandon their family. There has always been this fear because, historically, when [Jewish] people would adopt Christian views, they stopped being Jewish.”

The movement came to life in the 1970s, which means that today there are second- and third-generation folks who grew up in these faith communities, albeit small ones.

“All those people now have kids my age, or were raised in interfaith families, integrating these different strains into the faith experience. Jews for Jesus is relatively a small organization and community, but it grew, and that’s due to a number of factors:

“First, intermarriage. Second, traditional boundaries are more porous [today]. In the ’70s and ’80s, the idea was so out there, while today it’s not seen as extreme as it once was, probably due to the more pluralistic nature of Jewish experience today. I’ve seen people, as a result, be more open to something different. Finally, the birth rate of second-generation communities created a space where people aren’t afraid to own their beliefs. So it’s somewhat more normative today,” he explained.

When Abramson was 15, he moved to Israel with his parents. “I grew up in a blended-tradition household,” he said. The family moved to a settlement. “My parents wanted me to have a Jewish education.” Abramson stayed for about 10 years. He attended a yeshiva for one year before drafting to an auxiliary paratroopers unit in the IDF as a technician of armored transport carriers.

His time in yeshiva wasn’t easy, he said. “I was perceived as a ba’al teshuva to them.” His time there raised questions for him, he explained, questions like “what does it mean for me to be Jewish? What does God want from me? What does he want from the rest of the world?” The questions, combined with an intense political climate in the institution, made him “less enthusiastic about rabbinic Judaism,” while the army brought about a wave of secularity.

During his three-year service, part of which was in southern Lebanon, a friend of his was tortured and killed, which was “sad” and “jarring. I didn’t know what to do with that. Will anything ever be resolved? Is peace even possible?”

So, after about a decade in Israel, he turned his eyes toward the US, planning a post-army trip. “I was looking to get away from it for a while; it felt like too much.” The year of traveling with a friend created the space needed for those questions. He met people along the way, mostly Christians, including one who invited him into his home. “Once I got there, I discovered he was blind; he was so curious and generous, and said he loved Jewish people and prayed for them.”

What struck him was the man’s sincerity. “He didn’t try to convince me of anything; he just showed me kindness, which left an impression. Someone else said to me, ‘If you’re going back to Israel, you’ll run into the same issues as the past. Maybe open the New Testament and see what it can offer you.’”

Abramson continued, “I thought, what have I got to lose? And I loved what I found: simplicity, spirituality, and purpose. I felt loved, even in all the confusion. I felt like God was giving me sustenance and hope, a light.”

During his trip, he came across a church founded by people who had been formerly Muslim, “and I thought, if we are all founded by this book, there must be a connection.” He decided to return to Israel. Today, he is based in London and New York.

“Israel is part of what shaped me, part of my story. I love Israel, and I feel it whenever I come. There’s something magical and significant about it. Israel is this tiny little speck in the Middle East, but it is always in the center,” he said.

“As an organization, we can explore some of the needs Jewish people have here, and contribute to that conversation,” he said.

Abramson served as the organization’s COO for six years before the promotion, focusing on expanding the organization’s humanitarian impact.

On October 7, Jews for Jesus’ Israeli staff numbered around 60, some of whom were called up to the reserves, and some of whose sons and daughters were.

“When we go out and speak in churches, they realize that, as an organization, we are dealing with this in a very different way. Many times, they don’t know what to think, especially with the question of justice. Rather than ignore that, we say that we know it is complex. The organization does not take a political stance, but, rather, a single focus.”

He continued, “Christians are finding a way to figure out how to relate to Jewish people. We relay it to them in a way that allows them to see Jewish people as a real, modern, vibrant community, way beyond what is written in the Bible. We hope they ask, what do Jesus and the Bible have to say about this?”

The organization’s Israeli team, based in Tel Aviv, jumped into action on and after October 7. This included networking with individuals and families hurt by the massacre and relocation, and providing aid. What followed was an influx of Christians from around the world looking to help.

“Initiatives ranged from [helping] displaced residents in hotels, setting up schools, helping families, thousands of meals provided per week going out to local Jewish and Arab communities, and soldiers stuck on bases – some of them our own members. Everyone knows someone who is affected; one of our members’ homes was hit by a missile.”

Some of the animosity hurled toward Jews and Israelis abroad did not skip over Abramson. After he spoke at a church in London, a man approached him and charged that Israel created Hamas and is the reason behind all the chaos.

“It was jarring,” he said, “and so we started a conversation. I shared with him about how it feels to be a Jew and an Israeli in London – not great.”

Tell me about your relationship with mainstream Jewish groups.

“I would love to see it grow and improve. When we talk, we see that we actually agree on a lot of things. We hate what’s going on with antisemitism and want to activate Christians out there to stand against it. Things like that are opportunities for us to stand in those spaces and help do that. In those areas, we can find alignment, even though there are things we disagree with.”

How do you navigate those differences?

“I find that there are a lot of grays, a lot of openness, but obviously it depends where you are. I find that the younger audiences are more focused on what we can agree on. Some stand firmly on the things we disagree on, making it hard for me to have a relationship with them, but I find that that’s not the norm; people are willing to have those relationships.

“As well, we live in a world that cancels each other quickly, which is a sad thing, because we learn from each other and challenge each other in different ways. I love the opportunities I have to interact with rabbis and other Jewish leaders. I see us as brothers and sisters, not enemies.

“I’ve had people argue with me. That’s okay – we do that in families. We can disagree, and also agree to disagree, and even find things we do agree on.

“Jews for Jesus has always looked for that kind of engagement, and we’ve definitely encountered that kind of suspicion in the past, people who say they would rather shy away. That’s fine. We don’t have to talk about that; it’s not the only thing I care about. If someone is Jewish, we relate on a different level.”

How do you respond when someone says, “Okay, but your belief makes you not Jewish”?“I simply try to explain how, for me, those things aren’t in conflict with one another.”