Bush Wants to Convert the Jews, or Something

A storm of debate has erupted over President George W. Bush’s scheduled address Thursday to a group whose aim is to convert Jews to Christianity. The Messianic Bible Institute‘s mission is training “leaders who will establish Messianic Jewish congregations and ministries in Jewish communities worldwide.” (When the Republican Jewish Coalition describes GOP “outreach,” that’s not exactly what it has in mind.)

While the controversy is understandable, the fact is that we have a sitting president who not only addressed, but also actively supported, the Muslim Brotherhood. And they want to convert everyone. As the Council on Foreign Relations notes: “The Brotherhood’s original mission was to Islamize society through the promotion of Islamic law, values, and morals.” They haven’t changed much, except their tactics, since then.

I don’t think Jews have much to fear from missionaries, anyway. Conversion is not a real threat to Jewish continuity. (For those individuals who do convert, either into or out of Judaism, the experience can be rich and rewarding.) The real danger to Jewish continuity is the erosion of Jewish institutional life, driven partly by assimilation but also the diversion of Jewish philanthropy into outside, “social justice” projects.

In my hometown of Skokie, Illinois, there was debate several years ago about whether Jews should donate to the new Illinois Holocaust Museum or to the Solomon Schechter Day School, where I went. Today the community has a fine memorial, but the school–which was bursting with students twenty years ago–has closed. A community that fails to invest in its own future has much bigger things about which to worry.