December 2025 Letter to the Kesher Editor

8:18 AM Wednesday.

Greetings Rabbi Elliot:

Three quick points.

1. My apologies for not producing a brilliant debut article for Kesher #46 in commemoration of Nicaea 1700. That proposal has proven itself an episode of grandiosity in retrospect. I want to offer something helpful to the Kesher community, but I don't seem to have the ability to write much more than one blog post or email at a time these days. And now my latest sense of expectation is fixated on the Jubilee of the Redemption in 2033.  

2. Joyce's testimony in our PEP class last night was superb. Especially on the heels of Chuck Sugarman's testimony, it has me thinking very hard about the intersection between the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement and Messianic Judaism. I didn't ask Joyce on the record if she feels that Yeshua would be a conscientious objector or an IDF combat hero today, but I was really interested to know her thoughts on this.  

3. Along these lines, I have just read Rabbi Resnik's excellent January 2019 Kesher article What Should Messianic Jewish Leaders Say about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict? It occurs to me to share with you, in case you have been considering the matter, that the genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel at the International Court of Justice is far too seismic, in my opinion, to continue unmentioned. First, we had the "Zionism is racism" charge. Then we had the "Israel is an apartheid state" charge. Now we have the "Netanyahu government is guilty of genocide" allegation. Young people in America and Europe are leaning toward the pro-Palestinian narrative, which thanks to current right-wing policy is also the climate justice side of the ledger. To put it bluntly, today's climate justice Freedom Riders are looking too much like pro-Hamas anti-Zionists for this to turn out well. 

For moral and political reasons, I am concerned about what happens to Messianic Judaism if it remains silent at this crucial moment. What do most UMJC rabbis and MJTI faculty think - are you grappling with a moral crisis at the heart of Israel? Is it better for Messianic Jewish congregations to take a side for Israel, for South Africa, or to postpone support for either side until the Court finishes its deliberations, all while role-modeling compassionate listening and careful reasoning based on solid facts? Thus far, I have been taking Israel's side, while recognizing the plausibility and gravity of South Africa's case AND promoting compassionate listening and careful reasoning on all sides. But I need to hear Messianic Jewish rabbis address the crisis head on. Maybe it is wrong for me to side with Israel on this case. 

I don't expect the Kesher community to have the final answers, but I do expect it to raise the most pressing questions as we navigate these latter days. Are Messianic Jewish rabbis standing behind a two-state Zionist solution, are they acknowledging the plausibility and gravity of the genocide charges, and are they calling on Prime Minister Netanyahu to step down and do teshuvah - pardon or no pardon?

Okay, I've said my piece. This is my end-of-2025 confession for the Kesher editor. 

Thanks so much for reading.

Shalom, 

Jonathan