The Shiloh Legacy

In the early 1990s, Bodie Thoene wrote three evangelical Christian novels in a series called “The Shiloh Legacy,” which details the lives of various people during the Great Depression and World War II. Two of the characters in this series are Jewish: Max Meyer and his cousin Trudy. While it is strongly implied that both characters convert to Christianity during the course of the novels, it is never explicitly discussed.

The books in question are A Thousand Shall Fall, In My Father's House, and Say to This Mountain, all published by Bethany House. Here is a sampling from In My Father's House:

"Bubbe Fritz did not approve of this because Irene was definitely not Jewish. But tonight at the sight of her, Bubbe Fritz said in a kindly tone, "Well, so Max's little shiksa has come to make sure he is not a casualty in the last hour. Nu!" ... "I don't want to hear such things [about Max marrying a Gentile]! He'll get over her!" ... "Is this what we came to America for?" Trudy did not say that she believed this was the best part of America.... A girl from the Irish neighborhood falling in love with a tall handsome Jewish boy from Orchard Street." (pp. 86-87).

Later in the book, the family is upset about Max and Irene (an Irish-American woman) planning on getting married. "Bubbe would weep loudly and slam doors. Zeyde would cluck his tongue and blame himself because he had let everything go to pot the moment he kept his store open on Shabbat." (p. 148).

Trudy says to Max: "What is it Bubbe says? Tova toireh mikol sechoireh? The Torah is the best merchandise." (p. 156).

The Gates of Zion

Another in the Zion Chronicles series, The Gates of Zion, published in 1986 by Bethany House. finds the fictional Moshe Sachar, an Israeli professor of linguistics and archaeology at Hebrew University, discovering that an ancient commentary on Isaiah interprets the suffering servant as the Messiah. The "truth" finally dawns on him:

"And so," he said aloud. "The interpretation was changed, although the words have remained the same. The ancients knew the prophet spoke of the Messiah. How inconvenient truth can be at times!" .... "Especially when for so long the one you thought to be your enemy is, in fact, your Savior. This is truth, Moshe Sachar," he said aloud to himself. "So what will you do with the Messiah? The one they call Christ?".

Moshe explains to Ellie (a gentile woman) about how he came to faith in Jesus:

"Then ancient commentaries speak of Him as the final sacrifice for all our sins and imperfections. They speak of His love and kindness and tell us that He alone is the one who can save us from the death that dwells in our hearts.... He died on the eve of Passover, nearly two thousand years ago. Like the lamb of sacrifice, He took my sins and covered them with His blood. He was perfect and without blemish, and He died in my place like the prophets said He would. Then He conquered death. Ellie, He came to life again and is living still, and He has made my heart alive in knowing Him. That is my hope. My belief in fact and truth." "Then you are a Christian?" Ellie asked quietly.... "I am Moshe Sachar, and I am a Jew who believes that the one we call Yeshua is the Messiah. .... He will come again to my people and they will know Him for who He is and find pardon and the joy of knowing Him as a loving and merciful Savior."

Rabbi Shlomo Lebowitz ("Grandfather") talks about religion with an Englishman, Luke Thomas, who says:

"Yes, I see your point. But does it not say in Isaiah . . . I believe it is Isaiah fifty-two, that even the Gentiles will see the Messiah and believe? "Well spoken, Captain," nodded the old rabbi. "But I fear that the Gentiles have made Jesus into a Gentile. And so over two thousand years Jews have been murdered and tortured in the name of Christ. And what does God have to say about that, eh?"

Rachel thinks to herself:

"Even as she had struggled to recapture the importance of God in a life filled with horror and betrayal, she had lost the battle, lost her soul, lost God..... "Maybe my heart has always been dead," she said aloud.... She tried to remember if God had ever been real to her or if He had always seemed remote, simply a historical appendage to her heritage. At Hanukkah or Passover, had He ever been near to her? .... The words of her childhood faith seemed to mock her.... How she had fallen! Now neither God nor man could lift her up again."

Howard (a Christian) says to Moshe:

"You know all the messianic prophecies. We have spoken of them many times together. ... And yet you never told me why you do not believe in the One who fulfilled those prophecies." ... [Moshe replies]: I have never said I do not believe in Jesus... Although the rabbis do not believe that He was the Messiah, only the ignorant deny that He was a great prophet and great among the rabbis.... I deny those who since the early centuries have denied His Jewishness. Jews have known little of Jesus and have wished to know less." "But why?" Moshe looked at Howard in disbelief. "You are an intelligent man, Howard. Surely you know that the name of Jesus is to a Jew the scourge of God, the fiend in whose name children have been torn in two while their Jewish parents were roasted alive in every city of Spain! .... it was all done in the name of the Prince of Peace, was it not?"

Moshe continues:

"But I believe He came to all men who would seek Him. As I read the messianic prophecy of Isaiah 53, the Messiah came to heal our sins by His wounds as the final sacrifice. .... I will never call myself by the word Christian, but I understand why the Messiah came into this world, and I believe I have found a truth that is as old as the Jewish people. He does not want our sacrifices, he wants our hearts. The ultimate sacrifice was one He made for us. Jesus did not destroy Jewish law, He fulfilled it. ... I am a Jew, Howard. As do many Jews, I believe in the coming of the Messiah. I just happen to believe that He has been here once already..... I will tell you that I believe that Jesus lives in the hearts of those who really know Him. It was through your friendship that I first saw His gentleness. For this I am grateful."

Wandering Jude speaks:

The newly converted Jewish Christian character in this book, Moshe Sachar, is convinced of the claims of Christianity when he discovers that there was at one time a Jewish interpretation of Isaiah 52 and 53 that saw the "suffering servant" as the Messiah. This seems a rather specious argument in favor of the absolute truth of Christianity. Competing sects (as Judaism and Christianity once were) often debate back and forth and then change their interpretations of sacred texts based on how well the debate is going. If Judaism once saw the suffering servant as an individual instead of as a group, then of course it must have been inconvenient to continue with this interpretation once Christianity became the majority religion. Interpretations of sacred scriptures change all the time, in all religions. One example of this in one religion does not prove the absolute truth of another religion.

In this book, both Sachar and Lebovitz express an important argument against Jews converting to Christianity: the persecution of Jews by Christians throughout the ages (though for Sachar this is not an argument against believing in Jesus, simply an argument against calling himself a Christian). Wandering Jude agrees that this is a compelling argument. Why should a Jew join the religion that battered and buffeted his people for centuries? The pathetic counter argument, that Jesus should not be judged on the basis of the evil deeds of his so-called followers, is only partly correct. Jesus the man should not be judged on this basis, but the religion in his name can be and should be. Christianity in theory may have many wonderful tenets, but its history of bloodshed and persecution stands as a testimony to all Jews that this is not the religion for us.

A Daughter of Zion

Another book by the prolific Christian writer Bodie Thoene, this one from the Zion Chronicles Series, A Daughter of Zion was published by Bethany House in 1987. Many Jewish characters (mostly Israelis or immigrants to Israel) are featured in this book, including Rachel Lubetkin, a young Orthodox Jewish woman who is helping her fellow Jews bring about statehood for Israel in 1948; Moshe Sachar; and others. Another character is David Meyer, an American Christian of Jewish descent, but he doesn't make a big deal about his ancestry.

Sometimes Thoene can be patronizing. Listen to Ellie (an American gentile Christian) as she psychoanalyzes Rachel:

"She needs the kind of love that will help her forgive herself. Nobody can make her accept that love, or really even make her believe it exists until she is ready. She still thinks she can make it all up somehow, that she can personally atone for the guilt she feels for being alive when her parents and brothers died ... And only God's love can heal Rachel's heart." .... "Only the Lord can heal her heart. You can't make it all better for her. She and the Lord are going to have to work that out by themselves."

But we're not done with the obnoxious Ellie yet. After saying the blessing for the Shabbat lights, Ellie prays extemporaneously:

"Fill us with love for one another. I pray these things in the name of your son Jesus who died for my sins and the sins of the world. Amen." Ellie raised her eyes to the surprised faces of the old rabbi and Yacov. Luke and Moshe covered their grins with their hands, and David chuckled openly. "Not exactly an ecumenical prayer, Els," David remarked. "A good Shabbat prayer, young lady!" Grandfather exclaimed, silencing David. "So you think the mother of Jesus didn't light the Shabbat candles, David? For a Gentile Christian this is the very best kind of Shabbat prayer. So! I say to that, OMAINE!" [Later, Moshe says the Kiddush and silently ends it "in the name of Jesus the Messiah."] (p. 145).

Why does "Grandfather" seem like a bit of a stereotype to Wandering Jude? Is it just me? And why is he talking about "the great rabbi Jesus"? Listen in....

"Ah, you Christians," chided Grandfather, "You all have forgotten your Jewish heritage! True? Of course true! And so you miss much of what the great rabbi Jesus was speaking of, eh?" "You're right, Shlomo," Howard nodded vigorously. "But you're missing a thing or two as well, you know." (p. 237). The rabbi says, "Don't you know that the first Anglican bishop of Jerusalem was geshmat?" "Hummm," Howard mused thoughtfully. "Is it possibly a Jew who converts to Christianity? A Yiddish word, isn't it?" (p. 238).

More schmaltz:

After Moshe tells Rachel the New Testament story of Jesus and the woman taken in adultery, she says: "How wonderful to have known such a man as this! If only I could have had Him with me at the synagogue last night!" [where she was accused of fornication and harlotry by the ultra orthodox rabbis]. [Moshe responds]: "He was there with you, my love. His eyes are a mirror of mercy and compassion even now. And He longs for every one of His children to see Him and know Him." (p. 327).

Wandering Jude doesn't have much more to say about this. So that's all for now.

Danzig Passage

One of the most prolific Christian writers of our time is Bodie Thoene. Mrs. Thoene has a special concern for Jews and Israel, and many of her books are filled with Jews or Jewish converts to Christianity. We'll start our "study" of Thoene's writings with Danzig Passage, published by the Minneapolis-based Bethany House in 1991.

Many Jews are represented in this book, both Israeli Jews and European Jews. This Holocaust-era novel is part of the Zion Covenant Series.

A representative passage comes on page 276 when Samuel Orde, a gentile Christian, says to Moshe Sachar:

"Your Messiah came through the root of Israel. He says His Covenant is with you forever, for a thousand generations.... I am so grateful for His love and kindness. I really believe that He considers the people of the Covenant His own dear children. Satan desires that the promises God made to the Jewish people be broken, that you also be slaughtered like lambs. No Jews. No Israel. Because then God would be a liar. Should I not be willing then to die for His beloved people?"

Wandering Jude will not comment on this passage except to say that while Orde's commitment to and love for the Jewish people is commendable, and his willingness to die for Jews remarkable, his logic leaves something to be desired. For example, Orde (Thoene) wishes us to believe that:

(1) God (all powerful in Christian theology) made promises to the Jewish people. (WJ points out that actually it wasn't the Jewish people but Abraham who God made promises to, but let's not quibble).
(2) Satan (not all powerful) wants God to break his promises.
(3) Satan (not all powerful) wants to kill the Jews, thereby forcing God to break his promises.

It is clear to anyone with a mind that if God is all powerful and Satan is not, then God will win the war. But the fictional Mr. Orde believes that it might be necessary for him to lose his life (for the purpose of saving Jews) to keep God from losing face with Satan. Somehow WJ thinks there might be a better way.... (but nevertheless still wants to praise Mr. Orde for his love for the Jewish people. There are enough anti-Semites out there that we need some more Jew lovers).

My Servant Caleb: A Jewish Boy, a Gentile Girl, a World at War

In the 19th century, most conversionist novels were published in Great Britain. In the 20th century, most were published in the United States. Today Wandering Jude looks at a 21st century book published in the U.K., which still pales in comparison (in terms of publishing output of stories where Jews convert to Christianity) to its American cousins.

In My Servant Caleb: A Jewish Boy, a Gentile Girl, a World at War, published by Monarch Books in 2004, Kerstin Sheldrake has written the story of a Jewish man (Caleb Levine) and a Christian woman (Lady Celia) who fall in love in England during World War II. In the forward, the author describes the book to be "what [she] believes to be one of the first completely Messianic Jewish novels ever written." According to the blurb on the back cover of this book, Sheldrake is a native of Germany and the wife of a Messianic Rabbi in England.

We are told by the narrator that at some point in the past "Caleb's parents and sisters had converted to Christianity." Caleb remains an observant Jew but bitter toward (though not estranged from) his parents and the Jewish community that ostracized him and his family. Early on in the novel Caleb observes:

"I'm a Jew; I've been brought up in the presence of God; and there has never been any doubt that God exists. Our knowledge of God is hereditary. If it weren't for God's eternal covenant with us and His protection, we would have ceased to exist long ago."

Caleb goes on to say:

"I was the great Rabbi Mendel Levine's favourite grandson, the best loved of nine boys. I could recite the Sh'ma, our holiest declaration of faith, almost before I could say 'Mama' and 'Papa'. I was top of the cheder class and my grasp of Torah was excellent, if I say so myself. Everyone expected me to become a student at a religious school and to prepare for the Rabbinate; that is, to become a Rabbi."

"... the worst crime a Jew can commit is to become a Christian. It means denying our faith, our heritage, our traditions, our people, in fact, our very God... It happened six months before my formal rite of passage to manhood, my Bar Mitzvah. My parents told the family that they had accepted Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah of Israel, that they had converted to Christianity. You can't imagine the explosion it caused." They ended up being excommunicated from not only the rest of the family, but also from the Jewish community in that town, even with a mock funeral."

There is a great deal of British anti-Semitism described in the book, along with German anti-Jewishness that leads to the Holocaust. After many adventures, including marital problems, persecution by British fascists and German Nazis, and fighting in the War of Independence in Palestine, Caleb finally becomes a Christian:

"He asked God to forgive all his sins and shortcomings because of the sacrifical death and blood shed by Yeshua HaMashiach. He acknowledged that he found it unspeakably hard to make this confession, because he had always mocked Yeshua, blasphemed Him, fought Him, referred to Him as his worst personal enemy, and the enemy of all Jews. Then the tears started to stream, endless tears of shame, grief, remorse, and contrition. And his soul crawled to the feet of the One he had once hated and despised.... A lost sheep of the House of Israel had recognized his Shepherd at last."

Wandering Jude speaks: This is not a badly written book, although Caleb's conversion at the end of the story is fairly predictable. It is reminscent in many ways of Bodie Thoene's series of historical fiction, although WJ must admit that there is more emphasis on "remaining a Jew" after conversion than Thoene usually allows. Still, the end of the saga will be disappointing to anyone who wants Caleb to avoid becoming a "Messianic Jew." In this way it is no different than the vast majority of books in this genre.

Leah Wolfe: The Converted Jewess

Wandering Jude returns to the 19th century this month to revisit an author we've encountered already: Elizabeth Wheeler, known by her nom de plume of "E.W." In 1894 she published Leah Wolfe: The Converted Jewess, one of three Jewish conversionist novels by this writer (WJ has already examined the other two in previous postings: The Jewish Converts and The Great Beyond).

The eponymous Leah is the granddaughter of a wealthy German Jewish merchant, Hyam Wolfe, and his wife Sarah. Leah's parents, Rebekah and Benjamin Wolfe, both figure prominently in the novel as well. The basic story is quite simple, really. Benjamin and Rebekah leave Germany for London to open a branch of the family business. While living in London, both Benjamin and Rebekah become Christians (separately), and they are disowned by Hyam Wolfe and kicked out of the family business. This "persecution" for their newfound faith means they must downsize their standard of living and that Benjamin must find a new line of work (which he does, by the good graces of a kindly Christian businessman, a familiar trope in Wheeler's novels).

Daughter Leah (who appears to be in her late teens) also becomes a Christian, and the three Wolfes in London are happy as kosher clams. (They have fortunately found a Bible-believing, Bible-preaching church to attend, with lots of good Christians for fellowship). But old Hyam is having a rough time of it. Not only has his son apostasized, but his daughter in law too, and also his beloved granddaughter. And now he is antsy in retirement, so he foolishly decides to go on a gambling spree (another Wheeler motif) and loses everything (including his estate). Hyam and his wife decide to move to London, where Hyam (at age 70 no less) ekes out a meager living selling jewelry.

By chance one day Hyam and his son Benjamin meet on the road and are reconciled. Three generations of the Wolfe family reunite, and Benjamin, now a successful businessman, provides the means for his parents to live out their days in relative comfort. But Hyam, foolish and stubborn as ever, refuses to accept the Gospel message. He even insists on fasting on Yom Kippur as he lays dying, which of course pushes him into "eternity" that much more quickly. But Benjamin holds out hope that perhaps Hyam might have accepted the Savior in his dying moments.

Benjamin and Rebekah have a son, whose name is George, but they also give him the name "Christian" at the behest of the local Bishop. As time goes by, the grandmother Sarah Wolfe allows her hardened heart to be melted, and she becomes a Christian along with the rest of her family. When she dies a few years later, the author remarks that her burial was a Christian one (not Jewish) and contained no Jewish rituals.

Wandering Jude does not have much to say about this book other than (1) it largely speaks for itself, and (2) it is much like Wheeler's other conversionary novels, which contain large blocks of text devoted to the lyrics of Christian hymns and the theological rants of a Christian evangelist. It's an historical curiosity but not much of a novel if one expects from a novel things like plot and character development. And of course, like most other conversionary stories (especially those written in the 19th century), this one is fairly disrespectful of Jewish tradition, Jewish religion, and Jews in general.

The Vienna Passage

Our latest installment on Jewish conversionary novels (with a hint of romance) was written by David Porter and published by Crossway Books in 1995. The Vienna Passage is a “coming of age” story featuring protagonist Toby Burgate, a young man who is British but goes to Vienna to teach English in 1912. He encounters a different world and different cultures, with many Jewish acquaintances but also a great deal of anti-Semitism.

In the opening chapter, an older Jewish scholar named Solomon Meshrach is acosted and beaten by anti-Semitic ruffians. As is almost always the case in the evangelical novels with Jewish characters, we feel great sympathy for this particular victim of anti-Semitism (and on the other side of the coin, the reader will probably feel disdain for the anti-Semites).

Another Jewish character appears. Lev Beikelman is a Dutch friend of Toby's who is a music student (and who Toby later discovers is Jewish when Toby observes Lev saying the ha-motzi before his meal).

And then we meet yet another Jew: Rachel Guntersheim is a Jewish friend of Frau Onkel, the matriarch of the family who Toby is staying with (which is part of a strict Calvinist sect). At Rachel's home, Frau Onkel:

"let her gaze wander round, picking out the Jewish items; a nine-branched Hanukkah candlestick on the bookshelf, a few ornaments, a star of David embroidered on a wall hanging, and on the door the mezuzah -- the tiny cylinder that held, Rachel had once explained to her, the verses of the Shema Yisrael, the ancient Old Testament prayer to the one God.... After all, Onkel knew all about the Old Testament. It was Onkel who talked knowledgeably to visiting Saints. It was Onkel, indeed, who had recently spoken eloquently at one of the meetings at the Hall on the subject of God's eternal covenant with the Jewish people, now to be inherited by all the Lord's People who Sought to Do His Will... But then Onkel ... did not hate Jews; he simply could not escape the clear scriptural teaching of their complicity in the death of Christ."

But this is Herr Onkel, clearly the villain of the book. Frau Onkel, on the other hand, does not believe this about the Jewish people. She is our heroine to Herr Onkel’s poor, deluded Calvinist anti-Semite.

Our anti-hero Herr Onkel tells Toby that "the Jews, having crucified Christ, were doomed to suffer and be rejected for ever." Just swell, says Wandering Jude.

As Toby meets more Jews, he begins to reevaluate his attitudes toward them, which had been cultivated during his younger years in England. He had always thought of them as chosen by God but also as inferior since they had "crucified Christ."

"... they bore the blood-guilt of the Saviour's death; his blood was on their hands; they had been given a great privilege, and had thrown it away.... Jews were a people with a special need to be saved, who had sinned in a way that other races had not, and were therefore different." "This was an opportunity to witness to an Unbelieving Friend.... He should engage Lev in theological discussion, confront him with the consequences of his halfhearted faith, and lead him to the point where he could make his own Decision for Christ. Lev, Toby knew, needed to be saved, and he, Toby, was the only person around to show him how. And yet there was a simple piety in Lev's voice that stopped him. There was a dimension to Lev's experience of God, even though it fitted no categories that Toby possessed, which Toby could not match. Comparing Lev's straightforward gratitude and rudimentary theology with his own array of biblical learning, devotional vocabulary and mainly secondhand views and opinions, he felt curiously depressed; especially when he realised that his background and spiritual history meant that he belonged in Onkel's camp rather than Lev's. And yet... and yet. He knew, and was not yet prepared to abandon the knowledge, that more was required of Lev than mere gratitude of a benevolent God. He knew that the road to God was narrow, that few found it...."

Toby tries to explain to Herr Onkel why he loves the music of Arnold Schoenberg. But Onkel responds:

"'You are saying that this music talked to your spirit, that it moved your heart.' 'Yes, yes!' he agreed. 'It is a spiritual matter.' ... 'So you are receiving spiritual instructions from a Jew,' he said with loathing, 'Opening your soul to one whose people rejected the Messiah.'"

Herr Onkel turns out to be not just an anti-Semite but a hooligan and vandal, smashing Jews' windows at night and other kinds of terroristic activity. But through it all he was not really a hypocrite because he truly believed he was doing the Lord's work. He ends up being killed by Hans Braun, a Jew who had disguised himself as a Christian and who took part in Onkel's vandalism but later revealed himself to Onkel and murdered him.

The true hero of the story is Sally, Toby's American friend (who he has a crush on), who turns out to be an evangelical but a more moderate one than Toby is used to.

Interesting to note that some real life Viennese Jews inhabit this book, including Alban Berg and Arnold Schoenberg. There are no conversions in this book, except for perhaps Toby who learns much about life and realizes that life is much broader than the strict religious sect that he had grown up in. Unlike most conversionary novels that Wandering Jude discusses in these pages, The Vienna Passage gets a “thumbs up.” While trying hard not to lecture his Christian friends, Wandering Jude wishes that more evangelical works of fiction were as nuanced and tolerant as this one.