Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 40, No. 6, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 6, 1986 Page: 3 of 18
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Israel And Hie Jews. . .We Think
“I think force is the only way that Israel
can survive. Her enemies don’t respond to
anything else. Arafat doesn’t under-
stand diplomacy or negotiation. He is a
killer by nature, and he’s a liar. If you
decide you’re going to do business with
him, you’re going to lose. The only thing
he understands is brute force.”
Falwell said that his hard stand for
force against Israel’s enemies is by no
means anti-Christian. He said that just
because a Christian forgives and forgets in
personal relationships doesn’t mean that
he’ll “let a thief break into his home with a
weapon to injure his family and steal his
property and then turn his cheek. It
means he stops him.”
Some of Falwell’s critics have accused
him of supporting the U.S. sale of AWACS
electronic surveillance aircraft to the
Saudis. Falwell refuted that criticism and
openly called the decision “a mistake. I
have not heard any of the Saudis come out
for Israel’s right to exist. If anything, I
think those planes could be used against
Israel, and that’s what I’m concerned
about. ”
On the same front, Falwell and his
Moral Majority have been accused of
contributing monies to be used against
liberal, pro-Israel American politicians
seeking re-election. These politicans
include Senators Frank Church of Idaho,
Birch Bayh of Indiana and Dick Clark of
lowa, all of whom were defeated.
“I’ve heard this time and time again,”
Falwell said. “But we did not have any
kind of hit list, and we did not instruct
anyone in the Moral Majority to vote for
anyone. I have read in the press that
people feel we bankrolled these elections
and got out the vote as some sort of covert
anti-Israel campaign. There is nothing
further from the truth.
“Christianity and Israel are insep-
arably connected. When Israel became a
state in 1948, it became a fulfillment of Old
and New Testament prophecy in which
Jesus predicted the budding of the fig
tree. We know that fig tree to be Israel.
And we believe that God deals with
nations in relation to how they deal with
Israel. Israel is a miracle, and that is why
we Christians support it so staunchly.
There is no other way.”
Still, Falwell worries Jews. Many
simply don’t trust him. They’re sure he’s
out to Christianize America.
“I think when it comes to the political
and secular realm of Falwell, there’s a
clearly identifiable common interest
between his interests and interests that
are beneficial to the Jewish community at
large,” said an Orthodox Jew who is a
Baltimore attorney conservatively active
in politics. “For example, he’s a strong
supporter of Israel, a strong national
defense, a strong economic policy and free
enterprise. Many of his social posi-
tions are probably similar to positions
consistent with Orthodox Jews.
“But,” he continued, “there’s a
legitimate fear of his strong religious
fundamentalist views and a concern that
some of his followers who aren’t as
principled or as intelligent as he may be
harboring anti-Semitic feelings. This may
be true to some extent, and it’s something
for the Jewish community to be concerned
about.”
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein is an Ortho-
dox rabbi based in Chicago and is
nationally known as the president of the
Holyland Fellowship of Christians and
Jews, an organization that seeks
cooperation and discussion of sensitive
issues among Christian and Jews. Some of
those issues include the fundamentalist
Christian movement, proselytizing among
Jews and the role of Messianic Jewish
movements.
With regard to Falwell, Rabbi Eckstein
has a strong track record. Indeed, Falwell
has spoken at his Chacog synagogue, and
Rabbi Eckstein probably has a more
sensitive finger on the pulse of the
Christian right than any other Jew in the
land.
“Falwell is a lightning rod for Jewish
criticism and at times unfairly so,”
Eckstein said. “The company line is that
he’s a symbol of those who are trying to
Christianize America. Jewish fears and
anxieties on this question tend to latch on
to him, partly because of the media
attention he’s gotten.
“People like Falwell have evolved into
symbols in this country,” Eckstein added.
“In the last election, I heard people looked
at the election as more of a choice between
Jerry Falwell and Jesse Jackson than
Walter Mondale and Ronald Reagan.
Falwell doesn’t command the broadbased
Christian support people give him. I think
that of the various Christian figures in the
news, he’s come most to the left of center.
He’s shifted as a result of public exposure.
By getting people in dialogue, you’ll see
them shift to the left, and I believe that
happened to Falwell. His left is still to the
right, but there are a lot of other Christian
fundamentalist leaders with a greater
following who could turn against us unless
we give them the opportunity to interact
with us and hear our concerns.
I think as right wing as he is, Falwell is
extremely sensitive to Jewish thought.”
Eckstein pointed to Falwell’s speech
last year to the Conservative Rabbinic
Assembly. It was an apology for any
reference he might have made to the
“Christianization of America.”
“The term Christian nation is somewhat
unfair as applied to Falwell,” Eckstein
said. “Falwell has become sophisticated
enough to know not to talk in those terms.
On the other hand he espouses a conser-
vative position on a variety of issues such
as the role of religion on public policy, and
that is something we have to contend
with. He wants to moralize America, not
necessarily Christianize it.”
Make no mistake about it, though,
Falwell is in favor of missionizing to
non-believers in Christ, whether they are
Jewish or unsaved Gentiles. He believes
that Jews and Israel will take more of a
role in the return of Jesus. In Jerry
Falwell and The Jews, Falwell said that
the Messiah that is looked for by both
Jews and Jesus are one in the same.
“Here’s another area where we really
take it in the neck,” Falwell comment-
ed. “Because of our religious views some
people say that we are therefore anti-
everybody who disagrees with us. It is the
Christian message that Jesus said, ‘I am
the truth and the life.’ We teach that and
preach that and believe that. I don’t know
of any credible Christian minister who
doesn’t believe in the sincereity of other
persons who disagree with him or wish
any one ill or who are against anyone for
that disagreement. I believe that a Jew is
just as sincere in what he believes as I am.
And for that reason I can only say that as
a Christian, salvation is entered through
the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
At the time I’m aware that the Orthodox
rabbi feels that my savior never came. We
have separate beliefs but similar
convictions. But our Christian conviction
also says that Jews and Gentiles who die
without Jesus are lost.” Judaism, he said,
is therefore an incomplete religion. This is
where the missionizing to the Jews comes
in. But Falwell insisted that he wasn’t
behind any effort to target the Jews.
“I don’t think there’s any Biblical
commission for the Christian to target
anyone,” Falwell said. ‘The commission is
‘go ye through all the world and preach
the gospel to every creature.’ I share my
faith with whoever I’m with. I think
there’s a difference between sharing your
|aith or communicating what you believe
in and buttonholing people, and I think
"It'S as ridiculous
to assume that
America can be
Christianized as
to believe that it
can be ludaized.
America is a melt-
ing potand
while the country
is predominantly
Judeo-Christian,
there is also room
for Moslem,
Hindu and even
atheists
— Jerry Falwell
that’s the obnoxious part of any faith
where Christians are told by an author-
ity to do something or else.”
But while he denies targeting the Jews
for missionary work, his name is listed on
the advisory board of the American Board
of Missions to the Jews, a broad-
based Christian evangelical organization.
Rabbi Eckstein minimizes this, saying
that Falwell’s name is probably on many
different religious “advisory boards,”
without his taking a direct role in the
organization.
mostly because of his church and state
beliefs.”
“The First Amendment says Congress
shall make no law respecting the
establishment of religion or prohibiting
the free exercise thereof,” Falwell said.
“The establishment clause says we shall
never have the Church of England or
Roman Catholic or Baptist Church as the
state church. That’s all it says. The free
exercise clause says that Congress shall
never make any law telling people whom
they may worship or how they may
worship. There is not a word in the
Constitution prohibiting religious Ameri-
cans, clergy or leity to participate in their
government. When you consider that
more than three quarters of the American
people are religious people, to exclude
them would be to exclude the majority of
people from political involvement. You
never hear of anyone putting down a
minister for being involved in political
affairs if that minister is liberal. The only
time you hear the violation of church and
state rhetoric is when someone comes out
in support of the State of Israel who is a
minister or who is in support of the
Judeo-Christian ethic. To me that is hypo-
crisy and I refuse to accept it.”
It’s not hard to guess where Falwell
stands on issues such as abortion, ERA,
tuition tax credits and prayer in school.
Perhaps the flagship of all his beliefs is the
Moral Majority. To be a member you have
to be pro-life, pro-traditional family,
pro-moral and pro-American, according to
Falwell. It is not a religious organi-
zation, he insisted, it’s a political coalition
with Jews among its 6.5 million members.
For many, the Moral Majority’s mere
existence was evidence enough of
Falwell’s desire to Christianize America.
Again, Falwell denied that this was his
intent or the Moral Majority’s intent.
“It’s as ridiculous to assume that
America can be Christianized as to believe
that it can be Judaized,” he said. America
is a melting pot, and while the country is
predominantly Judeo-Christian, there is
also room for Moslem, Hindu and even
athiests.
“As a Christian, I obviously believe that
the great commission to the Christian
Church is to evangelize the world. I
believe that I have a responsibility to
attempt to share the gospel of Jesus with
every person in my generation. How-
ever, there is no Biblical basis for
believing that the majority of the
population of this nation or any nation at
any time in history will ever be Christian.
The future of the American Jewish com-
munity is going to be very strong.
“I believe his support for the Jewish
community is unconditional,” Eckstein
said. “I don’t think his support is
continegent on Jewish conversion to
Christianity. I believe his support stems
from his taking the Bible very seriously
and literally. He feels that one of the only
reasons America has been blessed as a
free country is that it has been good to its
Jewish citizens.
“If you scratched any evangelical hard
enough, they’d want all Jews to come to
accept Jesus,” Echstein added. “Jerry
Falwell once said at my synagogue on my
bima that while you can’t ask him to give
up general missionizing and evangelizing,
he is opposed to targeted missions like
Jews for Jesus. Jews have got to defend
the right of the evangelicals to evangelize.
For us to ask them to stop is to ask them
to stop being authentically Christian. We
don’t mind their dialogue, but we just
don’t want to be bopped over the head
with it. There are Jews who distrust him,
but there are surprisingly many Jews who
support him. Those who oppose him do so
“I think misguided Jewish leaders are
literally tripping over themselves to meet
a totalitarian monster,” said Larry Levey,
director of Jews for Judaism, tbe
Baltimore-based anti-missionary organi-
zation. “I think they’ve been short
sighted. Falwell’s demonstrated a lack of
respect for the Jewish faith, and a lack of
regard for the tolerance that we’ve
championed. The Israel dreamed of by
Falwell is not our Israel.”
“Falwell always makes me feel like I’m
a guest in America,” said Rabbi Donald
Berlin of Oheb Shalom. Interestingly,
Berlin has been acquainted with Falwell
since the local rabbi held a pulpit in
nearby Roanoke, Va. “I think I’ve always
been cautious about his stand on Israel.
He’s got the support of millions of people,
so he’s got power. But the degree to which
he wants to play with the U.S.
Constitution concerns me.”
If you ask Falwell why he is so
“misunderstood” by the Jewish commun-
See Jerry Page 19
PAGE 3 THURSDAY, February 6, 1986 TEXAS JEWISH POST
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Wisch, J. A. & Wisch, Rene. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 40, No. 6, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 6, 1986, newspaper, February 6, 1986; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth753479/m1/3/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .