Letter: Is it theologically possible for a Jew to be a Christian?

Sir: Margaret Hebblethwaite's letter (4 April) in support of Jewish Christians greatly cheered me. I have thought for some years that the Council for Christians and Jews would be more accurately named 'Council for Gentile Christians and Jews'. It seems without any sensitivity towards those, like myself, who are proud both to be a Jew and to profess the Christian faith. I wish my fellow Jews were better understood and respected by Gentile Christians, and I do not myself belong to Jews for Jesus: indeed, after the Holocaust, I believe that the only effective evangelism is, paradoxically, disinterested Christian love.

Any form of anti-Semitism is obscene, and any body that aims to denounce and prevent this is to be applauded. But we never hear anything from the council about the hate mail that Jewish Christians can receive from their fellow Jews. For example, I received such a letter last week which began: 'It is sad that I have to direct my anger (against historic Christian brutality towards Jews) towards a fellow Jew, but you have chosen to sit among them.'

If the so-called Council for Christians and Jews were the official organ of both faiths, we Jewish Christians would appear to be unwanted by either.

Yours faithfully,

HUGH MONTEFIORE

London, SW17