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| Raised Jewish, Michigan GOP leadership candidate now says she’s a Messianic Jew |
| 2023-02-10 |
Couldn't she have just pretended to be Black or Native American like everybody else? The local Republican Party organizations need to do a better job of vetting their potential candidates. [IsraelTimes] Lena Epstein, who previously presented herself as Jewish but faced criticism after hosting Messianic ’rabbi,’ admits she has been baptized ’into the Christian faith’A US candidate for chair of the Michigan Republican Party who faced criticism after inviting a Messianic "rabbi" to offer a prayer for the victims of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in 2018 has now announced that she is a "Jewish Messianic believer of Christ." Lena Epstein, who was raised Jewish, made the comments Tuesday at a candidate forum hosted by the conservative group Ottawa County Patriots at a Baptist church in Holland, Michigan. She said her running mate for party co-chair, Pastor Donald Eason of Metro Church of Christ in Sterling Heights, Michigan, was the one who had "baptized me into the Christian faith." |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #10 I’m glad you weren’t disowned, dear Super Hose. Before the war, my mother’s family in Germany was split between Jews and Lutherans, and while they separated for worship, within the family no differentiation was made. When my mother took the trailing daughters and me to help her celebrate the English translation of her mother’s war memoir we met up with a number of the non-Jewish relatives who had remained afterward — themselves half or a quarter Jewish by blood, thought not by faith, and no less our relations because of it. I find all cultures interesting. The different ways people think about the things they do! |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2023-02-10 23:59 |
| #9 Trailing Wife, I understand the concept. I expected to disowned by a couple of family members but I was not. My grandmother did use the slur “mackerel snapper,” but with love. Pretty good for a NH Yankee who considered Boston Irish Catholics to be riff raff. I also saw a Catholic friend break down in tears because his sister married a Mormon and was “lost.” Jewish culture is very interesting. My mother has had me take her to the Maltz Museum in Beechwood a couple of months ago. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2023-02-10 23:46 |
| #8 told me that he was a "Atheist Socialist Jew". The Enlightenment philosopher Baruch Spinoza was drummed out of the Amsterdam Jewish community during the 17th century — twice — for atheism, magpie, one of many precedents on the subject. But Israel still accepts them as Jews so long as they haven’t converted to another religion like Christianity or Islam, as we saw with the Soviet Jewish exodus a generation ago. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2023-02-10 23:11 |
| #7 A former friend (he got radicalized in the Obama election) told me that he was a "Atheist Socialist Jew". To my thought you can not be a Jew and an Atheist but he was adamant about clinging to the minority status... |
| Posted by: magpie 2023-02-10 18:51 |
| #6 The only fealty we owe our DNA is to get the genetically predisposed traits and diseases. Religion you must carry in your heart, not wear on your sleeve. In the day-to-day, it's no more anyone else's business than your bank balance, ballot choices or sexual preferences. But lots of people have to get up on a soap box and peddle it on every street corner. At that degree of cheapened trade, it's not much of a faith, whatever faith it might be. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2023-02-10 13:58 |
| #5 I remain of Irish decent. The thing is that Judaism is a religion as well as an ethnicity, Super Hose. Once you turn away from the religion by converting to something else — as Jews for Jesus and Messianic Jews do by being baptised into Christianity — you no longer are counted among the Jews despite your DNA. This is where it differs from Christianity and Islam, which separate belief from community identity. We have 2500 years of Jews converting to the dominant religion and melting into the local population, turning their backs on their Jewish relations. Ms Epstein is clearly aware of this, which is why she obfuscated her situation, and why the local Jewish community objected to her self-identification. The fact is, she could have appealed to Jewish voters by being sympathetic to their needs, without pretending. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2023-02-10 13:50 |
| #4 Conversely International Fellowship of Christians and Jews |
| Posted by: Thruter Gloluger6393 2023-02-10 13:25 |
| #3 Everything is controversial and a potential deal breaker now, as long as you are not a (D). |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2023-02-10 13:23 |
| #2 Jews For Jesus |
| Posted by: Thruter Gloluger6393 2023-02-10 13:21 |
| #1 This is odd to me. I am of Irish decent. My family is Protestant but I converted to Catholicism as a gift to my wife. I remain of Irish decent. To my understanding, the people that have persecuted Jews throughout the centuries have rarely been concerned with their worship practices. I am told that criticizing George Soros, who, I assume, doesn’t practice his faith, is anti-Semitic. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2023-02-10 12:43 |