Abstract
Since the early days of Christianity, it was generally accepted that a person could be either a Jew or a Christian, but not both. This, however, changed in the late nineteenth century. Yitzhak Leib Josowitz was a young Jew who studied at Hungary’s top yeshivas and ordained as a rabbi. Shortly after settling in New York in 1892, he converted, ordained a priest, changed his name to Leopold Cohn, and became a missionary. Cohn promoted a relatively new missionary approach which encouraged Jews to retain their identity and traditions, but also to adopt Jesus as their messiah. This, he claimed, would not only make them better Jews, but would also win them a higher spiritual status than people who were born Christians. Cohn also convinced many Christians to donate to his mission, which he called The Chosen People. After his death in 1937 Leopold was succeeded by his son Joseph, who greatly expanded the mission’s outreach. In time the missionary approach Cohn developed was adopted by other missions and became known as Messianic Judaism. Today, the dozens of messianic missions have millions of members and one of the most active ones is Cohn’s Chosen People which continue its operation more than 125 years after its establishment.
Highlights
Jews have settled in America since the early seventeenth century, the protestant church began to evangelize them only in 1816
In time the missionary approach Cohn developed was adopted by other missions and became known as Messianic Judaism
Another missionary in that period to promote the concept of Messianic Judaism was Arno C
Summary
Jews have settled in America since the early seventeenth century, the protestant church began to evangelize them only in 1816. Protestant missions in England and Scotland no longer sought to fully convert the Jews, but rather encouraged them to preserve their Jewish identity while at the same time accepting Jesus Christ as their savior and the New Testament as their additional Bible These converts were known initially as Christian Jews and this type of mission was later known as Messianic Judaism. In America, since the late nineteenth century Messianic Judaism has become the leading type of mission to the Jews (Sobel 1974; Cohn-Sherbok 2000). Today, these messianic missions have millions of members worldwide, including several tens of thousands of Jews. The fact that Cohn’s mission survived for such a long time demonstrates that the virtue of his ideas surpassed the long-forgotten blemishes of his questionable personality
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