Why Many Jewish Believers in Jesus Feel Increasingly Alienated

Since then, news of the decision has travelled rapidly around the world, prompting a wide range of reactions within Christian and Jewish communities, as well as across social media and the wider press. Among many within the Jewish community, the decision has caused genuine concern. At a time when antisemitism has risen dramatically across the world following the atrocities of 7 October 2023, many have questioned why the Church of England has chosen to engage so closely with documents whose historical claims and theological conclusions are widely contested and which advocate excluding certain voices from meaningful dialogue.

Several people have asked me how I personally feel about the Synod’s decision.

Was I shocked? Sadly, not particularly.

The history of the Church contains too many examples of misunderstanding Judaism, overlooking the continuing place of the Jewish people within God’s redemptive purposes, and using language that has contributed—whether intentionally or unintentionally—to Jewish alienation.

Was I disappointed? Very much so.

As someone who has spent many years serving within the Church of England, I find the outcome deeply saddening.

Together with Rodney and Elisheva Mechanic, I have the privilege of co-leading CMJ Asaph, an initiative of CMJ UK (Church’s Ministry Among Jewish People), one of the Church of England’s recognised mission agencies. Asaph exists to encourage and pastor Jewish and Jewish-background disciples of Yeshua (Jesus), helping them to flourish within the wider Body of Christ while remaining faithful to their Jewish identity.

When we established Asaph two years ago, we quickly discovered how great the need was for such a ministry. Following the atrocities of 7 October 2023, the ensuing war between Hamas and Israel, and the alarming rise in antisemitism across the world, that need became even more apparent.

Week after week we have listened to Jewish believers who increasingly feel isolated within their own churches. Some have experienced insensitive or deeply hurtful comments from fellow Christians. Others have spoken of the loneliness of hearing complex events in Israel and the Palestinian Territories reduced to simplistic political narratives, sometimes accompanied by theological assumptions that leave little room for recognising the continuing identity, history and concerns of the Jewish people.

Rodney, Elisheva and I have witnessed first-hand how these experiences affect faithful Jewish disciples of Jesus. We have also shared in many of those experiences ourselves. Increasingly, we find ourselves asking whether the voices of Jewish believers are being heard with the same attentiveness as others.

Asaph has deliberately avoided becoming a political forum. Our purpose has always been to strengthen Jewish believers in their identity in the Messiah and to help them contribute confidently to the life of the Church. Our monthly online gatherings have explored subjects including:

• the biblical meaning of blessing and its significance in Jewish life;

• the Intertestamental Literature and its importance for understanding the New Testament;

• the biblical festivals and the ways in which they continue to illuminate the life of disciples of Yeshua today.

Our aim is not to separate Jewish believers from the wider Church but to help them enrich it by bringing the treasures of their biblical heritage into the life of Christian fellowship.

Yet Asaph is much more than a monthly Bible study. It is a pastoral family.

When Hatzolah ambulances were destroyed in an arson attack in Golders Green, one of our members was deeply distressed because her sister had to be evacuated from her home. Another member, joining us regularly from Australia, witnessed the aftermath of the Hanukkah attack near Bondi Beach. Others have children, parents, siblings and close friends living in Israel who endure the daily uncertainty of missile attacks, terrorism and war.

These are not distant political debates. They are the lived experiences of members of our Christian family.

Immediately after the attacks of 7 October 2023, I contacted many of my closest Jewish friends simply to ask how they were coping. Around half personally knew someone who had been murdered, kidnapped or seriously injured.

Rodney, Elisheva and I have often reflected that many Jewish believers quietly wonder whether the Church has shown the same pastoral concern towards them that it has rightly shown towards others affected by this conflict.

At the same time, we also have close Arab Christian friends living in Israel, within the Palestinian Authority and in Gaza. Their suffering grieves us deeply. They too are our brothers and sisters in the Messiah, and we pray for them, support them and long for peace, justice and security for their communities.

Our concern is not that one group should be heard instead of another. Our concern is that every voice should be heard.

Faithfulness to Yeshua calls us beyond simplistic partisanship. The Gospel invites us to pursue justice with mercy, truth with humility, and reconciliation without excluding those whose experiences differ from our own.

It is therefore painful to read in Kairos Palestine II an explicit rejection of Zionism together with a call to boycott dialogue with Zionist voices. The document describes Zionism as a “supremacist settler-colonial movement” and calls for its repudiation.

For many Jewish believers, whatever their individual political views concerning the modern State of Israel or any particular government, such language dismisses an important aspect of contemporary Jewish identity and risks excluding Jewish perspectives from the conversation before they have even been heard.

This brings us to an important question: what does it actually mean for the General Synod to hear Palestinian Christian voices?

The Hebrew word closest to our English word “hear” is shema. It means far more than simply listening. It carries the sense of attentive listening, understanding, taking seriously, weighing carefully, allowing what is heard to shape our thinking, and responding appropriately. It is the word used in Israel’s great confession of faith:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. (Deut 6.4)

To hear in the biblical sense is to listen with humility and openness.

If the Church of England wishes to hear Palestinian Christians—and we believe it should—then it must also hear Jewish believers, Messianic Jews, Israeli Christians, Arab Christians and others whose lives reflect the profound complexity of the land we all love and pray for.

Only by listening to the whole Body of Christ can the Church hope to become a credible instrument of reconciliation.

Rodney, Elisheva and I remain deeply committed to the Church of England and to its calling to bear faithful witness to Jesus Christ. Yet we cannot ignore the growing number of Jewish believers who tell us that they feel increasingly hurt, overlooked and, at times, alienated by what they perceive to be a one-sided approach to the Israel–Palestinian conflict.

Our prayer is not that one narrative should replace another, but that the Church should become a place where every member of Christ’s Body is listened to with equal care, where difficult conversations can take place with grace and truth, and where Jewish and Arab believers alike know that they are valued, loved and heard.

Surely this reflects the reconciling ministry entrusted to us by the Messiah, who “is our peace” and who has broken down every dividing wall of hostility, creating “one new humanity” in himself (Ephesians 2:14–16).

That is the vision to which we remain committed, and which we long to see reflected in the life of the Church.