News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) The Sanhedrin organization called Thursday to reject groups and individuals calling themselves Jewish who promote Christian belief as a part of Jewish identity.  Individuals professing a belief in Christian theology have left the Jewish faith and become apostates, even if they continue to identify as Jewish, the group said. 

Such individuals should not be allowed to enlist in the IDF or participate in activities on behalf of the Jewish people or the Jewish state, they said, because their goal is usually to convince other Jews to accept the Christian faith.  Members of the Sanhedrin said non-Jews, including Christians who identify themselves as Christian and not Jewish, should be allowed to act on behalf of the Jews or the Jewish state if they so wish, because they are not falsely representing themselves or attempting to convert Jews away from their faith.

The ruling came as part of the controversy over this year’s annual Bible quiz.  One of the teens who participated in the competition belongs to a family of “Messianic Jews”—Jews who accept Christian beliefs but insist that such beliefs are actually Jewish.