Called to Controversy (34 page)

Once they landed in Marin, the summer passed quickly. Lyn went off to college. Before long, Lana and Paul Bryant were engaged. (Paul had a house ministry in San Anselmo.) Terry went back to Philadelphia to finish high school. Pat found a job, and she and Marcia rented an apartment in Mill Valley. Vicky found a place to settle in as well. Moishe continued handing out his broadside tracts with Marcia and the close-in volunteers. He began teaching a weekly Bible study in Berkeley in conjunction with the CWLF.

He said,

Different people came alongside from time to time. The first that really “stuck,” other than the people who made the trip out with me, was Mitch Glaser whom I met on December 31, 1970. Through Mitch, I met Baruch Goldstein, Jhan Moskowitz, and others.

Mitch was part of the Jewish counterculture that Moishe felt he was called to reach. A fairly new Jewish believer in Jesus from New York, he'd been sitting by the water in Sausalito, asking God what he was supposed to do next. When a piece of paper drifted up, he pulled it from the water. It was a gospel tract . . . and it had Moishe Rosen's name and address on it.

Mitch accordingly showed up on the Rosen's doorstep. Ceil answered the door, and told him that “everyone” (Moishe, Lyn, and Ruth) was in the backyard. Lyn, who was home from college for winter break assumed that Mitch was one of her father's interesting new friends, and Moishe assumed he was one of Lyn's friends.

At some point, Mitch asked Moishe what it was that he was supposed to do. Somewhat surprised, Moishe replied, “Why are you asking me?” Then Mitch explained about the tract on the water and Moishe realized that his family had been entertaining—or failing to entertain—a stranger.

Meeting Mitch and his friends was a turning point for Moishe. They all had an eagerness to tell others about their new faith. They were talented, smart and determined—and most of them were from New York. Then there was Steffi, mentioned at the beginning of this chapter. Like many of the others, she was from the Bronx. In January, 1971 she came to one of the Berkeley Bible studies that Moishe was teaching, and weeks later, came to believe in Jesus. Susan Perlman, a Jewish believer from Brooklyn, had experience with writing, drama, and media and had a way of “getting the job done.”

Stuart Dauermann, whom Moishe had met in New York, left the East Coast to be part of what was now becoming a movement in its own right. Stuart brought musical genius to the group, a brilliant mind and, like several in the group, a rather cutting sense of humor. Sam Nadler was yet another highly intelligent, creative Jewish hippie from New York who was now seriously “into Jesus.” Moishe had said that he was coming to San Francisco to learn how to reach Jewish people in New York, and it seemed as though half of New York had moved to San Francisco!

Miriam finished her year in Israel, came out to visit, and liked what she saw. She recalled,

There was lots of energy and excitement so when Moishe invited me to move out and be a part of what was happening I felt . . . that it was definitely the right move for me to make.

. . . I was handed a phone, given part of a desk to use in what I remember to be a pretty crowded and bustling office, and told by Moishe to “start calling churches and make meetings for the music group.” I think this was sort of the beginning of the church ministries department. It . . . seemed there were new believers everywhere, new songs being written, performed, and recorded, new tracts being written, [and] outreach constantly.

Tuvya Zaretsky was another of the “originals.” He was a Jewish believer from Northern California, whom Miriam had met in Israel. Still in Israel, he had exchanged letters with Moishe and asked whether Moishe had a job for him if he returned to the States:

He wrote back and explained that he couldn't employ me, but I was welcome to have meals at his house, [and] sleep on his floor until I could find a place to live and secure a job. However, right in line with his priorities, he added “All I have to offer you is an opportunity to serve the Lord.”

I finally did return to the United States in the fall of 1972. He struck me as incredibly thoughtful, intense when engaged in conversation but with enough mirth and mischief about him to keep you on your toes.

He was true to his word. That fall in 1972 I slept on the floor of his living room for a few nights and shared meals off and on with his family, until I found an apartment of my own and the means by which to support myself. He also made good on the promise to give me an opportunity to serve Jesus.

The group was certainly not limited to East Coasters. Moishe met Amy Rabinovitz, a Jewish believer who was working for Campus Crusade, at a Christian rally in Dallas. Amy was a talented writer and organizer, eager to use her skills for the cause of Jewish evangelism.

While this is a biography of Moishe Rosen and not a history of Jews for Jesus, it is impossible to discuss the one without the other. Moishe's life and identity were inseparable from the birth of Jews for Jesus. The two books already written on the history of Jews for Jesus
*
describe the early group as a tribe, not an organization. There was a great sense of belonging; though the people came from diverse backgrounds, there was a common purpose that helped to forge a common culture. Moishe did not see himself as the creator of that culture. He saw the talent and the determination of many young people who had more or less gathered around him, and he did his best to pull the personalities and the talent together and keep the group on track, whether they were working hard or playing hard, and sometimes it was difficult to determine which was which.

Amy Rabinovitz observed,

As far as I knew, Moishe's idea of fun was a great idea—executed well. He set incredibly high standards for how to nurture a good idea, and I think it is one of the things I took with me when I left [Jews for Jesus]. . . . He definitely looked for ways to make communication interesting and in that I think he broke the mold of what was happening in Jewish missions. In retrospect, if I were to gauge his style, it would be more Bill Gates than Steve Jobs. Jobs was an inventor, creating his vision. Gates saw what Jobs was doing and looked for ways to take it to a wider audience, to shake up what existed. This Jesus people movement was already happening—Moishe recognized the importance of it and looked for ways to shake up Jewish missions and utilize what he knew to reach a wider audience.

I remember Moishe as a person who took a lot of delight in discovery . . . little things like an odd fact or a new restaurant . . . and an equal amount of delight in sharing those things with others. I also remember that delight disappearing as he struggled to build the organization.

Anyway . . . he discovered a very good restaurant . . . Swiss, French, something like that . . . and he took a copy of their menu, put a $20 bill with it (plenty for dinner for 2 in those days at that restaurant), and gave it to someone else in the group. Whoever went to the restaurant did the same thing and so on and so forth. Pretty soon all of us had been there to eat. Because of the way we had done it, we each had our own experience, but it was a group experience also.

Tuvya Zaretsky had similar recollections:

I think Moishe found learning to be a form of recreation. He seemed to take such delight in hearing about an experience or discussing a thought with other people. That wouldn't be everyone's form of recreation, but he wasn't exactly a skier. . . .

I was always amazed at the sense of humor that Moishe evidenced in his lessons and messages. It came so naturally. The style of humor was self-effacing, wry, and often with deep irony. He would use hyperbole and understatement as a form of humor. He seemed to pull it off naturally. I don't remember him telling jokes. His humor seemed to be knit right into the fabric of life and the rest of his ministry.

No doubt there is material enough to fill an entire book of other people's impressions of Moishe.
*
And there were certainly many more who were part of those early days. Suffice it to say, all whose names have been mentioned in this chapter were at the core of the living, breathing, sometimes quarreling community that became Jews for Jesus. Each of these people was significant to Moishe, and many remained so throughout his life.

It would be difficult to overstate what a diverse, headstrong, talented, bright, and altogether unlikely group this was. Moishe had no doubt that God had called them together for a purpose: to let the world know that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, and that no Jew ought to be ashamed to follow him. They were unconventional people, following an unconventional leader, to perform an unconventional task.

Ceil recalled,

Moishe was very comfortable with these young people. He related to them very well and liked to discuss philosophy. He could sit on the floor and talk to them—something he couldn't do in a suit and tie in New York. He enjoyed it. I think he felt liberated to do what he knew how to do best, which was evangelism.

It took Ceil a little time before she felt comfortable with this crowd of hippie believers, who, at first, seemed very strange to her:

Moishe explained some of their thinking to help me understand. I didn't run away from them, but they were not
exactly
the kind of people I would have chosen to relate to. But I learned rather easily that they were nice people.

Though Ceil came to value the people who had become such a major part of Moishe's world, she would have preferred a life in which Moishe's time in ministry was more clearly delineated from his free time or time with family. She explained,

It was like he was living, eating, breathing Jews for Jesus all the time. I let him know that I didn't like it. He let me know it wasn't going to change. So it was an impasse. But then you go on.

I felt that whatever he was doing was what God wanted him to do—and one thing I had decided early and never went back on was that I would never interfere with his talking to people about the Lord. So whatever that entailed—and there were a lot of people he had to talk to once we went to San Francisco—had to be okay by me. . . .

He had this much respect for me that he never tried to make me do anything. But then on the other hand, I was not to make him do things either. So, I think we both knew our limits.

There was a bit more delineation (though not much) between home and work once Moishe set up his first office in Corte Madera. One room was Moishe's office/library, and the other room served as space for the weekly Bible studies, staff meetings, and day-to-day operations.

All of this activity was still under the auspices of the ABMJ, where it was referred to as “the project” or “Rosen's project” and for a while “the Jews for Jesus branch in San Francisco.” It was a truly wonderful time for Moishe, who later said,

The three years before Jews for Jesus became an independent mission were a very happy time for me. I was delighted with the young people I was meeting and influencing, and we were finding courage to try things that other people couldn't do.

And toward the beginning, Daniel Fuchs was very happy with the work we were doing . . . and said it was the best work that was being done in the mission. And I was glad that he was happy. I always liked Daniel Fuchs.

When Dr. Fuchs came to visit, Moishe took him to Berkeley where Daniel observed him handing out broadside tracts to a crowd of protesters. Moishe knew by then how to be in the right place at the right time, how to avoid being stuck in the ensuing “riot,” and when and where to exit. Daniel had a front row seat, so to speak, to some of the current events things he'd been reading about and seeing on the news.

It was not only success in the work and his boss's approbation, but the relationships and group dynamic that made this such a memorable time in Moishe's life. He recalled,

Even though we worked hard, we did a lot of playing. Some of it was mischievous. We pulled pranks on one another. In those early days, the relationship was not a professional relationship. We were a family in the best sense of that word. We looked out for each other; we provided for each other. If somebody needed money, we all worked together. Just getting together—even Bible studies—there were constant jokes and laughing and having fun with one another, and I miss that.

Often I would say, “We take God seriously, but we don't take ourselves too seriously.” But we did our work, and nobody had to remind us to be serious about getting out the gospel.

Certainly there were days that were ordinary. But for the most part, the 1970s were packed with adventures for Moishe and the people involved in the Jews for Jesus project.

*
The opening section is based on pages 11–13 of the book
Jews for Jesus
, by Moishe Rosen with William Proctor, published by Fleming Revell in 1974.

*
Jews for Jesus
, previously mentioned, and
Not Ashamed: the Story of Jews for Jesus
, by Ruth Tucker published by Multnomah Publishers.

*
A couple of the original Jews for Jesus mentioned in this chapter preferred not to contribute to the research for this book, and others were not contacted. This does not diminish their importance to Moishe or to the early days of Jews for Jesus.

TWENTY-THREE

I could not get people to do things because of their devotion to me. What they did, they did because of their devotion to God. I was only showing them a path that they could take.