Called to Controversy—Rosen

Called to Controversy:
The Unlikely story of Moishe Rosen and the founding of Jews for Jesus

Thomas Nelson: 2012, 307pp

“Christ-lover” was the worst insinuation Moishe’s uncle could use to discredit him. To believe in Jesus as the Messiah was to be a traitor to one’s Jewishness. But once Moishe believed he never turned back. When he prayed for God to send a modern-day Paul to bring the Gospel to contemporary Jews, God’s answer was to call Moishe to full-time ministry. His daughter here details the circumstances surrounding his upbringing in a cynical but loyal Jewish home, his conversion to Christianity, his marriage and schooling and then the years of ministry with ABMJ (American Board of Missions to the Jews) which both prepared and propelled him to found “Jews for Jesus” in the early 70’s. His innovative strategies revolutionized Jewish evangelism and what started as a radical independent group of free-thinkers geared to reaching the Jewish hippie subculture of the 60’s and 70’s has grown to become a well-respected international organization committed to introducing Jews to Jesus.

Moishe was an opinionated visionary with a passion that inevitably polarized not only his target audience, but those who ministered with him. Delicately his daughter writes from multiple points of view to give a balanced perspective of Moishe’s strengths and weaknesses. While his life story compels the reader to acknowledge that God uses flawed people, it also inspires and challenges. There is clearly also an agenda here to make peace with those who were rubbed the wrong way by Moishe’s personality and leadership style. The attendant details are often lengthened beyond the average reader’s interest but that is no reason to miss this remarkable story of a man with a single-minded passion to make Jesus known in his lifetime.

This book will be of particular interest to mission leaders and to believers interested in Jewish evangelism. It also lends a counter-perspective to Christian ministries seeking to revive Judaism in the church. A short appendix written by Moishe strongly cautions believers against promoting Judaism at the expense of bringing the Gospel to the Jews.

Not to be missed are Moishe’s sage aphorisms heading each of the thirty-two chapters. The final one being: “Death can be a friendly nap when you know you’ll awake to see your best Forever Friend, Jesus.” (Moishe died in May of 2010.)

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via the BookSneeze blogger review program in exchange for an honest review.

--LS