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Issue: #5
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June/July 2009
Tammuz 5769
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Sybil from Hagerstown
How a small-town Jew discovered the power of Jews for Judaism
By Maayan Jaffe
Special to Jews for Judaism
Sybil Schiffman is a counselor and the head of her synagogue's adult
education division in the small town of Hagerstown,
Maryland. A
Jewish community of 108 families makes up her religious social network.
 A few months ago, Schiffman attended a professional
conference in a nearby city. When she noticed one of the vendors had a Hebrew
text open on his desk, she approached him.
"Are you Jewish?" she asked.
"Let me ask you a question," he responded. "Did you know the
Jewish Bible doesn't have Isaiah 53?"
Schiffman was aghast.
Who was this guy?
The conversation ensued:
"'Im" in Hebrew means plural, doesn't it? 'Elokim,' that
means there are many Gods," he pushed.
"No. There are many words for God and it depends on how it
is used," Schiffman responded, her head beginning to spin.
After a few more minutes she was able to break away. The
impact, however, was lasting.
"It occurred to me, this is how we get hooked - by not
knowing the answers," said Schiffman. "How many people like this man show us
things out of context, take advantage of the little we know and exploit it?"
When Schiffman returned from the conference she ran to get
her Chumash. She looked up the quotes the vendor had used and then she
consulted with an area scholar and a rabbi. She searched the internet until she
found Jews for Judaism.
At the next adult education meeting at her synagogue, she
brought up what had happened to her and proposed the synagogue host Ruth
Guggenheim, Executive Director of Jews for Judaism.
"Our kids are going off to college, they are walking the
streets. We don't have a clue about the insidiousness that goes on, I explained
to them," Schiffman said. The synagogue agreed.
Guggenheim arrived to speak to a group of 35 people, a
handful of them teenagers from the synagogue's Hebrew High School.
It was a real eye-opener, said Schiffman, who explained how many of the
congregants are not as educated as they could be and likewise weren't really
aware of the underhanded work of certain Christian missionary groups.
Guggenheim spoke for over an hour. She could have spoken for six, said Schiffman, and the audience would have remained captivated.
It's not that folks from small towns are at a disadvantage,
said Schiffman, though the lack of a large Jewish support network can make
getting one's questions answered more difficult. Rather, she explained, as a
counselor she's seen many teens and young adults go through faith crises and
every kid is at risk.
"The more steeped we are in our own knowledge, the more
bonded we are to our own kids and ourselves and Jewish ritual, the more we will
have a saving grace. Kids need to be armed," she said. "Everybody needs a
session from Jews for Judaism."
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Between Two Worlds
Former Hebrew Christian finds road to Judaism
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"I fell in love with Judaism, I absolutely fell in love with
it," said David Mark,* who recently left a decades-worth of life as a Hebrew
Christian to convert to Judaism. "Judaism was my life. It was what I breathed. Everything
that was important to me revolved around it."
 Mark's story is not that unusual. As a young boy growing up
in Cecil County,
his parents converted from southern Baptists to Hebrew Christians. Drawn in by
a local Bible study group, his mother began to celebrate Jewish holidays and
rituals.
"My family started adopting more and more Jewish ways and
the extended family didn't understand," Mark explained. "We started doing
Shabbat. We were behaving as Jews, but we were actually Christian."
 What set Mark's family's belief apart, as is the case with many
Christian-born Hebrew Christians, was that they believed in Jesus. They
maintained a Christian view on the world, even as they kept kosher and immersed
themselves in the Jewish religion.
"The first Hebrew Christians were Jews who took on
Christianity, belief in [the divinity of] Jesus," said Mark. "But in the last 10 years or so, the
movement has really switched and it is heavily Christian now. There are these
Christians who for all intense and purpose raise their kids as Jewish. This
leads to big problems because the children don't know they aren't Jewish. In
rural areas, there is no one to say, 'You believe in Jesus, you can't be
Jewish.'"
This is what happened with Mark. As he got older, graduated
from a Hebrew Christian university, he began to feel he didn't belong. He
started to feel like a second class citizen. He made Jews uncomfortable. He
made Christians uncomfortable.
  Mark approached a rabbi who helped him convert. Now he
belongs to a synagogue and is working towards a master's degree in Jewish
education. But he knows it will take years to fully let go of his Christian
past.
"At my Temple
everyone loves and supports me. Outside the Temple, however, once people find out about
my background, they are uneasy. ... It is very difficult for me," said Mark.
In fact, Mark was teaching at his synagogue's Hebrew school
when he was reported to Jews for Judaism. A fellow educator Googled his name
and found he was listed as involved in the Hebrew Christian movement. It took a
couple of weeks to clear his name.
Mark said the Jewish community is right to be skeptical and
on alert for Hebrew Christians; there is a large proponent of the group that
targets Jews for conversion. On the other hand, he said, there are many
second-generation Hebrew Christians who want out, who would choose Judaism if
they had the support system to do so.
"Some of these Hebrew Christians are in a really rough
situation," Mark said. "Christians don't like them because they keep the Torah.
Jews don't want them either. The people are caught between two worlds and there
are a lot of people who are interested in converting."
*Name was changed
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Should the Jewish community encourage Hebrew Christians to convert to Judaism?VOTE HERE
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SUMMERSTOCK 2009
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It was rock
music and dance that pulsated through the Jewish Community Center on May 17 as nearly 250 people got together for "Summerstock '09." The program, co-sponsored
by Jews for Judaism's JTTV Live and the JCC, brought Jews from all generations
and backgrounds to enjoy the music.
Jewish bands
from throughout the area played their sounds, including "Blame
Jeffery," "Members of the Board" and "My New Catchphrase."
"I loved
listening to all the different bands. It was great!" said Beth Carliner, who
attended the program. Carliner noted how teenagers chilled, younger children
danced and parents were tapping their toes, each appreciating the music and Jewish
camaraderie in a
different manner.
Said Mendi
Baron, who heads the JTTV program: "This event really rocked and gave exposure to
some seriously talented bands in the area. It gave teens a chance to get
validation for their work, dreams and aspirations within the Jewish community, which is
vital." 
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ACTION ITEM
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The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Wise People
 In the Ethics of the Fathers (Pirkei Avot), a compilation of Jewish ideas compiled in the second century, it states:
There are seven things that characterize a boor and seven that characterize a wise man...
1. "A wise man does not speak before one who is greater than him in wisdom or age,
2. He doesnot interrupt his fellow's words.
3. He does not hasten to answer.
4. His questions are on the subject and his answers are to the point.
 5. He responds to first things first and to later things later.
6. Concerning what he did not hear, he says, 'I did not hear.'
7. He concedes to the truth.
...With the boor, the reverse of all these is the case"
--Ethics of the Fathers 6:9
Discuss the following questions with a friend:
1. How will these seven ideas make me wise?
2. What does wise mean?
3. What's a boor?
4. How will this help me pass history?
(Click on "Pirkei Avot" to learn more about this work)
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