Moishe Rosen (Founder: Jews For Jesus), 1932-2010

Jews For Jesus ^ | 5/21/2010 | Unknown

[tang-soo]

Moishe Rosen is the Founder and first Executive Director of Jews for Jesus. Rosen, who is listed in Who’s Who of the West, was raised in Denver, Colorado, where he, his parents and his brother attended an Orthodox synagogue. When they were both twenty-one, he and his wife Ceil (who is also Jewish) each came to a personal relationship with God through Y’shua. Four years later, in 1957, he was ordained to the ministry. Moishe has spent the following 53 years making the Messiahship of Jesus an unavoidable issue to his Jewish people worldwide. Dr. Vernon Grounds, noted evangelical and President Emeritus of Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary said of Rosen, “He was a dynamic and creative witness! When Moishe Rosen came into a city there is either a revival or a riot.” Moishe Rosen is considered by leading missiologists to be the key strategist and tactician in our field. For more details on his life and ministry refer to the materials on the right of this page.

[tang-soo]

Link

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Moishe Rosen was a schmuck, a divider, not an uniter.

Good riddance, putznik.

[This Just In]

Condolences to the family.

[tang-soo]

Moishe Rosen, founder of Jews for Jesus, and the leading statesman in that movement, died May 19th in San Francisco, California, after a protracted battle with prostate cancer. He was 78.

Rosen, the son of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, was raised in Denver, Colorado, where his family attended an Orthodox synagogue. In 1953, at the age of 21, he and his Jewish wife, Ceil, came to believe that Jesus was their Messiah. Shortly thereafter, he felt a call to ministry and after completing his theological studies at Northeastern Bible College in New Jersey in 1957, he was ordained to the ministry at Trinity Baptist Church in Wheat Ridge, Colorado.

From 1957-1972 he served in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco with the American Board of Missions to the Jews. By the late sixties, early seventies, the Jesus Movement and the beginnings of the Jews for Jesus movement converged. Rosen took the lead in getting young Jewish followers of Jesus to band together and experiment with unconventional methods and strategies to communicate the gospel to their own people. In September 1973, Rosen’s time with the ABMJ came to an end and Jews for Jesus, the organization, was born. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, the organization gained national recognition as he and his staff engaged in high profile evangelistic activities.

For example, Rosen developed a new form of gospel literature called broadsides which have been handed out one by one on college campuses, in shopping districts, wherever there is foot traffic and the opportunity to engage in conversations. His first attempt, “A Message From Squares,” was handwritten and drawn by him. The homemade style is still employed with over fifty million broadsides distributed to date. Rosen saw the value in using compelling contemporary literature, art, music, poetry and drama to get the gospel message across. He encouraged the development of Jewish gospel music groups and drama teams and looked for ways to get them seen and heard.

Rosen was often quoted as saying, “God has a great sense of humor letting an over-aged, overweight and overbearing person like me lead a youth movement.” He would also say “I have been called the founder/leader of Jews for Jesus but it found me because I was the one who owned the printer that we needed to crank out our broadsides (gospel pamphlets).”

Yet over the years, Rosen has been responsible for training a significant number of men and women who are leaders in the field of Jewish missions today, several as CEOs of other mission agencies. He has also been a sought-after consultant in the field of Jewish evangelism by denominational groups and was considered by leading missiologists to be a key strategist and tactician in his field. Rosen was a special consultant to the Lausanne Committee on World Evangelization’s study group on reaching Jewish people, which met in Pattaya, Thailand in 1980 and was one of the founding leaders of the organization it spawned, The Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism, an umbrella group for Jewish mission agencies around the world.

Rosen was also a member of the board of the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy (1977-1987). This august body held three summits for scholars and two congresses for the Christian community at large to formulate and disseminate the biblical truth about inerrancy.

He also served on the Board of Trustees of Western Conservative Baptist Seminary in Portland, Oregon for several terms and in 1986 he received an honorary Doctor of Divinity Degree from that academic institution. He is listed in Who’s Who in the West.

Rosen stepped down as executive director of the organization in 1996, wanting to see another generation of leadership empowered and in place. The following year, the Conservative Baptist Association named him a “Hero of the Faith.”

Rosen has authored a number of books in his field including: Sayings of Chairman Moishe (1972), Jews For Jesus (1974), Share The New Life With A Jew (1976), Christ in the Passover(1977, revised and expanded 2006), Y’shua-The Jewish Way To Say Jesus (1982, re-issued in Hebrew, 2008), The Universe Is Broken: Who On Earth Can Fix It (1991) Overture to Armageddon (1992), and Witnessing to Jews (1998).

A festschrift in his honor was published in 2009 by Kregel, entitled Jews and the Gospel At The End Of History. One of the contributors to that volume, Dr. David Larsen, professor emeritus of preaching at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, said of Moishe Rosen, “In modern times, no one has championed such creative and effective ways of winning Jewish people to Christ as has our brother.”

Dr. Vernon Grounds, noted evangelical and President Emeritus of Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary says of Rosen, “He was a dynamic and creative witness! When Moishe Rosen came into a city there was either a revival or a riot.”

Dr. Mark Bailey, president of Dallas Theological Seminary, reflecting on the life and ministry of the man, had this to say: “Moishe Rosen championed the refreshing realization that one can be a Jew for Jesus while retaining one’s cultural heritage…He has inspired and instructed many of us in the rich history of the Hebrew Scriptures and the Jewish foundations of our faith.”

The organization’s executive director, David Brickner, had this to add: “Moishe Rosen has had a tremendous influence on the field of Jewish missions, on the Church and on so many who have sought to serve God in making the gospel known. He was an example to me of many things, but particularly of courage, of curiosity and commitment.”

Moishe Rosen is survived by his wife of sixty years, Ceil, his brother Don, his daughter, Lyn Bond and her husband, Alan, his daughter Ruth Rosen and two grandchildren, Asher and Bethany Bond.

In lieu of flowers, the Rosen family would ask that your donations be made to Jews for Jesus in his honor. Those wishing to reflect on the life and ministry of Moishe Rosen, are invited to access the special website set up in his honor at http://www.jewsforjesus.org/moishe. A special memorial service, followed by a reception will take place at First Baptist Church, 22 Waller Street, San Francisco at 2 p.m. for those who wish to pay their respects.

[Wpin]

Jesus is always a uniter and it sounds like Moishe Rosen accepted Christ as his Lord Savior. That is a wonderful think.

[tang-soo]

Moishe Rosen was a schmuck, a divider, not an uniter.

Good riddance, putznik.

18 "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. -- Gospel of John 16:18-19 (ESV)

[Flycatcher]

Moishe Rosen was a schmuck, a divider, not an uniter. Good riddance, putznik.

Pharisees on Free Republic now?

[Humidston]

Wow. I call being (chosen by God) Jewish AND a believer in Christ a double header. What a wonderful man!

(No offense to any Jewish FReepers who disagree, but this is my faith and I’m happy to share it with this Jewish gentle-man.)

[counterpunch]

Jews for Jesus are called “Christians.”

[Irish Queen]

Madmax, why do you self-identify with the word “schmuck”? Your words are of a divider; not a uniter. How has Moishe Rosen offended you?

[the_daug]

Jews for Jesus are called “Christians.”

Who was Jesus? A Jew,the son of David.

[Judges Gone Wild]

“Well done, good and faithful servant.”

[Borges]

How would you feel about a group called ‘Christians for Allah’?

[1lawlady]

“Jews for Jesus are called “Christians.”

That too, but he was undeniably a Jew who loved Jesus. I grew up under his tutelage. I will miss him deeply.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Boy did I hit a nerve. Let’s get things straight.

I’m Jewish and proud of it. We’ve been around for a long time, before Christianity (our brothers) and Islam and possibly Buddhism.

I’m not out to convert anybody to my religion. It is private and if someone wants to convert on their own, fine.

Christianity believes in conversion, which is their perogative (and it is peaceful). Islam’s conversion is often not peaceful. A problem for all of us.

Moise Rosen intruded into the Jewish community with some very sly propaganda materials, some of which I have at home, and they were often historically inaccurate or outright lies.

He pushed his views and materials on people, sometimes in offensive ways. A Mensch (gentleman) would not have acted like he did.

As I said - he was a divider among Jews despite whatever he was to other people.

In case you think I’m anti-Christian, my wife is a Protestant, my kids are Jewish. No problems and my wife’s family have completely accepted me despite some being Mormons and others being fundamentalist Christians. Christmas dinners are great.

Also, in the first event of its kind in DC, I was one of two Jews chosen to address Ukrainian Independence Day at the Cathedral at Catholic University. My co-speaker, Avram Shifrin, a Jewish prisoner of Stalin in the Siberian gulags, was the other speaker. He spent time in prison with Ukrainian Archbishop Slyptzy who he greatly admired for his strenght of faith in their prison hell.

Our talks emphasised the unity of Jews and Christians in fighting the communists, our joint enemies, and not ourselves. Even my wife liked my speech - peaceful coexistence at its best.

Moise Rosen was a problem and caused ill-will within the Jewish community. He was a poseur and hurt people. His identity crisis should have been kept to himself but he imposed it on us like an unwelcomed visitor. That is what I resented. What he practiced as his faith within himself was his business.

Now, let’s get back and kick the hell out of the anti-God liberals, leftists and Obama marxists. They are the main enemy to our joint existence.

[Flycatcher]

How would you feel about a group called ‘Christians for Allah’?

Nice. The relativist point of view.

What a splendid night. First the Pharisaical viewpoint, and then the relativist.

Can I expect a paganist foray next?

[tang-soo]

Quix ping.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Jesus promised to bring a sword of division. Necessary to separate sheep from goats, goat.

[HiTech RedNeck]

“Witches for Druids?”

[factmart]

How would you feel about a group called ‘Christians for Allah’?

I would love it but they would be killed by the "peaceful religion".