THE LIFE AND TIMES
OF JOSEPH RABINOWITZ
by
Dr. Alan Poyner-Levison
* * * * *
The life of Rabbi Joseph Rabinowitz reveals a remarkable story of the
Lord’s hand guiding this Russian rabbi to faith in Messiah Yeshua. Born
along the Dniester in Russia in 1837, Joseph Rabinowitz lost his mother at
an early age and was taken into the home of his maternal grandfather until
he was eleven years of age. Even as a child, Rabinowitz demonstrated a
keen intellect. It is said that by the time he was just six years old he
could recite the Song of Solomon from memory. During his youth, which was
spent in the Chasidic community, he also showed great promise in his
literary ability. After he was married at the age of 19, his
brother-in-law, Jehiel Hershensohn, first introduced him to the New
Testament when he loaned him a copy in Hebrew and suggested that Yeshua
was perhaps the Messiah. Rabinowitz, at first surprised, left the Chasidim
and pursued study of the Bible on his own.
Rabinowitz returned with his grandfather and took up law as a profession
as he wanted to become a solicitor among his own Jewish people. Living in Kishinev, he took great interest in the affairs of his community and
frequently lectured and wrote for Jewish newspapers, becoming known for
his reformed and progressive ideas. For instance, in 1878 he wrote an
article urging his fellow Russian rabbis to improve the conditions of
Russian Jewry through sponsored agricultural training. He led by
example and cultivated his own garden in accordance with his ideas. And
all the while, wherever he went, he brought along his New Testament.
After a wave of persecution, Rabinowitz set forth, New Testament in hand,
for what was then known as Palestine with a view of starting a colony
there. On reaching Jerusalem and seeing the depressed state of its
inhabitants, he became deeply moved. After having ascended the
Mount of Olives and viewing the Mosque of Omar over where the former
Temple had stood, he began to consider the tragic history of his people and
wonder about the meaning of Israel’s suffering. The answer quickly flashed
in his mind: The key to the Holy Land was in the hands of his brother Yeshua.
Filled with the glory of this great vision, he returned to Kishinev and
soon developed a movement among a number of people from the surrounding
towns. They called themselves “The Israelites of the New Covenant.” Rabinowitz set forth his new-found faith in a series of thirteen articles,
which he modeled on the work of Maimonides. In 1885, he was baptized in
Berlin and was invited to join the Lutheran and
Russian churches; but he remained sensitive to his Jewish brethren and
refused to enter a place of worship that displayed a crucifix.
A
Christian minister, Mr. Faber, who had personally observed the
profound influence of Rabinowitz in Galicia and Lithuania, gave this
description of the rabbi:
Rabinowitz is a preacher
of the gospel in the spirit of Jewish nationality; a preacher so
gifted, so versed in scripture, so deeply rooted in the divine Word
of the New Covenant, as the Jewish nation has not possessed since
the day of the Apostles. This is his great importance; his sermons
published in Hebrew, Russian, and in the jargon called Yiddish,
which reached ten thousand copies, in the masses of the Jews from
Eastern Europe they found eager readers in the most remote districts
of Serbia, and in the secluded valleys of the Carpathian mountains. |
Through the influence of Joseph Rabinowitz, the general attitude of
Jewish
people toward Yeshua improved considerably; and even though many
Christians looked strangely upon this alliance of Christianity and
Judaism, a committee was formed in Great Britain to support Rabinowitz’
work.
Joseph Rabinowitz died in 1899, but the work he began continued on into the
twentieth century to bridge the gap between the Church and the Synagogue
through the person of Yeshua.
I would like to acknowledge that the
varied information contained herein
was gleaned from the writings of Hugh Schonfield.
-
Dr. Alan Poyner-Levison
* * * * *
Dr. Poyner-Levison is Messianic Teacher at
Beit
Shalom Ministries, England,
and is AMC's UK
Representative. Thank you, Alan.
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