Martin Wishnatsky, a lawyer first hired by the former Alabama Senate candidate in 2012, was the so-called Jewish lawyer referenced by Moore’s wife at a December campaign rally. Although, thank G-d Moore is now (We can pray) history, a question still remains for some of us, in a broader religious sense.
The issue? Wishnatsky, 73, was raised in a secular Jewish home in New Jersey, but later came to believe in Jesus and converted to Mormonism before becoming an evangelical Christian.
So is he Jewish? Depends on who you ask.
He identifies as evangelical and calls himself a Messianic Jew.
One side argues:
If a person's mother is a Jew, and that person has not converted to another faith and wishes to identify solely as a Jew, then that person is considered fully Jewish. In addition, a convert to Judaism is fully Jewish. Although one cannot convert to become a member of a race (for example one cannot convert to become an Asian or an African-American), one can convert to become a Jew. If someone who is Asian or African-American converts to Judaism, that person obviously remains an Asian or an African-American, and at the same time is a Jew. However, if one converts from Judaism to another faith, one is no longer a Jew.
But others argue that once you are born Jewish, you are Jewish
Jews for Jesus is one branch of a wider movement called Messianic Jews. Members of this movement are not accepted as Jewish by the broader Jewish community, even though some adherents may have been born Jewish and their ritual life includes Jewish practices. While an individual Jew could accept Jesus as the messiah and technically remain Jewish — rejection of any core Jewish belief or practice does not negate one’s Jewishness — the beliefs of messianic Jews are theologically incompatible with Judaism
So while Moore’s camp might see him as Jewish, I for one am not so sure.
In my view once you accept Jesus as any sort of G-D you are practicing against the core belief system of Judaism and can no longer claim to be Jewish. Jews for Jesus, even if they speak Hebrew, pray out of a siddur, or observe Shabbat, believe in a theology that is in opposition to Judaism.