Book Reviews | Apples of Gold
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Book Reviews | Apples of Gold
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Daniel Shmuel (Oswald) Rufeisen was born to a Jewish family near Oswiecim (Cracow district), Poland. When the Nazis invaded, he and many friends became slave laborers. He escaped and ended up in the town of Mir, Belorussia (White Russia). Because of his language skills, he posed as an educated Pole and got a job as a translator for the local German police, from whom he secretly smuggled guns to Jews in the Mir ghetto. When in August 1942 he overheard a phone call about the liquidation of the ghetto, he organized a wild goose chase to lead the police out of town. About 250 young Jews fled into the forests, the rest were executed. Rufeisen himself fled to a convent where he hid for over a year. When Germans forced the convent to relocate, he dressed as a nun to escape detection. During this time, he chose to convert to Catholic Christianity. After the war Rufeisen returned to Poland and studied for the priesthood. In the late 1950s he decided to immigrate to Israel to reunite with his brother, former Polish friends, and Mir survivors. He tried to be listed as a Jew under the Law of Return, but his act ignited a storm of controversy. His case became the first major test case in Israeli law centered on "Who is a Jew?" The Chief Rabbinate held that he should be granted citizenship because his parents were both Jews and he had cast his fate with his people. His "faith decisions" were not important. But the Supreme Court rejected his plea. Though not accepted as a Jew, he eventually was granted status as a Naturalized Citizen. He joined the Carmelite Stella Maris Monastery in Haifa and eventually became the pastor of the Hebrew Catholic congregation there. Daniel Rufeisen died the summer of 1998. Sources Nechama Tec, In the Lion's Den: The Life of Oswald Rufeisen (Oxford University Press, 1990). Reviewed by Gershon Nerel in Mishkan journal (No. 20, #1, 1994): 84-86. "Mir" [history of Rufeisen's involvement in saving Jews], Encyclopædia Judaica (Jerusalem: Keter, 1972), 12:71-72. "Oswald Reisen": Wikipedia. David Twersky, "The Strange Case of 'Brother Daniel,'" Jewish World Review (August 5, 1998) [www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/twersky080598.html] [Top]
[The following comments are selections from Oswald Rufeisen's article "Hebrew Christians between Early and Later Christian Traditions" published in Israel and Yeshua, edited by Torleif Elgvin (Jerusalem: Caspari Center for Biblical & Jewish Studies [POB 71099 Jerusalem 91710], 1993), pages 49-55.]
The era of Constantine began in 325, with a radical Roman policy of separation from the Mother Church [in Jerusalem]. The legitimate daughter became the mother. Jerusalem passed to Rome, or Rome became Jerusalem. Catholic no longer meant to be in union with Jerusalem, but to be like Rome. Rome dictated the conditions of this new fidelity. Even the church of Jerusalem became Roman.... "But here began...the tragedy of gentile Christianity, which continues to our own times. The faith of the early Jerusalem community was more simple. It was the faith in the God of the fathers, who always remains faithful to his covenantal partner, as demonstrated in Jesus whom 'he made the Christ and Lord,' the messenger, mediator between God and man, who renewed this covenant in our name. "For the Jews and the Judeo-Christians, the Scriptures were an expression of God at work in history, especially with his elect people. Therefore, their theology was functional, telling what God did in the past and consequently expecting what he will do in the future, until the second coming, the parousia of the Lord Jesus. For the Greek, the Scriptures became the source of an ontological knowledge about God, his Christ and the Spirit of God. "In their eyes, this revelation gave them a superiority over 'the Jews,' including the Judeo-Christians. It was not so much a revelation of God's love to his creation, as a revelation of doctrinal truths. "A new institutional authority, the doctrinal Magistry of the Church, was erected and portrayed as guided by the Holy Spirit. Not to accept the guidelines of this authority was considered a sin against the Spirit of God. "Christianity was no longer a way of life, but a doctrine which must be established, defined and centrally controlled. It was no longer the covenant with God, renewed in Jesus, the Christ, the only element of continuity with the people of the Covenant. It was now a certainty of things we have to know about the nature of God and Christ. This is the catholic faith, fides quae creditur (the things to believe), in the famous expression of Augustine. "Paul could still 'believe God' like any other Jew could 'who raised Christ from the dead.' For Peter, it was the resurrection of Christ that strengthens 'our faith and hope in God.' For both of them, the faith is theocentric. In the Gospels we still find a Jewish question, 'Rabbi, what must I do in order to be saved?' Without dismissing this question, a new one now arose, 'What must we believe in order to be saved?' [Top] Which Church for Israel? "Nearly all existing 'missions to the Jews'—even those with the highest spiritual motivation and with best intentioned people—would like to introduce us into this existing [catholic, Roman] 'order.' Consequently, they will from the outset divide us.... The rehabilitation of the 'Mother of all churches' [i.e., Jerusalem's Messianic body] has to bring a healing for other churches, not a deepening of the existing disaster; peace instead of strife, and unity in the diversity of adaptations. "Be aware of what happened between Christians; be aware of what happened between the Church and the Jews, and also between the Byzantine and Judeo-Christian churches. Even a great genius like Hieronymos [i.e., Jerome, AD 342–420] spoke about our fathers: 'They want to be simultaneously Jews and Christians, therefore they will be neither Jews nor Christians.' We [Judeo-Christians] are no longer living as guests in your countries and divided by your controversies. We are at home."
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