Evangelizing the Chosen People

"This book is the first comprehensive account of Protestant evangelization of Jews in America. Yaakov Ariel analyzes the theology and activities of both the missions and the converts and describes the reactions of the Jewish community, which in turn helped to shape the evangelical activity directed toward it. The book is based on unprecedented research in missionary archives as well as Jewish writings.". "Motivated by a premillenialist view of the Jewish people and their role in the coming millenium, the missionary impulse persisted with great vigor from the 1880s until today, adapting to changes in the Jewish community and American culture in general. As Ariel shows, these missionary efforts have profoundly influenced Christian-Jewish relations. Jews have seen the missionary movement as a continuation of attempts to delegitimize Judaism and to do away with Jews through assimilation or annihilation. But to conservative evangelical Christians, who support the State of Israel, evangelizing Jews is a manifestation of goodwill toward them."--BOOK JACKET.