The short answer
Messianic Judaism is a movement of Jewish people who believe that Yeshua (Jesus) is the promised Messiah of Israel, and who continue to live as Jews because of that faith, not in spite of it. Its congregations worship on Shabbat, keep the biblical feasts and read the Torah, and they welcome Gentiles who share their faith and their love for Israel.
For most of the last two thousand years, a Jew who came to faith in Yeshua was expected to leave the Jewish people behind: to take a new name, join a church and stop being Jewish in any way that mattered. Messianic Judaism says that was never what God asked. The first followers of Yeshua were Jews who prayed at the Temple, kept the Sabbath and called him Messiah in their own language. A Jew who trusts in Israel’s Messiah has not changed peoples.
The covenant at the center
Everything in Messianic Judaism rests on one conviction: God made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descendants, and He has never revoked it. Paul, himself a Jew writing to Gentile believers in Rome, put it plainly. Speaking of the Jewish people who had not yet recognized their Messiah, he wrote that “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29).
If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the Lord, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever.
Jeremiah 31:36
This is not a footnote for Jewish believers alone. God’s faithfulness to Israel is the evidence of His faithfulness to everyone. If He could set aside His promises to the people He chose, no one could trust any promise He has made. The continued existence of the Jewish people, through exile, persecution and return, is a living sign that He keeps His word. That is where Messianic Jews find their confidence, and it is why they reject replacement theology, the teaching that the church has taken Israel’s place.
Why Jewish identity matters
If the covenant still stands, then the people of the covenant still matter as a people. For Messianic Jews this has a direct consequence: a Jewish believer in Yeshua is called to remain Jewish, to raise Jewish children, keep Jewish time and stay bound to the Jewish people. Paul told the early communities that each person should remain in the calling in which they were called (1 Corinthians 7:17–20). The council in Jerusalem decided that Gentile believers did not need to become Jews (Acts 15). It never suggested that Jewish believers should stop being Jews, and years later thousands of them were still “all zealous for the law” (Acts 21:20).
The theologian Mark Kinzer has given this conviction its sharpest form. In Postmissionary Messianic Judaism he argues that the body of Messiah was always meant to have two expressions: a Jewish one, living in solidarity with the wider Jewish people, and a Gentile one, joined to Israel without being absorbed into it. He calls this a bilateral ecclesiology. On this view, Jewish practice is not a cultural preference or an evangelistic tool. It is faithfulness to the covenant God made, and a sign that Yeshua is present among his own people.
Not every Messianic leader goes as far as Kinzer, and many hold the same commitments in different terms. What they share is the refusal to treat Jewish identity as something to be left at the door. A Messianic congregation that loses its Jewish life, they would say, has lost part of its witness to God’s faithfulness.
Where the movement came from
Jewish followers of Yeshua never disappeared, but for centuries they had no communities of their own. In the nineteenth century, Jewish believers in Britain and America began to organize as Hebrew Christians, forming alliances for fellowship and mutual support. The Hebrew Christian Alliance of America was founded in 1915.
In the late 1960s and 1970s a new generation of young Jewish believers, many of them shaped by the Jesus movement, wanted more than fellowship. They wanted congregations that looked and felt Jewish. In 1975 the Hebrew Christian Alliance of America renamed itself the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America, and in 1979 the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations was founded to gather Messianic synagogues. Today there are Messianic congregations across North America, in Israel, and throughout Europe, Latin America and the former Soviet Union.
One movement, a wide range
Visit three Messianic congregations and you may find three quite different communities. Richard Harvey’s Mapping Messianic Jewish Theology is the most careful survey of that variety. He shows the movement spread along a range, from groups whose theology and culture are rooted mainly in evangelical Christianity to groups that embrace Jewish tradition and rabbinic practice as their own. Views on the Torah, on the place of Gentiles, and on the relationship to the wider Jewish community shift along the way.
Churches and ministries
Jewish roots
Churches and ministries that honor the Jewish roots of the faith and stand with Israel and the Jewish people. Their life is Christian in form, and their love for Israel is real and practical.
Messianic congregations
Messianic
Congregations that worship on Shabbat, keep the feasts and use Hebrew in prayer and song. Their theology and culture often sit close to evangelical Christianity, and many members are Gentile believers.
Messianic synagogues
Messianic Jewish
Congregations that understand themselves as Jewish communities. Jewish life, liturgy and identity are central, Jewish members are encouraged to live as Jews, and the congregation sees itself as part of the wider Jewish people.
We think all three belong in the same story, and each has its own gifts. Jewish roots churches carry love for Israel into places a Messianic synagogue may never reach. Messianic congregations give many believers their first experience of Shabbat and the feasts. Messianic Jewish congregations keep alive the oldest calling of all: Jewish people living as Jews in faithfulness to Israel’s Messiah. Our directory gives special weight to that last calling, because it is the one most easily lost.
You can read exactly how we place each listing on the standards page.
What a Shabbat service is like
Most Messianic congregations meet on Saturday morning, Friday evening, or both. A typical service opens with worship that mixes Hebrew and English, contemporary songs and traditional melodies. Many congregations pray parts of the siddur: the Shema, the Amidah, the blessings over the Torah. The Torah scroll is often carried through the congregation and the weekly portion is read, followed by teaching that draws on both the Tanakh and the New Covenant scriptures. Services usually end with the Aaronic blessing, and almost always with a shared meal, the oneg.
Visitors are welcome, and no one expects you to know the Hebrew. If you would like to see one for yourself, our congregation directory lists service times and what to expect for 157 congregations.
Common questions
Is Messianic Judaism a kind of Christianity?
It shares the core convictions of historic Christian faith: one God, the authority of Scripture, and salvation through Yeshua’s death and resurrection. Messianic Jews understand that faith as the fulfillment of Israel’s own story, not a departure from it, and they live it as Jews. Many describe themselves as a Jewish expression of faith in Yeshua rather than as Christians who borrow Jewish customs.
Do mainstream Jewish communities consider Messianic Jews to be Jewish?
Most Jewish denominations do not regard Messianic Judaism as a form of Judaism, and the State of Israel treats belief in Yeshua differently under its Law of Return. Messianic Jews hold that a Jew who trusts in Israel’s Messiah remains a Jew. The disagreement is real, and the movement’s better voices speak about it with humility and respect for the wider Jewish community.
Can non-Jews belong to a Messianic congregation?
Yes. Most Messianic congregations include Gentile believers, and in many they are the majority. Congregations differ on what Gentile members are asked to keep. Some welcome Gentiles to join fully in Jewish practice, others teach that Jewish and Gentile believers have distinct callings within one body.
Do Messianic Jews keep Shabbat and kosher?
Practice varies widely. Nearly every congregation gathers on Shabbat and keeps the biblical feasts. Some members keep kosher and follow traditional Jewish observance closely, while others observe more lightly. Messianic Jews agree that observance is an expression of covenant faithfulness, not a way to earn salvation.
Why do Messianic Jews say “Yeshua” instead of “Jesus”?
Yeshua is the Hebrew name Jesus was called by his family and followers. Using it is a reminder that he was a Jew from Nazareth who lived within Israel’s covenant, prayed in its synagogues and kept its feasts.
Is Messianic Judaism the same as Hebrew Roots?
No. Hebrew Roots is a separate movement, largely made up of non-Jewish Christians who adopt Torah practice, and some of its teachers deny the Trinity or teach that Gentile believers are physically Israel. Messianic Judaism centers on the Jewish people and their covenant. Our standards page explains where we draw the line.
Further reading
Postmissionary Messianic Judaism: Redefining Christian Engagement with the Jewish People
Mark S. Kinzer. Brazos Press, 2005. The case for Messianic Jewish life lived within the wider Jewish community.
Mapping Messianic Jewish Theology: A Constructive Approach
Richard Harvey. Paternoster, 2009. A survey of the movement’s theologians and the full range of their views.
Messianic Judaism: A Modern Movement with an Ancient Past
David H. Stern. Messianic Jewish Publishers, 2007. A readable introduction from one of the movement’s early voices.
Jewish Roots: Understanding Your Jewish Faith
Daniel C. Juster. Destiny Image, revised 1995. A foundational theology of Messianic Jewish congregational life.