Ben Israel:
Odyssey of a modern Jew
A recent newspaper article mentioned that April 10th was Yom Hashoah, the annual day of remembrance observed worldwide for the six million Jewish victims murdered by the Nazis, Arthur Katz's book opens with an entry from his journal: "Dachau, Germany/1953/ Yom Kippur." That long ago day marked his personal memorial observance for the victims of the Holocaust. At that time Katz was an American soldier stationed in postwar Germany. A three-day pass permitted him to travel to the Munich area. He thought it fitting to spend the highest of Jewish Holidays at nearby Dachau, one of the many Nazi death camps that has now become a museum of human horrors. This was nearly a decade after the unspeakable atrocities had been revealed and stunned the co-called civilized world. Katz was a Brooklyn-born, American Jew. He had a conservative religious background nurtured in Hebrew School and, crowned with a university education. He was a modern, up-to-date, scholarly intellectual with liberal, sometimes radical tendencies. But not even a lifetime of the deepest wisdom coupled with the broadest understanding (neither of which any of the above were able to provide) could prepare him to accept what he witnessed at the Dachau prison camp. After describing the soul-crushing sickness he felt after seeing these sordid souvenirs of war, he writes: "The reveries of my youth would never return, for into my soul had been etched the stark picture of a sick and ugly world where listless phantoms would forever inhale the acrid smoke of burnt flesh."
The turbulent period of the seething Sixties is the main setting of this forthright testimony of one who became a Messianic Jew. After his stint in the Army, Arthur Katz brought home a German bride and established himself as a high school teacher in California. He took a leave of absence in 1963, returned to Europe and visited the Mideast in what the subtitle of the book accurately describes as "a spiritual odyssey". For all his faults and failings this determined young man is the epitome of "the sincere seeker with an honest heart". I'd like to go into detail about his travels through Europe, and interesting people the Lord put in his path to act as spiritual guides; the women he met after the breakup of his marriage in hopes of finding "the door to self through the love and understanding of another." - all these incidents and encounters are enlightening; sometimes agonizingly personal.
I want to also mention how nostalgic this spiritual adventure was for me. Our backgrounds were quite diverse; the timing of our military service, studies and travels around Europe were only slightly out of sync, but both of us (along with most of mankind) were looking for the right answers in the wrong places. Mr. Katz expresses this built-in frustration much better than I ever could: After consulting with a top Jewish authority on the Talmud - this was in Jerusalem just prior to his conversion to Christ he writes: "I have learned something of the inadequacy of the law, the inadequacy of being an expert, of having a well-ordered life within and still not coming to grips with the root issues. My situation, although unique to me, is in its essence, classic and universal to all men".
The wonder, the miracle of all true testimonies is how God, in His mercy, maneuvers the witness to finally face up to "the root issues". How do I resolve religion with life? How do I fulfill my duty to God and yet remain true to myself? How do I choose real and enduring life when so much around me speaks strongly, so strongly of corruption, and actual death seems inevitable? Arthur Katz found the Answer lying on his back with his hands behind his head on a hard bench in a small chapel used by a group of Messianic Jews in Jerusalem. His supine position was symbolic - he finally surrendered (as we all must) not to religion, which only added to his confusion, but to the Resurrected, the living Christ!
At the beginning of this review I mentioned Yom Hashoah. Just the other day the PBS radio station on which I occasionally catch the early news told of still another bombing in Israel on yet another Jewish memorial day. I don't know its name but it’s a day of special remembrance of those who have died in the Arab-Israeli Conflict. My thoughts flashed back to February 25th, the most recent Jewish feast of Purim. That date will forevermore be linked to what has come to be called "The Hebron Massacre" - the slaughter of praying Muslims at the tomb of the Patriarchs. This was another atrocity in the tiresome, vexing annals of human horrors. And who was the perpetrator? As in the case of Adolph Hitler, we Christians know his real name but the media called this satanic agent by his given name - Baruch Goldstein. Like his older co-religionist, Arthur Katz, Benji (he later changed it to Baruch) Goldstein grew up in Brooklyn, attended Hebrew School and, similar to Arthur's quest, went to Israel seeking something vital. A good and true Christian friend once told Arthur: "There is more to Christianity than the mere acknowledgment of Jesus as Savior. Beyond salvation is the possibility of receiving the very power of God into our minds and bodies through the process of being filled with God's Spirit." Arthur Katz heard this Scriptural truth, believed, received and acted upon it. As far as I know, he is still living a productive Christian life with his wife, Inger and their children. If you ever wonder about the power of religions or the necessity of facing the root issues, think of Benji Goldstein, the counsel of his religious friends and the lying seductions that urged him to slaughter his fellow humans while still hoping to be counted among the righteous. Like many Jews of the past and, sorrowfully, many yet to come, Goldstein, the zealot from Brooklyn who became an Israeli doctor, religious fanatic and mass murderer, put his trust in a false messiah. Now he, his hopes and his messiah are all dead and gone. Arthur Katz, Oil the other hand, the other student from Brooklyn, the "California Dreamer" of the Sixties, the sincere seeker made a covenant with the God of his fathers by accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior and acknowledged Him to be his Messiah, Now Arthur Katz, his fathers and their Messiah live on!
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