A Minister and an Old Jew

By Avrum Rosensweig

We really don’t know what non-Jews think about us. Yet I would hazard to guess if we asked 100 of our people their opinion on such a matter - likely the overwhelming response would be the church and its leaders as a whole, are anti-Jewish. Certainly there is enough evidence to support this belief, however we must keep in mind as well there are Christians who do indeed harbor positive feelings about Jews. The following are some snippets from a speech given by a Minister, Victor Shepherd, (October 2001) when he spoke about a moment he shared with an older Jewish man. As you will see, his words were sincere and his feelings for the Children of Israel, upbeat. It's important to know who our friends are.

…And then there are the men and women I meet in ways that leave me amazed. It happened to me with most poignant profundity when I went to a funeral at Temple Sinai. Because I had arrived 45 minutes early I went to a Jewish restaurant, Marky's Delicatessen, for a cup of tea. I noticed there were no seats available and I was the only man without a hat on. All the other men were wearing either a yarmulke or a fedora. I waited for a minute, not knowing quite what to do, when at the back of the restaurant an old, thin Jewish man with the warmest smile and the face of an angel moved over on his seat and beckoned to me as he called out, "There is room for us both!"

My heart melted. I had grasped the double meaning he had uttered deliberately when he had said, "There is room for us both." I sat down beside him and we began to talk. He told me his older sister brought him to Canada prior to World War II. He and his sister were the sole survivors of his family. I asked him what he had done for a living. "I was a simple peddler. I went door-to-door peddling tablecloths, sheets and pillow cases."

He said he was born in Southeast Poland, in a small insignificant village with a famous Rabbi. "It's a tradition", he continued, "that a rabbi remain in the place where he begins his work. Now a minister has to go wherever he is sent. But our rabbi stayed in our little village, even though he could have gone anywhere at all, because the tradition meant more to him than the money; and besides he loved us so much."

I then told him I was a minister. "Oh, I knew that already", he said as if it need not have been mentioned. It was spirit resonating with spirit

In view of the fact that words like "minister" and "Christian" are synonymous with persecution going back for centuries in Poland, do you have any grasp of what grace floods that old man's heart for him to have said to me, "There is room for us both"? He knew I represented that institution which has afflicted his people for centuries.

I¹ll not see that dear man until the day when Messiah tarries no more. But for my meeting with him I shall thank God for the rest of my life. Today my heart overflows in gratitude to God for the people whom he has brought before me, people from the big city as well as the tiny village in southeast Poland, not to mention soul mates because of whom I shall never be forsaken.

Knowing the One whose depths are unfathomable and whose gift of himself is inexpressible, I am rendered ever more grateful for people whose richness is
inestimable and for a universe whose wonders are endless.

It is important to know who our friends are.