In a message dated 7/22/2005 9:12:05 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
llepore@comcast.net writes:

< I didn't know about them, so I found this site - one
among many after searching at google for messianic.

< This page has a brief definition of Messianic religious groups -
http://altreligion.about.com/library/glossary/symbols/bldefsmessianic2.htm?ter
ms=messianic
[or http://tinyurl.com/c85w3 -- Mod.]

< Apparently there was a Messianic movement in Europe in the 1600's
_http://rabbiwein.com/column-209.html_ (http://rabbiwein.com/column-209.html)
>

==There have been some 1930 years of attempts to convince Jews to accept
Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah. In the early decades, it was suggested by
Christian missionaries that Jews could continue with their religious practices
while accepting Christian beliefs. In later centuries, such acts as
circumcision, even lighting candles on Friday evenings, might expose a supposed
Jewish convert to Christianity to dispossession, torture, or death at the stake.

==The idea that Jews be permitted after baptism to identify with their
people or their historical religious practices did not really return before the
19th century--and even then in very restricted areas of society and geography.

==In 1731, Jews first settled in Swansea, Wales, and they organized a
community in 1768. The Cardiff community was established in 1840. I doubt very
much that the Welsh were interested in converting Welsh Jews, much less in
establishing messianic congregations.

==I think it's highly unlikely that the six-pointed star, so popular a
symbol in so many cultures and religions, had any Jewish connections in an old,
old cemetery in the wilds of Wales.

==There was a vintner named Hoshea in Second Temple era Judea who sealed his
wine jugs with swastikas embellishing his name. In the 2nd-3rd century
synagogue at Kfar Nahum (Capernaum), near the point where the Jordan flows into
the Sea of Galilee, a magen david and a swastika were placed side by side. I
doubt we can say either of these is related to Nazism. If you look hard enough,
I'm sure you'll find some 18th or 19th century Jewish relic decorated with a
row of swastikas--but that is no indicator that these Jews were anti-semites.

In my opinion, the likelihood that the juxtaposition of magen David and
cross in an ancient Welsh cemetery has a combined Judeo-Christian significance,
is very, very close to zero.

Michael Bernet, New York