From the destruction of the Second Temple and the great exile until a few hundred years ago Jewish assimilation had been rare with the exception of calamity, coercion and mass conversion (usually these would go hand in hand). Ethnicity, Nationality and Religion bonded together to form a nearly impenetrable structure. In past centuries I believe even Jews who had come to faith in Jesus, would have been reluctant to break off from their family and community to become Catholics (although it did happen occasionally and flamboyantly: see Pablo Christiani). The outside secular force of the Enlightenment had the effect of opening possibilities of movement that had never before been available for Jews and Christians alike. The toll the Enlightenment took on both Catholicism and Judaism is worth looking at but I will assume some familiarity and move on to my point.
Aside from the mass conversions to Christianity in Spain due to calamity (a related topic), in tandem with the Enlightenment was a movement of 30,000 to 60,000 Jews in Poland who converted to Catholicism in the mid-to-late 18th century. They were called the Frankists after their leader Jacob Frank and are reviled by some Jews and Catholics even to the present day. Although they are likely the victims of wild slander, The Frankists were undoubtably extremely excentric and may always be an enigma. They actually made an attempt to only marry other Frankists whether they had remained Jewish or converted to Catholicism. Thus we see intermarriage contained even among the anomalous Frankists. Their movement had faded by the early 20th century and they too were assimilated into Catholicism or back into Judaism.
It was rapid secularization that accelerated assimilation when the binding of religion loosened. Reform Judaism in the 19th century was such a radical departure from traditional Judaism it quickly gave license to many Jews for a full departure from religious Judaism. I include both Reform and Conversative branches of Judaism in the Secular category particularly because they were open in various degrees to interfaith marriage. This had the effect of distancing them from Orthodox Judaism as they could not be sure which Secular Jews could legally be classified as Halachic Jews (born of a Jewish mother).
It is my belief that it is Secular Jews who represent one of the largest (if not the largest) conversions to Christianity in history over the last two centuries which began in what is called The Emancipation since the mid-19th century. The point I’m trying to make is that Secularism has been the primary vehicle for many Jews to encounter Christ in the last two centuries. Orthodox Jews grieve over Jews who have left the community of Judaism and especially those who became Christians. Without this Secular distance the emotional ties would have been too strong for large scale conversions without coercive catastrophes (The Spanish Expulsion) or enigmatic Messianic movements (The Frankists).
However, I don’t mean to suggest these conversions are an unqualified good (a paradoxical stance to take because communion in Christ is THE unqualified good) nor would I say they are negative (as they are to many observant Jews). I want to highlight this development as an essential development in the arch of Messianic history. This arch of history is a bridge. This bridge is an ark. The ark is a Jewish and Christian Church.
The bridge is not yet complete. The bridge starts at a place called Catholic island. The clergy arches over the waters from the land. The Hebrew Catholics are grafted back onto the structure of the arch like returned “natural branches”. The Jewish Christians (Messianic Jews if you prefer) are material that is suitable to the structure but has not yet been (re)adhered. The destination is a Jewish Island. When the bridge connects they will become one kingdom—distinct yet unified.
My impression is that the majority of Hebrew Catholics have little if any experiential memory of Orthodox Judaism as they came to Catholicism out of Secular Jewishness. This applies to me possibly more than most. Even though I would somehow qualify as a Halachic Jew by technicality, I was raised in Protestantism before I found my way to Secularism as a young adult. I believe this means as Hebrew Catholics—some of us “assimilated” Jews—we are not exactly the endpoint of a reconciliation between Catholicism and Judaism. Yet we can be essential pieces of the connecting bridge.
Far from our assimilation being a tragedy in the Orthodox Jewish view, it can be part of the salvation of the world. While many of us will not observe fully in our lifetimes, we can still be the connectors to our Jewish blood family and our Christian family by the blood Christ.
