When a Messianic Jew is Still a Jew

Celebrated New York Times columnist and best-selling author David Brooks isn’t keen on the term “Messianic Jew.” Still, according to its standard definition, that’s what he now is. Typically, when a Jew comes to faith in Jesus as Messiah and assumes that “Messianic” prefix, willingly or not, rabbinical authorities are quick to banish such a one from the people of Israel, to utterly deny their Jewishness.  Not so with Brooks. Brooks’ first wife converted to Judaism for him. His second marriage seems to have had something of the opposite effect. In 2017, Brooks married his former research assistant, Anne Snyder,…