Jewish Mission to NYC: Nathaniel Friedmann (Der Lutheraner 1898) Part 1

"Rabbi", Pastor Nathaniel Friedmann
(from JewishRoots.net)

      While reviewing the issues of the Der Lutheraner magazine for OCR work, another article caught my eye concerning the Old Missouri Synod's mission to the Jews of New York City (NYC).  And so this post follows the earlier series from 1886 that featured their first "Jewish" Christian missionary, Daniel Landsmann. As remarkable as that account was, the following account of Landsmann's successor, the second "Jewish" Christian missionary, also a former rabbi, Nathaniel Friedmann, further opens the window to reveal the "mystery of Israel's conversion". The background history of Friedmann was provided by the "messianicjudaism.me" website, now only available on the Internet Archive copy:

“Rabbi Nathaniel Friedmann was sent from Russia to win [Daniel] Landsmann (above) back to Judaism in 1889. However his discussions with Landsmann resulted in Friedmann coming to believe in Yeshua’s Messiahship as well. He later was ordained as a Lutheran Pastor and became Landsmann’s successor, and served in NYC until 1941.”

Landmann's powerful message converted the rabbi who was sent to convert him back to Judaism! Friedmann was "ironically becoming Landsmann's successor", as reported by JewishRoots.net.  I had to laugh with joy when I first read this history.  But as startling as this was, so instructive and salutary was Friedmann's report of his work. And along the way, we hear this former rabbi's account of a Jewish fable that vindicates Martin Luther. Now let us take a trip to New York City, of 125 years ago, and hear of this missionary's work among… the Jews of NYC. — The following is from Der Lutheraner, vol. 54 (1898), pp. 205-206 [EN]: 

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On our Mission to the Jews.

[by Pastor Nathaniel Friedmann, Part 1]

From the venerable Jewish Mission Commission, the undersigned has once again been given the task of publishing a report on the Jewish Mission in the “Lutheraner”. God grant that interest in the work among the "lost sheep of the house of Israel" may be promoted by the same for His glory and for the salvation of many souls from Israel.

With thanks to God, the undersigned can once again report that our mission to the Jews has not regressed, but has made some gratifying progress. This does not mean that large numbers of Jews have been received into the Church of God through Holy Baptism, as some Christians might have expected from the Jewish mission. But such progress is not promised to us in God's Word. For the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments promise us in the conversion of Israel only a "Shear", only a remnant, "according to the election of grace". Thus the evangelist of the old covenant, the prophet Isaiah, prophesies: “In that day the remnant of Israel, and they that are saved of the house of Jacob, shall no more rely upon him that smiteth them; but they shall rely upon the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. The remnant shall be converted, even the remnant in Jacob, unto God, the strong. For though thy people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea, yet the remnant of them shall be converted.” Isaiah 10:20-22 [Luther, LED]; cf. Isaiah 3:12-13, Ezek. 6:8. <p. 206> 

Therefore the holy Apostle Paul, when he wants to reveal to us the mystery of Israel's conversion (Rom. 11:25), expressly testifies that only those “foreknown” (Rom. 11:2), only the "remnant according to the election of grace" (Rom. 11:5), only “some” of them (Rom. 11:17) will be saved.

If this is the teaching of Holy Scripture, we certainly have no reason to lose interest in the said mission, or even to lose heart, if our mission to the Jews does not show a large number of conversions, but rather we have great cause to thank the Lord of the Church from the heart if only "some" are saved like “a brand out of the fire” through the preaching of the Gospel.

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How vividly Friedmann paints the realities of his mission work, using the Holy Scriptures, that not “all Israel” after the flesh will be saved, but only a “remnant”. In the next Part 2, he shows just how much prejudice the rabbis have implanted in their people against the Christ, and does not hold back about their infamous fable. I was surprised…

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Part 1: this Introduction; "only 'some' of them (Rom. 11:17) will be saved".

Part 2: Jewish “prejudices against Christianity”, “Shemhamforash”

Part 3: “the blinded and fanatical Jews”; "not our work, but God's"

Part 4: Friedmann: Rabbi, apostate Jew, Christian, Lutheran, missionary