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A Match Made in Heaven
Zev Chafets
American Jews, Christian Zionists, and One Man's Exploration of the Weird and Wonderful Judeo-Evangelical Alliance
HarperCollins
January 2007
On Sale: January 9, 2007
240 pages
ISBN: 0060890584
EAN: 9780060890582
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Political
In a time of jihad "against Jews and Crusaders," the Jews
of America and Israel find themselves with a powerful albeit
unlikely ally: tens of millions of American evangelicals. As
the conflict in the Middle East roils and divisions harden,
Israel, a nation at war, welcomes this Christian support,
whereas the American Jewish establishment—liberal, secular,
and Democratic—remains wary. This tension, along with the
question of whether the Jews will embrace the evangelicals'
offer of partnership before it is too late, is at the heart
of Zev Chafets's incisive and compelling new book. Over the course of a year, Chafets, a former New York Daily
News columnist and onetime director of the Israeli
government press office, travels the world, tracing the
improbable confluence of Jews and evangelicals. Along the
way, Chafets meets Jerry Falwell and his national
championship debate squad, visits Jewish cadets at West
Point, heads to Virginia to tour Pat Robertson's university,
meets the Pentecostal priest of Wall Street, attends the
world's biggest Christian retail show, accompanies the rabbi
with the biggest gentile following since Jesus on a road
trip, travels the Holy Land with a band of repentant
Christian pilgrims, and breaks bread with George W. Bush
(and five hundred fellow Jewish Republicans). Although Chafets spins a penetrating, engaging, and often
hilarious narrative, A Match Made in Heaven has at its core
some very serious questions: How is the relationship between
Jews and Christians changing? Why do evangelicals support
Israel so strongly? Is their philo-Semitism just a front for
their true purpose to convert Jews? Do the evangelicals, as
their opponents charge, really want to use the Jews as
cannon fodder at the battle of Armageddon? Or are they
simply responding to the biblical commandment to love
Israel? Finally, is the American Jews' fear of
fundamentalist Christianity based on constitutional
principle—or social and cultural snobbery and political
partisanship? Equal parts history, comedy, travelogue, and political
tract, A Match Made in Heaven is a smart and adventurous
trip along a rapidly changing religious and political border.
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