Was born in Jerusalem in 1905 to Orthodox Jewish parents and came to faith as a young man. His autobiography is told in From Jerusalem to Jerusalem (here) .
Ben Meir worked as a postman in Haifa and was active in a local congregation of believers there. He was founder and editor of Tal (dew), the third Messianic Jewish journal in Hebrew in
He established with Hyman Jacobs and Dr. Arne Jonsen, a Norwegian missionary, the first independent Messianic Jewish congregation in Jerusalem between 1925-1929 referring to the congregants in Hebrew as “Yehudim Meschichiim” or Messianic Jews. This term would not be the definition of choice for Jewish believers in Yeshua until 1975 in America, then was officially adopted in May 1997 at an international conference in Mexico. As they were accused of “Judaizing tendencies,” the first congregation only laster 4 years. Then in cooperation with the International Hebrew Christian Alliance (IHCA) of London, they formed the Hebrew Christian Fellowship of Palestine, but still used the term “Messianic Jews” in Hebrew texts. Their professed aim was to achieve an interdenominational fellowship that would “unite the Messianic Jews in Palestine and Syria; establish and support urban branches; witness corporately to both synagogue and church concerning the fulfillment of Israel’s messianic hope in Jesus; to introduce Jewish thought to Gentile Christians and the Gospel to Jews; …” in 1933, the Fellowship changed its name to The Hebrew Christian Alliance of Palestine and the Near East. He also created a Messianic Sabbath liturgy and a Messianic Jewish Haggadah, combining Jewish tradition and biblical texts in order to find some common ground with normative Judaism.
Ben-Meir taught along with Kofsmann, Haimoff, Poljak and Ostrovsky that full Jewish hegemony in Jerusalem meant the end of the “Time of the Gentiles.” They raised the post-1948 Jewish remnant in Israel into developing a strong patriotic Zionism as part of their eschatological theology. They also stressed that Israeli believers should serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as loyal citizens of the State, and if competent, even as officers.
sources:
“A Messianic Jewish Church in Eretz Israel?” in Mishkhan, Issue No. 29, 1998 (by Gershon Nerel)
"HaLapid" in Zot HaBrit, Journal no. 2, by Gershon Nerel
Ben-Meir, From Jerusalem to Jerusalem: Autobiographical Sketches by Moshe Ben-Meir; Netivyah.org http://www.netivyah.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=54&Itemid=39
