A Messianic Jew is a Jewish person who practices Messianic Judaism, which is a modernist and syncretic movement of Protestant Christianity that incorporates some elements of Judaism and other Jewish traditions into evangelicalism

. Unlike Jewish Christians, Messianic Jews choose to retain their Jewish religious identity and practice as followers of Jesus, seeing themselves as practicing a special kind of Judaism that expresses devotion to Jesus

. This movement has been the subject of controversy and is not recognized as a form of Judaism by all denominations of Judaism