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<h1 class="text-light px-2">You can be Jewish <span class="d-sm-block">and be for Jesus.</span></h1>
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What Is the Gospel?

A Ukrainian Atheist Goes to Church: Irina Orf’s Story

Did Jesus Keep&nbsp;Torah?

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<h2>We exist to support you <span style="font-weight: 400;">in exploring Jewish life with faith in Jesus.</span></h2>
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<p class="mb-0"><img class="w-100" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/jewish-and-christian-can-it-be-man-drawing-the-star-of-david-featured.jpg" alt="Man drawing a Star of David" /></p>
<h5><a href="/answers/jewish-and-christian-can-it-be"><span class="learn-linktext"> Jewish and Christian: Can It Be?</span></a></h5>


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<p class="mb-0"><a title="Should Messianic Jews Keep Torah?" href="/learn/should-messianic-jews-keep-torah"><img class="w-100" style="object-position: 34%;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Messianic-Jew-reading-the-Torah.jpg" alt="Jewish man reading Scripture" /></a></p>
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<h6><a href="/learn/should-messianic-jews-keep-torah">Should Messianic Jews Keep Torah?</a></h6>
<p>We believe in the significance and holiness of the Torah. But do we keep it?</p>
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<p class="mb-0"><a title="What Are Messianic Jews?
" href="/learn/what-are-messianic-jews"><img class="w-100" style="object-position: 50%;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/mj2.jpg" alt="Messianic Jewish women" /></a></p>
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<h6><a href="/learn/what-are-messianic-jews">What Are Messianic Jews?</a></h6>
<p>We’re like finding a potato chip in a bag of tortilla chips: it’s a little confusing at first!</p>
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<p class="mb-0"><img class="w-100" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/orhtodox-jewish-man-looking-at-jerusalem-featured-image.jpg" alt="Jewish man in Israel" /></p>
<h5><a title="Why Do Most Jewish People Not Believe in Jesus?" href="/learn/why-do-most-jews-not-believe-in-jesus"><span class="learn-linktext">Why Do Most Jewish People Not Believe in Jesus?</span></a></h5>


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<p class="mb-0"><a title="What Religion Was Jesus?" href="/learn/what-religion-was-jesus"><img class="w-100" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/man-talking-to-younger-man-featured.jpg" alt="Jews for Jesus staff discussing Jesus" /></a></p>
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<h6><a href="/learn/what-religion-was-jesus">What Religion Was Jesus?</a></h6>
<p>He was a Jewish man who claimed to be Messiah. But what religion did he teach?</p>
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<p class="mb-0"><a title="Who's the Subject of Isaiah 53?" href="/learn/whos-the-subject-of-isaiah-53"><img class="w-100" style="object-position: 63%;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Isaiah-53-featured-image.jpg" alt="Sleeping Lamb" /></a></p>
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<h6><a href="/learn/whos-the-subject-of-isaiah-53">Who&#8217;s the Subject of Isaiah 53?</a></h6>
<p>Does this passage get ignored because of what Christians think about it?</p>
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<h2>Simon’s Story </h2>
<h4>Dealing with religious confusion </h4>
<p>I was raised in the Reform Jewish tradition but grew up in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Indianapolis. I always associated myself with the Jewish community. Still, the Orthodox Jews did not always accept me in my neighborhood because of our Reform tradition. At my public school, I remember multiple occasions where I was singled out because I was Jewish. I remember playing with my friends, Shalom and Betsalel, who couldn’t eat at my house because we weren’t kosher enough, even though my family was vegetarian and never had meat in the house anyway!</p>
<h6>Our Reform synagogue went through several rabbis. Each came with their own flavor.</h6>
<p>During my childhood, our Reform synagogue went through several rabbis. These rabbis each came with their own flavor, forms of worship, and interpretations of the Torah. <strong>One rabbi told us that it didn’t matter if we believed in God</strong>. Another said that Reform Judaism should be more about our good deeds than about traditions.</p>
<p>This created a lot of confusion within me, which only fueled my apathy for attending Sunday school every week. I was a straight-A student in school, but when it came to synagogue, I was the kid with my head down on the desk, asleep. Nevertheless, I plodded along and even attended Hebrew school to become a <em>bar mitzvah</em>, like every other kid in the neighborhood.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Stout-Family1992.jpg" alt="Stout family, 1992" /><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Simon-Nutcracker.jpg" alt="Simon backstage at Nutcracker performance" /></p>
<h4>Experiences with antisemitism </h4>
<p>It didn’t help my struggle with religion that I was picked on at school and told by a friend or two that I was going to burn in hell because I was Jewish. Nor did it help that houses in my neighborhood were egged around Easter since we were blamed for Jesus’ death. <strong>These incidents reinforced the idea that believing in Jesus was unacceptable, even if he seemed like a nice enough guy to me</strong>. I recall asking one of my rabbis about the afterlife and the Messiah. He said we didn’t need to worry about the afterlife; we should be more concerned about the life we are living now. He said that we are all the Messiah that can change the world. His first answer seemed wise, the second insane.</p>
<p class="my-5 text-center"> </p>
<h4>I found my place in the world of arts and theatre </h4>
<p>My parents were always very loving and supportive, and we had a wonderful relationship most of the time. They had a love for the arts and fought for good causes, and reinforced that in my upbringing. From a young age, I studied ballet, art, music, and theatre. I volunteered for food drives and at an animal shelter.</p>
<p>By the end of high school, I found my niche in the drug-filled theater world and was extremely liberal and outspoken to the point of being brash and prideful. In college, I dabbled in the occult, smoked marijuana, and was open to anything. However, I was also conflicted by the way I was living. At the time, I would have said that I was a noble and honorable person, but I would also have quickly admitted I was sinful.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Simon-Consecration-at-Synagogue.jpg" alt="Simon in consecration class at the Synagogue" /><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Simon-on-Birthright.jpg" alt="Simon on Birthright with a friend, Henry, who was an Auschwitz Survivor" /></p>
<h4>My Birthright trip pulled me to Israel</h4>
<p>At age twenty, in the middle of my university studies, I traveled on the Birthright program to Poland (in connection with the March of the Living) and on to Israel. This trip reconnected me with my Judaism. After seeing Auschwitz and Majdanek, places filled with such death, I was amazed at the life I saw in Israel. God had brought our Jewish people back home, and I wanted nothing more than to stay. But being a good Jewish boy, I listened to my mother’s plea to finish my bachelor’s degree before returning.  My newly found belief in God caused me to pray a bit more, but I was still far from having any connection with Him.</p>
<h6>I was amazed to see Israelis believing that Yeshua is the Messiah—it felt both foreign and welcoming.</h6>
<p>When I moved to Israel in August 2005 to pursue a master’s degree, God got my attention. I had gone to church meetings and youth groups with friends before, but I knew very little about Yeshua. Within a few weeks of arriving in Israel, I met two university students who invited me to attend a local Messianic congregation, and I decided to go. I was amazed to see Israelis, some wearing <em>tallitot</em> and <em>kippot</em>, all believing that Yeshua is the Messiah—it felt both foreign and welcoming.</p>
<h4>Intrigued by the love of Christians </h4>
<p>After attending a few meetings, I was intrigued by the love they demonstrated for the needy and the community around them. I began regularly attending the congregation as well as a weekly homegroup. I even started reading the New Testament and was surprised to see its connections to the Tanakh. At one meeting, a young man challenged me to pray to God every night, asking Him to reveal to me if Yeshua is the prophesied Messiah.</p>
<h4>Unusual dreams </h4>
<p>Before I knew it, I had some very unusual dreams. I wrote the dreams in a journal and wondered what they meant. When the congregation announced an upcoming seminar on dreams and Bible prophecy, I knew I had to attend.</p>
<p>The moment I entered the room on the first night of the seminar, I had a strange feeling that one particular woman standing up front was going to tell me something. For the next few nights, I listened to the teachings about prophecy in the Bible and how God was still speaking to people. On the final day, the leaders asked us to write down our dreams on a piece of paper. They collected our slips of paper and privately read through all the dreams during the course of the day. The leaders decided to speak about my dream! I was amazed that the leaders had picked my dream because they felt that God was speaking to me. They had no idea that, unlike most of the people at the seminar, I had not yet come to believe in Yeshua.</p>
<p>At the end of that session, the woman whom I’d had the peculiar feeling about just days before came up to me, without knowing anything about me, and said, “God hears your prayers! Yeshua is real, and He has great plans for your life.”  I began weeping because I knew God had answered my prayers through her.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Stout-1.jpg" alt="Simon's baptism" /><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Stout-2.jpg" alt="Simon and Liz at their wedding" /></p>
<h2>Liz’s Story </h2>
<h4>My mom found Jesus and shared him with us</h4>
<p>I grew up in a Messianic family—my dad grew up Jewish, and my mom grew up Catholic. My parents came to faith in Yeshua in the 1980s. My mom had a feeling she would miss out on a big party after she died, so she started searching for the truth in many different religions and spiritual paths. She started reading the New Testament one night in her room and knew it was the truth, so she prayed to receive Jesus right then and there.</p>
<p>My mom started taking us to many kinds of churches, but my Jewish dad didn’t feel comfortable at any of them. A friend told my mom about Messianic congregations, and my family started attending Congregation Shema Yisrael in Rochester, New York. My dad went to the 6:00 AM prayer meetings and came to faith soon after.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Stout-3.jpg" alt="Liz at her bat mitzvah" width="100%" /></p>
<h4>Challenges to living a life of faith</h4>
<p>I was actively involved in youth groups, local ministry, and outreach events, and I had my bat mitzvah. Although I knew God, I wanted to live life for myself. I thought that I had the rest of my life to live for God, so I should enjoy myself now! I surrounded myself with friends who were smoking and drinking.</p>
<p>After my senior year in high school, my friends and I went on a camping trip in the Adirondack mountains. It was my birthday, and instead of buying me a present or making me a card, my friends told me that my present was free alcohol and drugs during the trip. I was upset and bitter towards my friends. I had planned on telling them how disappointed and angry I was with them. Still, instead, when I confronted them, I instantly felt the love of God pour over me and melt away my anger.</p>
<h6>I couldn’t believe that God had the power to change my angry heart to love.</h6>
<p>I couldn’t believe that God had the power to change my angry heart to love. At that moment, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life getting to know him more.</p>
<h4>My college and international experiences </h4>
<p>I attended a state university in New York for my freshman year of college. I was involved with an organization called Intervarsity, but I then transferred to Roberts Wesleyan College, where many of my friends from the congregation attended. We had weekly Bible studies, worship times and hosted many kinds of outreaches. I began leading a youth group as well.</p>
<p>In 2001, I traveled to Ukraine with a group of young adults from our congregation. In 2002, I took a trip to Mexico with my college to help build an orphanage in Juarez. These trips solidified in my mind that God had a calling for my life, and even if it seemed impossible, He would provide what I need.</p>
<p>In 2004, I traveled to Israel for the first time and immediately knew that I wanted to stay. I was very tempted to get a job on a kibbutz immediately, but I went home and searched for opportunities to return.</p>
<h4>Meeting Simon in Tel Aviv </h4>
<p>In 2005, I was accepted to start an MA in TESOL at Tel Aviv University. I met Simon in our university class, and he shared with me that he was on a spiritual search. Every Thursday night, we had a coffee house, and I invited Simon. We began attending weekly Bible studies together. One team member challenged Simon to ask God to reveal the truth about Messiah to him.</p>
<p>A few months after that, Simon became a believer in Jesus. We were engaged on Valentine’s day in 2006 and married in October of 2006. This year we will celebrate our 15th anniversary! We have two wonderful children—an 11-year-old daughter and an 8-year-old son.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/StoutFeatured.jpg" alt="Simon and Liz" width="100%" /></p>
<p>In 2018, I had a near-death experience falling off a ladder that was about two stories high. My recovery was difficult and painful, but even during this difficult experience, I was continually reminded of God’s comfort. This experience also caused me to rethink my life and where I should be investing my time.</p>
<h4>Sharing the love I’ve experienced with others </h4>
<p>In 2019, I began working with Jews for Jesus with the Children and Young Adult Team. I found so much joy in organizing weekly Bible clubs for kids, youth events, and summer camps.</p>
<p>For thirteen years, our family lived in Tel Aviv-Yafo in a diverse neighborhood. We loved spending time with people from all religions and backgrounds and sharing our beliefs with them, too.</p>
<p>Recently, Jews for Jesus started a team in Jerusalem, and Simon and I knew we had to pray about it. We felt God calling us to join the team here, so we moved our family there during the coronavirus.</p>
<h6>I’ve found that dependence on the Lord is the best place to be.</h6>
<p>There is a lot of uncertainty and confusion in life, but I have learned that I can lean on Jesus through challenging circumstances. God has been with me through the valleys and over the mountaintops. I love to share the love of Jesus even as I continue to learn more about the depth of his love. It’s not always easy to live a life of faith, but I’ve found that dependence on the Lord is the best place to be. God has great plans for you, too.</p>

Making Aliyah and Meeting Yeshua: The <nobr>Stouts’ Story</nobr>

<p><strong>I was born and raised in Bat Yam, a suburb of Tel Aviv, Israel, in a traditional Jewish family</strong>. We celebrated the Jewish holidays and were very proud of our Jewish heritage. There were five synagogues near our house in Bat Yam, and I was constantly exposed to conversations about God and Judaism. But nothing really won my heart. I didn't really care about God or religion; I found these concepts boring and dry.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Sahar-donkey.jpg" alt="Sahar with brother riding a donkey" /><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Sahar-socer.jpg" alt="Sahar playing soccer" /></p>
<p>My family loves sports. By age ten, I was playing on a professional soccer team. I pursued my dream of being a great soccer player, but I lived a very selfish, materialistic life.</p>
<p>When I was sixteen, a close cousin of mine, who was engaged to be married, was diagnosed with a very aggressive cancer. The doctor told him he would die soon. You can imagine what his parents were going through. They felt horribly hopeless and decided to ask a well-known rabbi to come and pray that their son would be healed. The rabbi asked for 50,000 shekels (about $14,000)! When I heard that, I was shocked. I didn't know God, but I knew that if there was a god, that's not the way he worked. The parents paid, the rabbi came, but my cousin still died.</p>
<p>As a result, my indifference toward Judaism shifted toward antagonism. This made me more open to other views.</p>
<p class="my-5 text-center"> </p>
<p>When I was almost twenty, a few nominally Catholic Arab players joined our soccer team. During the season, we became good friends, and I often visited them in their homes. I really love history, and I didn't yet know anything about Christianity. Since they were my friends, I wanted to know their beliefs, but I was too shy to ask them. And, as a Jew, it was understood that we don’t talk about Jesus and Christianity.</p>
<h6>I Google searched for "Christianity" and found the New Testament in Hebrew.</h6>
<p>So, in the twenty-first century, what do you do about it? You Google it! I searched for "Christianity" and found the New Testament in Hebrew. I expected it to be an antisemitic book with stories about Santa Claus! But in the first pages, the Gospel of Matthew, I read the genealogy of Jesus and saw all these Hebrew names. It felt so familiar. Then <strong>I realized that I was reading a book written by Jews about Jews, here in Israel</strong>. That really surprised me!</p>
<p>But what really made an impact was when I read about Jesus. No one on the entire spectrum of the human race, from the most devout to the most unrelenting atheist, can remain indifferent to him. You cannot help but like him – his wisdom, compassion, and love. <strong>Every time I read Jesus’ words and learned about his deeds, I wanted more</strong>.</p>
<p>Even so, I started to think that maybe I was getting too carried away, and that Jesus and the New Testament weren’t for me. So, I stopped reading. But Jesus kept running through my mind.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Sahar-20s-3.jpg" alt="Sahar in his 20s" /><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Sahar-20s-2.jpg" alt="Sahar in his 20s" /></p>
<p>Eventually, I decided to come back and finish reading the New Testament. As I continued, I came to believe that Jesus was the Messiah of my people. But I didn't personally know any other believers in Jesus, Jewish or Gentile, and I had no clue how I was supposed to live.</p>
<p>I kept at my same selfish, materialistic lifestyle. I was working in telemarketing and living with my girlfriend. But after two years, I couldn't bear that lifestyle anymore.</p>
<h6>This, at last, was what my heart had been longing for.</h6>
<p>The more my wallet and my body increased with money and pleasures, the more restless my heart became. Finally, I decided to do something about it. I remembered Jesus, and that I had put him on pause for two years. I turned to Google again, but this time to look for a church in Tel Aviv. I found what sounded like a good one, and when I went there, I met true Christians – believers in Jesus – who loved God and one another. This, at last, was what my heart had been longing for. As I began to regularly attend the church and a Bible study group, my lifestyle started to change. I broke up with my girlfriend, and I was Baptised into Messiah according to his Word (baptism was originally a Jewish custom, called <em>mikveh</em>, by the way).</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Sahar-baptism-1.jpg" alt="Sahar's baptism" /><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Sahar-baptism-2.jpg" alt="Sahar's baptism" /></p>
<h2>Life as a Christian</h2>
<p>In the years since I was baptized, many things have happened. First, beside getting to know Jesus and Jesus’s people, I also met my wife, Maria. She's a Swedish girl who came from a Christian home where her family have long prayed for salvation for the Jewish people. Together we have one little daughter, Thea, and another on the way!</p>
<p>My faith has also been growing and maturing over the years. <strong>The more I've attended church and received the sacraments, the more my faith has grown</strong>. I've learned how to rest my heart on the merciful love of God and to rely on him in everything.</p>
<p>I've also grown in a sense of my life calling. Having received unspeakable favor from God, it bothers me that millions of Jewish brothers and sisters are exactly like I was; not knowing who Jesus is and what he has done for us. They don’t know about his promise of forgiveness of sins and the life that he won for us in His glorious resurrection. God stirred my heart to work with Jews for Jesus to share the good news—<em>the joy of our salvation</em> (Psa 51.12)—with my fellow Israelis. </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Sahar-family.jpg" alt="Sahar with his family" /><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Sahar-Ministry.jpg" alt="Sahar speaking" /></p>

An Israeli Athlete Meets the Messiah: <nobr>Sahar's Story</nobr>

<p>Yoel and Adel Ben David live in Jerusalem and have four kids. They married when they were 20 years old and were involved in the Hasidic Breslov movement before becoming followers of Yeshua as their Messiah. Here is their story.</p>
<h3>About Yoel</h3>
<p>I live today in Jerusalem with Adel and our four children. I was actually born here in Israel and lived here for the first three years of my life, but my father worked for a hotel chain, so we lived in the Caribbean, England, and Paris over the next 16  years. Then we came back to Israel. </p>
<p>My mother is a proud Moroccan Jew, and my father is Scottish. My mum was very forceful with our Jewish heritage. She served with the Israeli Defense Force during the Yom Kippur War. She wanted us to be very aware of our Jewish identity. </p>
<p><img class="aligncenter" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Yoels-Morocco-Family.jpg" alt="Yoel's Morocco Family" width="100%" /></p>
<p>We were a traditional, rather than religious, Jewish family. We sat down every Friday night, and because my dad was not Jewish and I was the eldest son, I said the Kiddush. We ate our meal and then like any other family, we went into the living room and watched television. </p>
<h6>So I said, ‘God if you’re real, show up.’ And before me, I saw a face.</h6>
<p>In my teenage years, I went to the vicar at the school I was attending in England and asked him to give me some books about God, including the Koran and Hindu writings. He didn’t try to dissuade me! As I was reading the Koran on my bed, the thought came to me that if God exists, I shouldn’t need to read these books. God should just show up. </p>
<p><strong>So I said, “God if you’re real, show up.”</strong> And before me, I saw a face, and I knew it was Jesus, and I was afraid. I saw a clear vision of God—and I ignored it. I decided it was a figment of my imagination. </p>
<p><strong>Adel and I met each other at a time when we were both spiritually searching for the truth</strong>. We decided that if we believed in God, we were being hypocritical if we didn’t do something about our Judaism. </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Adel-brother-grandma.jpg" alt="Adel with her grandmother and brother" /><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Yoel-Adel-1.jpg" alt="Yoel and Adel before they were married" /></p>
<h3>About Adel</h3>
<p>My parents were from Latvia, and in 1978 they moved to Berlin. I was brought up in a Russian culture while living in Berlin. My mother died when I was very young, so I was brought up by my grandmother. <strong>I remember asking her “Grandma, am I German or Russian?” and she would say “You’re Jewish!”</strong> This was confusing to me. We went to the synagogue on holy days, but it was more of a social event than a religious observance. </p>
<p>I lived in Berlin until I was nineteen. I moved to Israel, and I met my future husband, Yoel, at the <em>ulpan</em> (a Hebrew learning school). At this point, I was invested in New Age philosophy, and Yoel wasn’t a practicing Jew. What connected us in those days was philosophizing about God. </p>
<p class="my-5 text-center"> </p>
<h3>Adel and Yoel’s Journey Together </h3>
<p><strong>Yoel says:</strong> At first, we just started observing Shabbat. Then I began to study the Torah and other writings. Next, it was practicing the holidays. We became more and more Haredi (ultra-Orthodox). We left the language school and were living together, so the idea of doing that and not being married seemed wrong. We knew we were right for each other, so we got married at the age of 20.</p>
<p>We approached the Breslov movement, but I still prayed in a Chabad (Lubavitch) synagogue, where I studied Talmud with the local rabbi. I wore a kippah and tzitzit, and grew the peyot. </p>
<p>As my enrollment in the army was upcoming, we decided to move to Jerusalem. The atmosphere was more religious than in Tel Aviv, so we thought we would feel more at home.</p>
<h6>We tried to live this religious life for a year and a half. But I felt that, despite our best efforts, we were constantly disappointed.</h6>
<p><strong>Adel says:</strong> Yoel and I became really invested in Jewish mysticism. We practiced meditation and we also engaged in the mystical side of Hasidic Judaism through the writings of the founder of the Breslov movement.</p>
<p>We tried to live this religious life for a year and a half. But I felt that, despite our best efforts, we were constantly disappointed. I felt like I hadn’t found what I was looking for. Something was wrong. I thought that if I found a combination of New Age and Judaism, my search would be over and I would be satisfied. </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Yoel-Adel-4.jpg" alt="Yoel and Adel in their Haredi years" /><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Yoel-Adel-2.jpg" alt="Yoel and Adel in their Haredi years" /></p>
<p>But everything changed when I met Judy. An elderly lady from Richmond, Virginia, she was the aunt of a friend. We invited her over and she started talking about God as though she knew Him! She challenged us to read the Bible for ourselves. This was something we weren't used to. Her parting words that first night were, “<strong>If you want to know God, just read the Torah.</strong>” Up until that time I had struggled to read it. I decided to read the Torah. In fact, Yoel and I raced each other to read it! </p>
<p><strong>Yoel says:</strong> Judy became like family to Adel and me. At that time, I was working during the day and Adel was working during the evenings. So I would spend many hours discussing the Bible with Judy. </p>
<h6>I asked her to explain <span class="do-not-parse">Isaiah 53</span>. She sat me down with a cup of tea and started telling me about Jesus.</h6>
<p>I started reading Isaiah, and when I got to chapter 53, I didn’t understand it, so I brought my confusion to Judy. We didn’t know it then, but she’d been praying for nine months for an opportunity to speak with us about Jesus. So when I knocked on her door and asked her to explain Isaiah 53. She sat me down with a cup of tea and started telling me about Jesus.</p>
<p>My initial reaction was to think I’d been deceived. Why hadn’t she told me about Jesus before? But as she continued talking, I started to sense what I now know to be the presence of God. Then I said in my mind, <strong><em>You know what, God? If this is true, then I’m going to go with my heart—I will believe</em>.</strong> And at that moment, I saw the same vision that I had seen three years before, sitting on my bed in England with the Koran next to me. I saw the face of Jesus. And then I knew, and I told Judy I was ready to believe. She gave me a tiny copy of the New Testament and I took it home, where I found Adel sitting on our bed, still reading the five books of Moses!</p>
<p>“Something terrible has happened!” I announced. “Jesus is the Messiah!”</p>
<p><strong>Adel says:</strong> Because I was missing out on Yoel’s conversations with Judy, I was quite taken aback by Yoel’s pronouncement. How could this be true? How could a guy come along, people follow him, and that became a new religion? I’d been searching so high and deep, this couldn’t possibly be the answer. I didn’t want it to be. But at the same time, I also knew that nothing would make Yoel change his mind unless he really believed it. </p>
<h6>I read through Matthew’s Gospel and by the end, I had tears in my eyes.</h6>
<p>So, I decided to read the New Testament, and I was very surprised.  I read through Matthew’s Gospel and by the end, I had tears in my eyes. It was not what I had expected. I couldn’t find anything I disagreed with. I became upset and asked myself, How come I’ve not read this before? After all, I’d grown up in Germany where I could easily have read the New Testament, unlike in Israel, where religious Jews are forbidden to read it. I hadn’t understood that I was a sinner and needed forgiveness. And <strong>so I too came to believe that Jesus was the Messiah</strong>.</p>
<p><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Yoel-Adel-baptism.jpg" alt="Yoel and Adel baptism" /><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Ben-David-Family.jpg" alt="Ben David Family" /></p>
<h3>Adel &amp; Yoel Today: </h3>
<p><strong>Yoel says:</strong> Since coming to faith, Adel and I have had lots of ups and downs. Eventually, Adel and I felt compelled to dedicate our lives to telling our Jewish people about Yeshua. We joined the staff of Jews for Jesus—but the adventure didn’t end! We have lived in 25 different homes over 20 years in Petah Tikva, London, New York, San Francisco, Jaffa, and now in Jerusalem. It has been amazing to experience God’s hand working in our lives and the lives of others. </p>
<p>Moving hasn’t always been easy for us and our four kids. <strong>We’ve experienced disappointment and failure. But all our struggles have sent us quickly to God</strong>. Through our trials in our home and our work, we have seen God change and mould us. The greatest moments of discouragement have been the source of God’s greatest demonstration of grace. </p>
<p><strong>Adel says:</strong> Today, we live on the border between East and West Jerusalem. <strong>We have a great community of fellow Jewish believers in Jesus who live in close proximity, which has been so encouraging to us</strong>.</p>
<p>For Yoel and I, <strong>our goal is to follow God’s plan for our lives here in Jerusalem</strong>. Our passion is to see a vibrant community of committed followers of Yeshua spring up here, and it’s a beautiful thing that we can work toward that goal together.</p>

A Hasidic Couple’s Journey: The Ben <nobr>David’s Story</nobr>

<h2>Dinah’s Story </h2>
<h4>My parents’ upbringing in Central and South America </h4>
<p>While I was born in New York, my story really begins with my immigrant parents from Central and South America. </p>
<p>My father was born in Guatemala City in a broken home. But at the age of eight, he met a missionary named Hazel, who introduced him to Jesus. When my father was 17, he moved to New York, where he met my mother. </p>
<p>My mother was born in Barranquilla, Colombia, to a Jewish family that immigrated to Israel. When she was a young girl, she said to God, “I know you are real. When I grow up, I want to know you.” When her family immigrated to New York, she accepted an invitation to go to church and knew that God had answered her prayers.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Dinah-family.jpg" alt="Dinah's family" width="100%" /></p>
<h4>From multicultural New York to Missouri </h4>
<p>My parents set a good example for me by faithfully following God, and while I don’t exactly remember when I started following Yeshua, I remember praying outside on a rainy day. The sun had peeked through the clouds, giving a warm glow as the rain continued to gently fall. I felt that God was so close to me at that moment. I said to Him, “God, I am so small, and you are so great! What could I ever do for you? Even still, please use me. But whatever I can do, let it be for you.”</p>
<p>We moved to Missouri, and it was so different from my multicultural upbringing in New York. I didn’t meet anyone else like me, and I desperately wanted to fit in. </p>
<h6>What other Jewish Latina girls believed in Jesus like me?</h6>
<p>To further complicate my identity struggles, when I was ten, my mother reconciled with the fact that she could be Jewish and believe in Jesus. We started celebrating the Jewish feasts. I enjoyed these celebrations and seeing God’s love and faithfulness, but at the same time, I felt like they made me even more isolated. What other Jewish Latina girls believed in Jesus like me? </p>
<p class="my-5 text-center"> </p>
<h4>Struggling with my identity </h4>
<p>I always loved sharing my faith in Jesus with my friends at school, strangers on the plane, neighbors, really anyone who would listen! I loved reading my Bible and felt God in my heart and mind as I read it. </p>
<p>While I knew the Bible said that I was set apart (Romans 12:2), I still desperately wanted to fit in. So, after high school, I joined the US Army Reserve, where my first and foremost identity was that of a soldier—nothing else mattered. And while the army gave me a sense of belonging, I still knew that I didn’t feel right. </p>
<p>I realize now that I didn’t fully understand that I was set apart as one of God’s children. I slowly began to realize that I belonged to Him, and I wouldn’t find my identity in anything the world had to offer. </p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Dinah-army.jpg" alt="Dinah in the U.S. Army" /><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Sereds-College.jpg" alt="Dinah and Dan in college" /></p>
<h4>My unique story </h4>
<p>I am so thankful that God led a foreign missionary to my father’s town. He sent a local churchwoman to my mom’s childhood home to invite her to church. And I am so thankful that the identity that I had been looking for since I was a child has been found in Jesus, my Messiah. </p>
<p>Once I found my identity in Yeshua, I found a deep desire within me to tell other Jewish people about Him. And I have continued to tell people about Jesus ever since—even my own husband, Dan! </p>
<h2>Dan’s Story </h2>
<h4>I always knew God was real</h4>
<p>I was born in Israel on the holiest of the Jewish festivals, Yom Kippur. I grew up in a secular home. We followed traditions and observed the holidays, but none of them meant anything to me. We rarely went to synagogue, and my parents told me that the Bible was full of fairy tales and that people created God. </p>
<h6>I didn’t know much, but I knew that God was real, and the Bible was true. </h6>
<p>But something always prevented me from believing that. I didn’t know much, but I knew that God was real, and the Bible was true. </p>
<p>My bar mitzvah was a time to learn about my Jewish identity and go to synagogue. But I still felt that there was something missing. I knew we were supposed to be waiting for the Messiah, but it seemed futile. After my bar mitzvah, I went back to rarely attending synagogue and soon lost interest in serving God.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Dan-BarMitzvh-1.jpg" alt="Dan's Bar Mitzvah" /><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Dan-BarMitzvh-2.jpg" alt="Dan's Bar Mitzvah" /></p>
<h4>Moving to New York</h4>
<p>When I was 15, our family moved to New York. After graduating high school there, I enrolled in Stony Brook University as a math major. One day, a student named Dinah came to me with a math question. After I finished helping her, she commented on my accent. I explained that I was Israeli, and she enthusiastically replied, “I’m Jewish, too!”</p>
<p>At some point in our conversation, she told me that she believed in Yeshua. I had never heard that name before, so I asked who she was talking about. She told me that Yeshua is the Hebrew name for Jesus. As soon as I heard that, it made perfect sense to me. Yeshua in Hebrew means “salvation.” Now, if Jesus is salvation, I reasoned, it is possible that He is the Messiah, and I would not have to wait anymore. I was intrigued, so Dinah and I made plans to meet the next week. </p>
<h4>Dinah showed me Yeshua in the Old Testament</h4>
<p>Over lunch, Dinah showed me Old Testament passages that pointed to Jesus. By that afternoon, it was clear to me that Jesus was the Messiah. I wondered what my parents would say. I told Dinah that I couldn't accept Jesus until I told my parents. I couldn't make the most important decision of my life without letting them know. I was afraid, and it took me a couple of days to tell them. </p>
<p>Incredibly, they did not seem very concerned and said something to the effect of, “You'll grow out of it.” Later, I found out that Dinah's family and congregation had been praying that my parents would not react too negatively. The next day, I described what happened and told Dinah, “I believe!”</p>
<p>Dinah explained that I needed to ask God to forgive my sins and invite Him to be my personal Messiah, which I did later that day. My parents watched while I faithfully attended church and Bible classes over the next three months. They realized that I was not merely going through a phase and became extremely upset. My mother went through my room and threw out everything having to do with Jesus. </p>
<p>I realized that there was no way I could stay in my parents’ home and follow God. Leaving was a source of great sadness for me. It is still quite ironic to me that my parents put so much effort in attempting to bring me back to Judaism and to a God that they don't believe in.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Sereds-wedding.jpg" alt="Dan and Dinah wedding" /><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Sereds-NYC.jpg" alt="Dan and Dinah in New York" /></p>
<h2>Dan and Dinah’s Story</h2>
<p><strong>Dinah says: </strong>In the summer of 1996, I volunteered with Jews for Jesus, where I felt right at home. I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life sharing the spiritual richness I had found in being <a href="/100-percent">100% Christian and 100% Jewish</a>. </p>
<p>Dan and I met in 1997 when I shared the gospel with him. After we married in 1999, we moved to Israel to work with Jews for Jesus for nearly 20 years. We raised three beautiful children, and we now live in New Jersey, where we continue to share the gospel with the Jewish people. </p>
<p>In Israel, we were viewed as a curiosity. I was surprised at their response—people in Israel were genuinely interested to know why we believed in Jesus. One of the most culturally shocking experiences I had was seeing fliers littered in the streets with the warning “the Sereds are missionaries—beware!” We were embarrassed and angry. It was an interesting time, as our relationships were challenged. Living in Israel was a very new and challenging experience for me. </p>
<p><strong>Dan says: </strong>My parents continued to be hostile towards my faith and also pressured me to call off my marriage to Dinah. But God continued to be faithful to us—we married and moved to Israel, and I began working with Jews for Jesus there. </p>
<h6>God has taught us to live in the light of His greatness and our redemption.</h6>
<p>God continues to teach me and Dinah to be faithful and trust Him. He is the source of life: “for in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). After working in Israel for 20 years, God brought us to New Jersey to serve here. No matter where we are, we know God is with us. Dinah and I strive to be attentive to His guiding voice. In response, we can give thanks for all that He does in our lives, the lives of our family and friends, in ministry, and places we are called to. </p>
<p><img class="aligncenter" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Sered-Fam-2019.jpg" alt="The Sered Family" width="100%" /></p>
<p>God has taught us to live in the light of His greatness and our redemption: “so if you have been raised with the Messiah, seek what is above, where the Messiah is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on what is above not on what is on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with the Messiah in God. When the Messiah, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:1–4).</p>

She Showed Him the New Testament: The <nobr>Sereds’ Story</nobr>

<h4>A Jewish boy in Los Angeles</h4>
<p>I grew up in Los Angeles in a culturally Jewish home. I practiced my Jewish faith, went to Temple at Beth Hillel on a regular basis, attended Sunday school, and had a Bar Mitzvah. All in all, I was a very typical Jewish kid in LA.</p>
<p>A couple of years after my Bar Mitzvah, aged about fifteen, I was going through the confirmation process at my synagogue. The associate Rabbi asked me if I would prepare a lesson and teach a class to the kids on a comparison between Judaism and Christianity. It was the first time I had heard a Rabbi ask for that, and I knew nothing about Christianity—I only had about three friends who weren’t Jewish!</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Marc-Stein-70s.jpg" alt="Marc's Bar Mitzvah" /><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/MarcStein-70s.jpg" alt="Marc youth" /></p>
<h4>Reading the New Testament for the first time</h4>
<p>After flipping through the pages of our Encyclopedia Britannica at home, I went to my local library and I read the gospels in the New Testament for the first time. <strong>I was dumbfounded to see so much familiarity in it and just how Jewish it was.</strong> So, I went back to my senior Rabbi to seek clarification. I genuinely and curiously asked him why we didn’t believe in Jesus. He looked at me over his glasses and pointed me out of the office.</p>
<h6>I had nowhere to go with this experience. I didn’t know anyone that was a Jewish follower of Jesus.</h6>
<p>That was the end of that. I had nowhere to go with this experience. I didn’t know anyone that was a Jewish follower of Jesus.</p>
<p class="my-5 text-center"> </p>
<h4>Becoming the “rich uncle”</h4>
<p>My attention subsequently shifted to two topics: Girls and making money. I still loved God, but from a distance.</p>
<h6>I was extremely fortunate in business, but something was missing.</h6>
<p>Later on, I had a falling out with the Temple, and I left really disillusioned. I decided my life goal was to become “the rich uncle.” I was highly interested in business and I really prospered. My dedication and ambitions were focused on myself and making money. I owned many businesses and was doing well by all standards. I was a classic entrepreneur—identifying an unmet need in the marketplace and figuring out how to fill the void. I was extremely fortunate in business, but something was missing, and I knew it.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Marc-Stein-90s.jpg" alt="Marc business" /><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Marc-Stein-family1.jpg" alt="Marc with his kids" /></p>
<h4>Feeling the weight of emptiness</h4>
<p>This worked well for the first half of my working life until I reached the age of 40. However, I suddenly had a couple of reversals—one business failure and one personal failure. I found myself to be divorced, a single father, and in a totally desperate place.</p>
<p><strong>My life was full of stuff but empty on the inside.</strong> I would ask my friends and associates, “Where do you find your peace?” I would get all kinds of answers: Gardening, hiking, yoga, meditation, running. I was running a lot at that time but probably more from my life than towards anything else.</p>
<h4>Another encounter with Yeshua</h4>
<p>Just as my life felt like it was crumbling, I had another encounter with Jesus. A courageous friend showed me <a href="/learn/whos-the-subject-of-isaiah-53/">Isaiah 53</a> and my memory of reading about Jesus as a young boy in the library came back to me. <strong>In a moment, my world changed, and my priorities shifted.</strong> I really wanted my people to know their Messiah. It took me a long time to figure out Yeshua’s message of grace—I was accustomed to the “I love you if, I love you when” model. Learning that Jesus didn’t love me intermittently or conditionally kept me going.</p>
<h6>My mother lamented, 'why can’t you have a normal midlife crisis?'</h6>
<p>Upon telling my Jewish mother about my belief in Jesus, she lamented, “why can’t you have a normal midlife crisis?” That was the beginning of a very strained decade with my family—I was no longer the respected “rich uncle” I once was. Over the next few years, I redirected my professional attention toward causes that were near to my heart.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Marc-Stein-ministry1.jpg" alt="Marc ministry" /><img style="max-width: 360px; width: 100%; padding: 10px;" src="https://live-api.jewsforjesus.org/wp-content/uploads/Marc-Stein-family2.jpg" alt="Marc family" /></p>
<h4>God never stops working</h4>
<p>For over a decade, I have served in executive positions in three different ministries, bringing slightly different perspectives and expectations than they had been accustomed to previously. However, not a day goes by when I am not using my MBA, leadership training, and entrepreneurial skills and resources that God has gifted me with to serve Him. God continues to work in my heart and life, and it’s been amazing to see Him work in and through me when I have committed to living for Him.</p>
<p><em>Marc and his wife, Sylvia reside in a little coastal community in Southern California, and have five children and eight grandchildren living across the country.</em></p>

A Jewish Businessman’s Journey: Marc <nobr>Stein’s Story</nobr>

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