Boris Skvortsov grew up in Israel in a home of Jewish believers in Jesus and came to personal faith in Yeshua at 17.

Boris writes: “I was postponing the decision to follow Yeshua for a while. Impacted by a short mission trip to Africa, I felt that giving God my life was an irreversible step and meant everything. I was sitting on the fence, trying to benefit from God and from the world: playing both in a band for my ‘glory’ and worshiping at church. A time came when God touched my heart, and repenting of my pride and sin, I accepted Jesus as my Messiah. I decided to live for His kingdom, not mine.’’

Upon completing his army service, Boris had a hunger to rest in God and know Him deeper. He joined a discipleship program where he met his future wife, Gefen.

Boris and Gefen joined the Jews for Jesus outreach to India and the young adult ministry. Boris led different outreaches in the general team. He completed his BA in theological studies and taught in the discipleship program where he and Gefen first met. In 2020, they pioneered an Israeli team in the UK, where they live with their two daughters. Boris is now the UK branch leader.

Boris has a heart for teaching and worship, and above all, he’s driven to share the gospel.

Gefen grew up in a believing home in Israel. When she was 14 years old, Gefen accepted Yeshua as her Savior, but struggled with her faith during high school and her military service. After finishing the army, she renewed her relationship with the Lord and participated in a three-month discipleship program, where she also met her future husband, Boris.

In 2013, Gefen joined the staff of Jews for Jesus in Tel Aviv, Israel, as part of the Youth and Young Adult Missionary Team; helping to host events at the Moishe Rosen Center; and leading weekly meetings for women, youth, and soldiers. In the summers, she was also a part of training and leading Massah teams, where groups of young Messianic believers travel to India to share the gospel with Israeli backpackers.

In 2020 Gefen and Boris moved to the UK to pioneer an Israeli team reaching Israelis who live in London with the gospel. The team rented a house where Gefen is using her experience to host events in service of the Israeli community. She also serves women and mothers in different ways. Gefen has a BA in linguistics and is currently studying towards a diploma as a parenting consultant, hoping to use it to further serve the community. She and Boris have two daughters, and she is passionate about positive parenting and showing compassion to women and mothers.

London born and bred, Julia first worked with Jews for Jesus as a volunteer.

Julia grew up knowing three things: she was Jewish, there was someone called God, and her family didn’t believe in Jesus. The sudden death of Julia’s mother caused her to question God’s existence. She went to psychics and mediums but found no peace.

In her late 20s, Julia met a Christian who told her that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah. She was challenged to read messianic prophecies found in the Tanach (Torah) that point to Jesus. She discovered that Jesus had all the credentials that the prophets said the Messiah would have. In 1998, Julia accepted Jesus as her Messiah! She finally found the shalom she’d been searching for.

Julia joined our staff in 2004, serving in our UK branch, and has since then led many of our outreaches, our music group Blue Mosaic, and our UK branch from 2013–2019. Today, she helps Jewish people make up their own minds about who Jesus is. Her greatest passion is supporting new Jewish believers in Jesus, offering one-to-one Bible studies, and helping each new believer find their identity in Messiah and their place within the body of Messiah.

Maia is Israeli-Norwegian and has been living in London for about five years. She was born in Jerusalem and grew up in an interfaith household. When she was 18, she was searching for meaning and trying to find answers to the big questions in life. God made Himself known to her through Yeshua (Jesus) when she was living in Norway, and she has since had a burden for her Jewish people. As she went back to visit her family in Israel after coming to faith, she noticed how they didn’t have access to Jesus. How is it that the nation that received the revelation of the living God doesn’t know the most precious gift He gave?

Maia has a BA in social science and communication from the University of Agder. When she first came to London, she worked in an Israeli start-up until she felt pulled to dedicate herself to full-time ministry. She is serving as a missionary on the Israeli team in London. They seek to engage Israeli people with the gospel and equip those who are open to following Jesus. They also want to serve the community with the needs they have being in the diaspora. Maia is also involved in Jewish Gentile Couples ministry.

Ziggy grew up believing that Jesus was the greatest enemy of the Jewish people and the source of all antisemitism, a traitor who had been rightly crucified as a blasphemer. But after completing his post-doctoral studies in mathematics, a friend invited Ziggy to a guest event at a church, where he began attending a short course called Christianity Explored.

There he went on to study one of the eye-witness accounts of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and in his own words said, “I discovered a Jesus I never could have imagined.” After a time of reflection on the prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures, he became convinced that Jesus was indeed Israel’s long-promised Messiah.

Ziggy joined Jews for Jesus as a full-time missionary in London in 2009. He is married to Cristiana, and they have two small boys: Noah and Joseph. He grew up in a strong Jewish community on the outskirts of London in Essex and is named after his grandmother’s father, Zigmund, who perished in Auschwitz. As Ziggy says, “My name stands as a monument to the memory of the millions of Jewish people who died for the sole reason that they were Jewish.”