Our Stories

I was born into a Jewish family, but religion was not a popular topic in the Soviet Union. My parents and grandparents were all atheists. I couldn’t understand why my family kept some Jewish traditions despite their disbelief.

A Bit of Every Religion I grew up in a Jewish family in Northern California that believed in just about…

Outside, she could hear the matches scratching. As the village around them exploded in flames, the Nazis attempted to set the last house alight. Within these walls, Maria Weinstein huddled in the embrace of her newly adopted family. There, amid the chaos, Jew and gentile united as one family in fervent prayer.

I used to drive by the Jews for Jesus office in Toronto and curse it—or even spit at it—because I had been taught that they were “terrible people, just out to make Jews become Christians.” But there was no denying that Jesus was a Jew and a devout one at that.

I was born into a secular Jewish family. We loosely practiced some of the Jewish traditions and attended synagogue sometimes. But I didn't feel a spiritual connection to my religion. And as a young adult, I sought spiritual meaning in other places...

I grew up in a traditional home. My family kept kosher; I went to Hebrew classes; and I had my bar mitzvah at the Wailing Wall. But until I learned about a personal relationship with God through Messiah Jesus, I considered God too distant and holy to be personally known.

"I was on a spiritual quest. I wanted to know the God my grandpa Singer prayed to. I was fascinated by Jesus and asked God to give me a sign if Jesus was who I had been searching for."

"I was amazed to see Israelis believing that Yeshua is the Messiah—it felt both foreign and welcoming. I was intrigued by the love they demonstrated for the needy and the community around them."

"I read the gospels in the New Testament for the first time. I was dumbfounded to see so much familiarity in it and just how Jewish it was."

"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."

"I said in my mind, You know what, God? If this is true, then I’m going to go with my heart. And at that moment, I saw the face of Jesus. I went home and found Adel. 'Something terrible has happened!' I announced. 'Jesus is the Messiah!'"

Jewish faith in Jesus was handed down from generation to generation on both sides of my family, so my parents are Jewish Iranian believers in Jesus.

I googled “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.