Our Stories

I googled “Christianity” and found the New Testament in Hebrew. I expected it to be an anti-Semitic 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.

I kept looking for a traditional Jewish explanation that would satisfy, but found none. The only plausible explanation seemed to be Jesus.

My life’s two passions have been mathematics and being Jewish. I viewed life as one big equation and was always looking for its solution! So how does Jewish boy + a traditional Jewish education + mathematics PhD = believer in Jesus?

I realized that Jesus had never been anything else but a Jew, and I accepted Him into my life. Today I am very outspoken about my faith. After surviving Auschwitz, what do I have to lose?

I was spiritually dry, and found myself seeking answers in an Orthodox Yeshivah. Within eight or nine months, I was completely fed up and confused. I left feeling empty. The God I had once believed in seemed far away, if He even existed.

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.

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 may be that He is the Messiah and I would not have to wait anymore.

I was trained in the scientific method, yet I had judged the New Testament without having read it. What kind of scientific method was that? So I took the book home and began reading it eagerly and with an open mind. It was not anti-Semitic – in fact, it was very Jewish.

It was at that moment I remembered tearing Jews for Jesus posters off of a telephone pole years before. I had told my friend these people were liars, that you can’t be Jewish and believe in Jesus.

I felt I hadn’t found what I was looking for. Something was wrong. I thought that if I could find a combination of New Age and Judaism, my search would be over.

When I realized he was trying to push Jesus on me, I threw him out of my house and told him never to speak to me again.

Throughout my life and in Yeshiva, I had been taught that the Messiah who would come and redeem Israel would be from the line of King David. I asked God to give me a sign that would answer my questions and point me in the direction I needed to go in life.

I said, “God, if you’re real, show up.” And before me I saw the face of Jesus! I looked at it and I felt a presence in my room; and I felt afraid. I saw a clear vision of God—and ignored it.

"Knowing Jesus has changed every area of my life, not the least of which is my professional life. I am a full-time private practicing medical oncologist. My relationship with the living God gives my life meaning and fulfillment. It brings contentment, despite the painful realities of life and death."

I had so many questions like “why is there one God for the Gentiles and another God for the Jews?”

Ceil Rosen, wife of Jews for Jesus founder, Moishe, had a unique Christmas experience, leading her to consider Jesus seriously as the alternative to religious Judaism or atheism.

"Then, when I was 21 years old, I was working for a guy at Sears. He was a Christian — a strong Christian — and he started witnessing to me and came out to my apartment one night and shared the gospel with me about Jesus Christ being the Messiah and being the Savior. And that was just exciting news, and it all made sense to me."

I could not deny that everything they looked for was found in him, Jesus the Messiah and the Hope of Israel.

How did this Jewish woman come to faith in Jesus though a knock-knock joke? Read Laurie’s story…

I was born in 1932 in Belarus. My parents were religious; they knew God. My father was a rabbi and was sent to prison for five years for conducting circumcision rituals. My father always took me to the synagogue, but I did not understand anything there. I only understood Yiddish. My father always prayed before meals, "Baruch Atah Adonai Elohenu," then he dipped bread into salt and then we could eat.