Jeff is 100% Jewish. For him, that meant three things. It meant growing up with a solid cultural identity. It meant being very proud of a DNA test that said, “purebred.” And it meant not needing Jesus.

Jeff’s extended family had emigrated from Ukraine and settled in New York. Where he grew up in the Bronx, diverse cultures lived side-by-side. “We didn’t speak of Christians in those days. It was Catholics; there were Jews and Catholics. I played ball on teams, and my teammates were either Jewish, Irish, or Italian.”

His family went to synagogue and celebrated the major holidays. They raised their children with this truth: their deepest loyalty must lie with the Jewish team. “We knew only one thing: we were Jewish. There was no reason to want to associate with the religion of my friends.”

Jeff went on to become a successful forensic dentist and helped New York detectives uncover the truth behind homicides. That often meant going to the mortuary to identify bodies. He could sense the presence of pure evil there. It was then that he realized, “If you believe that there’s evil, you have to believe the corollary—that there’s good.”

I knew this guy was bad, and the guy over there was bad, but not me! I’m a good guy.

And as a good Jew, a hardworking person who’d never done anything close to the crimes that he dealt with, Jeff knew which side he was on. He says, “I knew this guy was bad, and the guy over there was bad, but not me! I’m a good guy.”

No one ever challenged Jeff’s assertion of his own goodness—until he married a Christian woman and started going to church with her. The preacher would tell the congregation in no uncertain terms, “You’re sinners. The answer for that is Jesus.”

Jeff is an intellectual Jew who says, “Tell me your ideas; I think that’s good.” So he listened to understand, but not to agree. “I certainly didn’t need Jesus. Why would I want Jesus as a Jew? Would I want a third eye?”

When the church hosted a series on the Jewish Perspectives of Christianity, Jeff was intrigued, but refused to go alone. So he took as many Jewish guys along as would come with him. He thought, “I want to come armed, because I’m going into the den of Gentiles!”

In the Q&A part of the event, Jeff raised his hand. “I feel I’m a pretty good guy. I’m not gonna go to heaven unless through Jesus, is that what you’re telling me?” The speaker, Bob Mendelsohn, gave a simple answer: Yes.

At that point, the message became personal. Jeff wanted to understand Bob. He wondered: Why does a Jewish guy who grew up like me believe the way he does?

To answer that question, Jeff went back to the beginning—back to how Christianity got started. He read the New Testament accounts of Jesus’ life and teaching and found that it was all more than just a good story. “Everything started to have a ring of truthfulness.”

Being a forensic dentist, after reading the gospels, I said, “This is very true.” This is how eyewitness testimony is given. Because I’ve sat in trials and I’ve sat next to eyewitnesses where we were being interviewed by the DA, and I could see that one person who had witnessed the same event gave almost a completely different story… So when people would criticize the gospel and say, Well, how come Mark said this, but Matthew didn’t have it?… People tell a story as they see it and as they remember it… That was really pushing me to say, “Hey, there may be something that’s really true here.”

At Easter, Jeff heard the resurrection story. When the reverend mentioned how Jesus’ body disappeared after the crucifixion, a light bulb went on. Jeff had identified enough homicide victims to know that today, it’s almost impossible to get rid of a body. Two thousand years ago, it probably was impossible.

“Certainly in Biblical times, if that body was around after Jesus was killed on the cross, that body would’ve been found.” Everybody was looking for it. And everybody—from the Roman rulers to the Jewish Sanhedrin—would’ve liked to prove that he was really dead. Maybe the body would’ve been found ten years later, but it would’ve been found. “Without a body, you have to believe that the resurrection is true.”

Why would he lie about everything but not lie about the resurrection?

At that point, Jeff realized he had no choice but to believe in the resurrection—like it or not! He said, “So if I believe that, I have to believe that everything else [Jesus] said was true. Why would he lie about everything, but not lie about the resurrection?”

In light of the resurrection, it takes more of a leap of faith NOT to believe the Gospels. “The problem is, these days, people have their own worldview. People don’t like to hear facts that violate their belief.”

Now that Jeff was confident that the story was true, he wanted to become part of it. So, he made the decision to be baptized and to share his faith publicly.

When talking to Jewish brothers and sisters who are curious, Jeff says this:

“Read the New Testament. Also, you should know your Old Testament. You should know all the prophecies in the Old Testament of the coming of the Messiah (Mashiach). And that Mashiach has fit only one person in all of history.

There is no coincidence. That’s beyond mathematical numbers… Everything that Jesus was, was fulfilled from the Old Testament. And everything he said in the New Testament is being fulfilled, and has been fulfilled, and will be fulfilled.”

Watch Jeff tell his story!