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?
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.
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.
I had so many questions like “why is there one God for the Gentiles and another God for the Jews?”
I take comfort in Jesus’ words: “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life” (Luke 18:29–30).
Although my faith made for some uncomfortable times with my parents, it also led to some thoughtful and fruitful discussions. And, much to their credit, they never allowed it to rupture our relationship.
Stan Meyer's Story Should I admit to my Orthodox Jewish friends that I was a secret believer in Jesus? Perhaps I hoped they would challenge my belief. After all, life would be simpler if I did not believe in Jesus. But my experience with Orthodox Judaism pointed me...
Melissa Weinisch was born to Messianic parents. Melissa accepted Jesus as the Messiah at age five for herself and not just for her parents. This article and video share Melissa’s journey of not just being a believer in Jesus but rather being pursuer of God, seeking Him with all of her body, soul, and spirit.
When a rabbi told him that he didn’t have to believe in God, Shimon Eitan became even more confused about Judaism.
OK, I’m just going to say it. I love Christmas. I don’t have a problem, as a Jew, proclaiming that. I admit I have a Christmas tree, I love singing Christmas carols, and if you come to my house in December, you will hear Handel’s...
As in the ancient days of the Pharaoh, my mother’s family was forced to flee from Egypt in 1952, a time when Jews were hated and feared there as Israel’s statehood became a fact. The “promised land” to our family was Paris, France. There my...
Jews in Pakistan?! There are Jews in Pakistan?!?” is the common reaction I get when I tell people I was born in Karachi, Pakistan. My father, a Catholic, was of Goan origin (Goa is a western province of India), and my mother comes from the Bene-Israel Jewish...
Rich Robinson: Coming In Through the Back Door Like many Jewish people, I was raised in a home where Jewishness was more cultural than religious. Our family celebrated Passover and Hanukkah at our home in Brooklyn, we went to the Temple on the High Holy Days, and...
It was Yom Kippur. I was twelve, and I was fasting for the first time. I woke up early that morning, feeling especially holy and begging my parents to hurry and get dressed. I wanted to be in synagogue to spend the day praying and fasting like other Jews. We sat side...
