Jewish Believers in Jesus
Michael Z. in Israel
When Michael Z. left the Soviet Union for a new home in Israel in 1989, his only goal was to get away from a difficult life. Little did he know that he was running headlong toward a rediscovery of his Jewish identity in a way he never thought possible.
Mitch
I was born and raised in New York City. My parents are both Jewish and I made my Bar Mitzvah at an Orthodox synagogue where I went to Hebrew school and received my training. I cannot say that I was especially religious and probably was even uncertain about the existence of God. I was taught to respect the Scriptures and my heritage and, as you might imagine, the farthest thing from my mind was that one day I would believe in Yeshua as my Messiah!
Zhava
So what can I tell you? I've always been a nice Jewish girl! I never messed with drugs, got straight A's in school and always did what my mother told me. I even would have been a doctor if I hadn't fainted at the sight of blood! What am I doing then, believing that Yeshua (Jesus' name in Hebrew) is the Jewish Messiah?
Noel
Hundreds of miles from civilization, I was sure this was the end. The agony of waiting was unbearable. Two of my buddies had died violently in a span of two weeks, and I was terrified that I might be next. My liberal Jewish upbringing had not prepared me for this. I was too occupied coping with life - how could I possibly be ready for death? What would happen to me then?
Goldie
I was a nice Jewish kid from the Bronx, one of two daughters of immigrant parents who were survivors of Nazi death camps. We were raised with a lot of Jewish culture and spoke Yiddish at home. During my teens, after school or on weekends, I went to a Workmen's Circle School (a school where Jewish culture was taught). Yet despite all my Jewishness, what little sense of God I had disappeared while I was still in junior high school.
Akiva
I was visiting Jerusalem to see my grandmother, but in the process, my visit stirred up a deep sense of being Jewish and finding a much more extended family and identity. I began to ask, perhaps for the first time in my life, "Just what does it mean to be Jewish?"
Vera
I grew up in a Conservative Jewish home in Germany and don't remember a time that I didn't believe in God or that I didn't pray. My prayers progressed from little childish rhymes to the Shema, and eventually to adding my own prayers after reciting the Shema.
Artis
Most kids ask questions, and some ask so many and such deep ones that they are always in trouble. They are generally the ones who refuse to be put off with the simplistic answers offered by busy adults-even if that adult is their rabbi. Artis was that kind of kid.
Russian Believers
I was born almost 45 years ago in Kiev. My atheistic upbringing would allow me to have nothing to do with God. There was no place for Him in my world. Yet life in my world was very difficult: anger, injustice, family problems, disappointments - all of these things I had to carry on my shoulders.
