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!

My family moved to New Jersey for my last few years of high school and upon graduation I entered college at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut. That did not last very long! I quickly dropped out and moved to California with my friend, Efraim Goldstein. Efraim and I were interested in wine, women and song -- definitely not in religion! In California, I was introduced to some Eastern religions and became attracted to them, but I was not serious about anything except having a good time!

After this, my life took some curious turns. One of my best friends from college, a young woman named Joan, joined us in California during the summer of 1970. After a few weeks she traveled up to Oregon and along the way met a couple of "born again" Gentiles! They told her about the Jewish Messiah and, after some time, she became a believer in Yeshua. Some months later she traveled back to San Francisco to tell Efraim and me about her faith. I thought she had become a total "meshuggenah," but Efraim listened and went back up to Oregon with her. He also became a believer.

I began receiving letters from both of them and went up to Oregon to try and talk them out of their new-found faith. It didn't work. They encouraged me to read the Bible and for the first time as an adult, I began reading the Old Testament -- I would not touch the New!

I began to see God and the Jewish people in a new light and found myself having a new spiritual hunger that I had never experienced before. I began to believe in God and accept the idea that He wanted to have a relationship with me. My friends believed this was only possible through Yeshua, but I was not convinced. You see, I was brought up knowing that Jews do not believe in Jesus. I don't think I ever realized that Jesus was Jewish! I had never read the New Testament. I just didn't know much about Yeshua and basically had been taught that He was the god of the Gentiles.

I went back to San Francisco and kept reading the Bible. One day, I sincerely prayed, "God, if you are there, show me how to get to you... is it through Moses? Orthodox Judaism? or... through Jesus?" I was hoping God would show me that it was not through Jesus so that I could tell my friends and help them to be normal again. But God had other plans.

That evening I was making a call at a phone booth and on the shelf where there should have been a phone book there was a copy of Good News for Modern Man, a modern English version of the New Testament. I was shocked. I had just prayed, "God, show me," and to my surprise... He did! I took the New Testament and began reading it. Quickly I realized that Jesus was Jewish and that the New Testament itself was a very Jewish book. I thought to myself, "How could non-Jews ever understand this book?"

Then I began comparing the prophecies in the Old Testament with those fulfilled in the New. The case for Jesus being the Messiah was far stronger than I had imagined. We have written some of these prophecies up into a little pamphlet, which we would be happy to send you if you like and which you can share with a Jewish friend.

After studying these and many other prophecies, it became clear to me that Yeshua was the promised Messiah of our people. He was all that I ever thought Messiah would be.

My life has never been the same since accepting Yeshua as my Messiah. My Jewishness has never made more sense to me. Jesus said something which summarizes how I feel about my relationship with God: "For what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?" If God is real, then He is worth seeking. There is no relationship more important than the one we can have with God.