Although my family maintained some Jewish traditions, I only attended Hebrew school until the second grade. After my Bar Mitzvah, I had no desire to continue learning about Judaism because I did not find it relevant to my life.
As a teenager, I felt adrift in a world that I believed could never change for the better. Eventually, I met three girls in my high school who shared my concerns – and they seemed to have some real answers. We became friendly, and they began to speak about meetings they regularly attended which helped them deal with the big questions about life.
It turned out that these three girls were fundamentalist Christians, and although this fact greatly bothered my mother, I felt very comfortable being with them. As they shared more and more of their beliefs with me, my mother became more and more concerned. Without question, I was becoming deeply inveigled into their religion.
At this critical time, my mother received a mailing from Jews for Judaism advertising their counter-missionary course. Two weeks later, she told me that she attended the first lecture and asked me to accompany her to the second. Realizing that it made good sense for me to hear the Jewish response to Christian claims, I agreed to go.
I was very impressed by Rabbi Skobac’s presentation on the origins of Christianity and the reasons why Jews never accepted Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. When I related this information to my Christian friends, they became very defensive and were unable to respond. Eventually, they even refused to speak with me.
Without Jews for Judaism, I would still be involved in Christianity, trying to convince other Jews to follow my lead. Rabbi Skobac helped me discover my true Jewish roots and the way back to my family, community and the beauty of Judaism. Thank you!
