After completing high school, I decided to live on my own, determined to “make it” as a musician. One of my band mates had become a born-again Christian and this created tremendous friction within his family. Feeling concern, I let him move in with me. After several months, he presented me with a King James Bible and urged me to pray that G-d show me the truth about Jesus.
I immediately sensed that my roommate had a rich experience of G-d in his daily life that I never found in the Judaism I had experienced in my youth. Soon, I began to study the Christian scriptures with great intensity and became absorbed in its teachings. Finally, I committed my life to Jesus and began looking for opportunities to preach my newfound faith at every opportunity.
One day, while taking out the garbage I noticed a pile of newspapers near the chute, and the paper on top instantly caught my eye. On the cover of the Canadian Jewish News was a story and accompanying photograph about an organization called Jews for Judaism. I read the article, and learned that they would be offering an eight-week course called, “What Every Jew Should Know About Missionaries.” There and then, I decided to attend the class and convert the teacher, Julius Ciss, along with the other students!
Already in its fourth week, the class was discussing the Jewish concept of the Messiah. Julius demonstrated how Christianity quoted passages from the Bible out of context to build its case for Jesus. I was shaken! I began to review the class material at home and develop an uneasy feeling in my stomach. For the first time, I was having serious doubts about Christianity.
The following week, I returned for the lecture, and soon, my confidence in the Christian faith started to crumble. By the end of the seventh class, I knew for certain that I had been terribly wrong for the last three years. Obviously, a shaky Jewish background had left me vulnerable to another faith.
Jews for Judaism arranged that I attend a traditional Shabbat where I witnessed Judaism’s spiritual richness for the first time in my life. At a later date, the organization helped to send me to Israel to continue my Jewish studies and
pursue my dream, namely to live a full Jewish life. Today, I am living that life, with my wife and children in Israel.
