“One day I was searching for Jesus on YouTube…”

My story:

About a year ago I was about to join a Hassidic sect and my father told me all kinds of things about rabbis and all their strange wisdom. I kept hearing about their laws and that I could only please God if I obeyed them. Even though on the outside I felt good, on the inside I was disappointed and empty, and really worried all the time about God’s Judgement.

One day I found out that my sister believes in such a strange belief of forgiveness and I asked her about it and she told me that there is a man named Yeshua and that there is forgiveness of sins with Him. I was so happy when I found out, and shortly after I also found out that even my mother believed in Yeshua! I told myself that it was something that was very worth exploring.

One day I was searching for “Jesus” on YouTube and came across you. Every video of yours relieved me, washed away any pressure from me and made me happy in faith. Instead of thinking of God as a dictator seeking to punish if I do something bad and that he is cold and distant from everyone, I felt God so close! That I even felt that he was like a really loving Father, one that I do not have. Today I believe in Jesus, the most Jewish Messiah, who came especially for humanity to pay the price – forgiveness of sins.

What to know

The concept of a Messiah is not foreign at all to Orthodox Jews, with the Lubavitcher Rabbi, Menachem Schneerson, being one of the more popular ones (even though he fulfilled very few of the messianic prophecies).

There are about 30,000 Messianic Jewish believers in Israel, where there are just over 9 million people, about 7 million of which are Jewish. However the number of believers who follow Jesus in secret may be much higher.

Observing Jewish (oral) law is far more important to Orthodox Jews than to other Jews. In fact, nearly eight-in-ten Orthodox Jews (79%) say observing Jewish law is “essential” to what being Jewish means to them, compared with just 19% among Jews overall.

Jews who accept Yeshua as their Messiah often become outcasts, sometimes with their family going so far as to pray the “Kadish” over them, a prayer said for those who have passed away. It is not unusual for Jewish believers to keep their faith in Jesus secret – even from family members.