I was born in Austria in the strictest of any strict Jewish home. As a child of three, I was sent to a Jewish school. Whenever I left the house, my mother cautioned me never to walk on the right side of the street nor even look in that direction, the reason being that a Christian church was located there. Every time I looked at the church by mistake, immediately I repeated a prayer in Hebrew. If anyone mentioned the name of Jesus in my hearing, I would put my fingers in my ears. I made sure that I would never hear that name the second time.
While in Austria I received my training to become a rabbi from one of the greatest rabbis in Europe. Day after day people came to see this great man and I would watch, expecting to see him perform some great miracle.
But I was disappointed, and I began looking for something better than those religious leaders could give me.
After many years, I desired to come to America, and on my way I stopped in Vienna to see my brother, To my surprise, he started to tell me about his Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, for he had recently become a Christian. I left in a rage, and resolved to have nothing to do with him thereafter.
A month after arriving in America, I received my first letter from my brother. I opened it, hoping that he had made a mistake about this new thing, but instead he was urging me to search the Scriptures. I tore the letter into bits. A while later I received another letter, but this time he did not urge me to read the Scriptures, for I was reading them! In his fourth letter he wrote that he was coming to America.
As soon as I met him in New York, I realized what his mission was. I forbade him to speak about religion at all; but while he did not speak about Christ, I could see Christ in him. Every day that I lived with him I could see he had something I didn’t have, and that was the peace of God. I longed for that peace, and every day my life was getting more miserable.
One day I went down on my knees and prayed to the Lord Jesus Christ, asking Him to take my sins away. Soon everyone knew I had become a Christian, and my uncle, with whom I had been staying, put me out. A week later I lost my job because of my confession of Christ. Since then I have visited my father in Jerusalem. He had considered me dead for over twenty years because of my change of heart. Before I left I was assured that he, too, had accepted my Messiah.
ML 01/22/1961