The Missionary Who Converted: "I Attended a Seminar - and All My Questions Were Suddenly Answered"

The life story of Gabriel Aryeh Sanders is fascinating and unbelievable: from a Christian missionary trying to recruit Jews to Christianity - he underwent a long journey until he converted according to Jewish law. Today he is a learned Jew, toiling in Torah study, observant of the commandments, who fights against the Christian mission himself. We met with him for a particularly interesting conversation.

"I grew up in a Christian home," Sanders begins his story. "My mother was a non-practicing Catholic, my father was a Baptist Christian by definition only. My parents divorced when I was two and a half. My mother raised me alone. In those days, single-parent families were rare. It was difficult."

At age 16, Sanders left his high school and became active in the youth culture of the '60s and '70s. Missionaries approached him and gave him an abundance of attention that he so desperately lacked. "Over time, I became an enthusiastic and effective missionary, and I learned about the importance of preaching the 'salvation' of Jesus to Jews," Sanders explains.

At that time, the 'Messianic Jews' movement began to emerge. "They used symbols, culture, and Jewish holidays to present themselves and their message as authentically Jewish, but it was essentially Christianity wrapped in a...tallit," says Sanders. "At that time, of course, I couldn't see or understand it. I thought it was a good and honest way to make Jews feel comfortable believing in Jesus and feel it was truly a Jewish thing to do."

It is estimated that about 300,000 Jews are in some way affiliated with Christianity in North America. This also includes participation in over 400 Messianic synagogues in North America.

Sanders first came to Israel as a student in an ulpan at a kibbutz, where he began spreading the belief in Jesus to the ulpan students. The kibbutzniks responded harshly: the ulpan manager immediately expelled Sanders and his four friends and more than that: he submitted their names to the Interior Ministry's blacklist.

Sanders turned to the Jewish Agency for help. "I was allowed to go to Kibbutz Ein HaHoresh to complete my ulpan studies. They demanded that I not speak about my Christian faith, nor answer any questions. This forced me to focus and start thinking whether my faith was indeed the only true faith. I began to fear the questions starting to arise in my mind," shares Sanders.

After studying Hebrew at the ulpan, I returned to the U.S. and worked with a large missionary organization. After two years, I pursued a master's degree in teaching English as a second language. I wanted to return to Israel to teach and use my profession as a way to talk to Jews about Jesus. During the next three and a half years, I joined the 'Kiruv' organization operating in ten kibbutzim across the country. I was in Dan and Dafna. Dafna accepted and employed me to teach middle and high school students. Imagine! A missionary teaching kibbutz children... I was careful, but something began to happen. Something that would completely pull me out of church service, out of Christianity altogether, and away from Jesus Christ. It was the Hebrew language.

"My Hebrew level was good, and I began examining the Christian 'proofs' about Jesus as the Messiah in the Hebrew Bible, and it troubled me to see significant differences between the original Hebrew Bible and its Christian translation," says Sanders.

"When I left Israel in the summer of 1984, I was in turmoil. I returned to a very large church and worked day and night as a pastor to silence the doubts that began to nest in me. After two years, I left there decisively. It was a public and painful departure, and I spent 8 years trying to find the way back to stability, even traveling to Saudi Arabia where I worked as an English teacher in the Saudi Navy.

"Something inside drew me towards Judaism," Sanders continues to narrate his life story. "I enrolled in a conversion and adult Bar Mitzvah course in a reform community, after 9 months I thought that was it, I was Jewish!

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"Shortly thereafter, I became the weekly Torah portion class leader, but there they discussed liberal ideas, and about the notion that the Torah is supposedly not applicable today, which made me think: 'If the Torah is not true, then neither are you!'"

It took another two years before I approached the strictly observant Rabbinic Council of California. Initially, they rejected me, but I returned. Eventually, they accepted me as a conversion student, but we progressed very slowly.

What gave you the strength to continue? What kept you going?

"I remember attending a seminar, and suddenly so many questions cleared up for me at once. For example: Mount Sinai, the miracle of the Jewish people's existence, the reality of national revelation - before the entire people, the tradition, the validity of the commandments and more," says Sanders. "These were some of the main topics I eventually found in Rabbi Zamir Cohen and Hidabroot's teachings.

Sanders underwent another conversion, this time according to Jewish law and all its details. "In December 1999, I emerged from the mikvah in Los Angeles as Gabriel Aryeh ben Avraham Avinu. I immediately went to work at 'Jews for Judaism,' and eventually moved to New York. I started working at the ArtScroll Mesorah publishing company for about 10 years in marketing and public relations. For the past 6 years, I have been a Hebrew teacher at a Jewish high school in Long Island. Now I'm in the process of making aliyah with my wife," says Sanders with satisfaction.

Sanders’ wife is a Jew by birth. "She grew up in a Torah-centric home and was educated in Torah studies for many years. Her father is from Haifa, we met and married 20 years ago in New York. And now it's time to return home to the people of Israel in the land of Israel, to support the Torah of Israel.

Sanders produced hundreds of radio programs in New York, and a few programs for a radio station here in Israel. "My focus has always been to bring and present a positive message that uplifts listeners to discover their special place in Hashem's world," he says.

He dreams of continuing his activities in technological arenas for the sake of the people of Israel. "If I were to define Judaism in one word, it would be 'uplift.' We were given the means, the spiritual technology to satisfy the curious minds of hungry souls. How can I not use what I have learned to uplift others? I have an obligation to do so!" he says.

In his closing remarks, Sanders wishes to thank the Hidabroot organization, and in particular, Rabbi Zamir Cohen, the organization's chairman. "The Hidabroot organization has helped me greatly, Rabbi Zamir Cohen's teachings helped my spiritual roots develop and deepen more and more. The Rabbi takes complex subjects, explains and clarifies them well. He shows how Judaism is not just a 'religion' but an actual relationship with the Creator of the Universe. To find this knowledge requires living waters within you, and it is worth all the difficulties on my way back home to the commandments and Torah of Israel."