Bob Mendelsohn
Bob Mendelsohn interviewed on Daystar
I knew what they wanted to do: convert me to their blond-haired, blue-eyed Jesus. I’d seen the movies! I took the Bible from them, and I won the little Bible battle. Because I knew my stuff! I’d been raised Orthodox. I’d learned with rabbis.
But, they admitted they didn’t have all the answers. I’d never heard a religionist admit that they were ignorant! But here were people who humbly admitted they didn’t know everything. So, that was compelling to me.
I took the Bible that they gave me, and that night I plowed through the record of Saint Mark, Saint Mathew, and Saint John. I had thought they were all Catholic. I had no idea how Jewish they were! But what did I find in there? The man of meaning and relevance, peace, and joy. That’s what I was looking for. My family taught me to go for truth, wherever it is. That night I did.
The interview above was with Bob Mendelsohn, leader of Jews for Jesus’ work in Sydney, Australia. Bob grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family but became a college drop-out when he decided to look for the meaning of life in the counterculture of the ’60s. He found meaning and relevance in Jesus, which caused him much trouble at home. But he says, “It was worth the cost.” Bob has worked for Jews for Jesus since 1979, and served as the leader of their work in New York City and Washington, DC before moving to Sydney in 1998. Bob and his wife Patty both graduated from the University of Kansas and Fuller Seminary.