From: heb_roots_chr@mail.geocities.com Sent: Wednesday, October 8, 1997 11:06 PM To: Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup Subject: A Jewish Testimony From: Stephen Yulish Subject: The Five Decades Of My Life To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com The Five Decades of My Life by Stephen M. Yulish Ph.D. 50 years ago today, October 1, 1947 I was born at Mt.Sinai Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio to Sam (Shlomo) and Evalyn (Batsheva). My mother said that she named me Stephen Malcolm because she wanted me to have an American name. I was a first generation American as my father had been born in Vinnitsa, Ukraine and my mother had been born in Montreal, Canada. Eight days later, I, Shmuel (Samuel), had my Brit Milah performed by a Moel at my parents home. Being the first born son, my father had symbolically purchased me back from the Rabbi (first born sons belong to Hashem) in the Pinlah Ben ceremony. I would be the first member of my family to go to college. 40 years ago today, October 1, 1957, I was 10 years old and Sputnik had been launched. I wanted to be the first man on Mars. My parents had enrolled me the year before in their Orthodox Synagogue's after school Cheder program. They had wanted me to learn Hebrew and to be more aware of my Judaism than they were. I still remember those tam tam crackers and chocolate milk that we got as a daily snack as well as the time the teacher hit me across the mouth for laughing in class. And there was the time I went up in the rings during gym at public school and my tzitzis showed. I also remember asking my mother why we had ham in the refrigerator. I had my Bar Mitzvah at Taylor Road Synagogue three years later. 30 years today, October 12, 1967, I was entering my junior year in college. I like most Jews was still beaming from the success of Israel in the Six Day War in June. While I had entered Case Institute of Technology in 1965 on scholarship and a National Defense Student Loan to study Astronomy and had even taken a class from the esteemed Edwin Schrodinger (on his wave equation), I had just transferred to Western Reserve University to study exobiology. The two schools later merged before I graduated. I was searching for the meaning of life. When I did not find it in the heavens, I switched my major my senior year to Human Paleontology and took all the necessary credits in my senior year. I graduated in 1969 with a BA in Physical Anthropology, specifically Human Evolution. My senior paper, "Anterior Tooth Reductions in Ramapithecus" was published in 1970 in the journal Primates. I was a member of a Jewish Fraternity, Sigma Alpha Mu, Sammies. 20 years ago today, October 1, 1977, I was a Professor of Educational History at the University of Arizona in Tucson. When I had graduated in 1969, I had been precluded from pursuing graduate work in paleontology because of the Vietnam War. I did alternate service in the Teacher Corps in the inner city in Cleveland. Later I had returned to Grad School but this time in history and philosophy. I completed my Ph.D. in 1975 from the University of Illinois and got a job at the Univ. of Az. in 1975. I was a member of Jewish faculty and Hillel and belonged to Congregation Anshei Israel, a conservative synagogue in Tucson. My dissertation The Search for a Civic Religion; A History of the Characater Education Movement in America 1890-1935 was published in 1980. In 1982, I was denied tenure at the University and became the State Director of the Jewish National Fund and later of the Endowment Fund of the Phoenix Jewish Federation. 2 10 years ago today, October 1, 1987 I had just gone through a divorce and my three sons, Joshua, Avi and Noah had moved with their mother to Charleston, SC. I had experienced severe neurological symptoms and had an MRI which revealed massive brain lesions. The diagnosis had been Multiple Sclerosis and my health had begun to falter.. My father passed away in August. It was a very bad year. I had left the Federation and was working for a headhunter while waiting for something better. I found myself living with a New Age Jewish woman who walked on hot coals for excitement. I had been a finalist for the positions of State Director of the Anti Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee. Instead I had found myself working for a Christian telemarketing firm. They witnessed to me, including my present wife Paula, but I scoffed and berated them. How dare they proselytize to me after what so called Christians had done to my people including the Crusades, the Inquisition and the Holocaust! The Ruach Hakodesh, however, was already at work. Hashem had a plan all along. One year later on October 3, 1988, on the Jewish Holiday of renewal and rebirth, Shemini Atzeret, Hashem revealed Himself to me in a series of visions and dreams, and I was born again. I now knew that Yeshua Hamashiach was my Lord and Savior. It was no easier for this stiff necked Jew of the Jews to accept this than it had been for Paul. Hashem chose me, I did not choose Him. Today, October 1, 1997, I begin my jubilee year. A time when I am totally committed to the Lord. Five years ago, we moved from the hot desert to the cool mountains. Three years ago, I was finally totally disabled and unable to work because of the thorn that Hashem had put in my flesh (the MS). I have come to realize that His grace is sufficient for me. He is my strength and my provider. Praise His Holy Name. I now have a beautiful, compassionate, Godly wife who is a gift from the Almighty. I have a Messianic Fellowship, Chayim Chadashim, where I speak of the Jewishness of the gospel and of Israel and endtimes prophecy. I am on the Board of Reference for Jewish Voice Prophetic Magazine and am VP of Hosanna Ministries International. While I am the Deacon of Adult Sunday School at Flagstaff Christian Fellowship, I not only have never denied my Jewishness and in fact feel more Jewish now than ever before, but I have sought to convey that the Brit Chadasha (New Testament) is a Jewish book written by Jews about a Jewish Messiah!. Gentiles have been grafted into the line of Abraham's seed and are heirs to the promises through the shed blood of Yeshua. It has been a very good year! This was not the path that I would have chosen, but it is the plan that Hashem had for me all along, and I will continue to praise Him and thank Him for trusting me with this work all the days of my life. His amazing grace saved a poor wretch like me! Bless His Holy Name Forever! Tonight at sundown begins Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year of 5758. According to the Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 16b) it will be the day of the resurrection of the dead. According to the Machtzur, the prayerbook for the High Holy Days, "the Messianic hope, resurrection and immortality of the soul are intertwined with the shofar on Rosh Hashanah." The shofar (trumpet) that blows tonight might be the last shofar (trump) that Paul spoke about to the Corinthians."for the last shofar will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed." If tonight is that night then those of you left behind will know where we are! Marana,Ta! Our Lord, Come! Stephen M. Yulish Ph.D. *************************************************************************