Moishe Rosen A “Jew for Jesus” Is Born, Part 1

Martin Meyer Rosen, later known as Moishe, was a “secular Jew” who grew up in Denver. A young woman from Boston, Ceilia Starr, moved into the neighborhood and caught his eye: “She was the prettiest girl in the neighborhood,” he would later recall.

By the time she was 16, Ceilia Starr had, in her heart, declared herself an atheist, rebelling against her orthodox Jewish upbringing. Moishe was a self- described agnostic. The non-faith of young Rosen came as little surprise: he was the not-very-Jewish son of not-very-Jewish parents. A family sporting goods business was more important than activity in a local synagogue, he’d later recall.

The two dated and fell in love. By the time they were 18 years old, Martin Rosen and Ceilia Starr were married. A rabbi conducted the ceremony, even though the couple vowed to be “modern American Jews,” eschewing Sabbath rules, dietary restrictions, and other trappings.

Marriage changed things: “When Ceil was pregnant with our first child, she began to wonder about God. She knew there had to be more out there,” Rosen said.

Ceilia found answers in reading the New Testament, a book of Scripture generally regarded as “unneeded” by or “off limits” to Jewish people. Mrs. Rosen “discovered that the New Testament was also a Jewish book involving Jewish people, but most of all about the Jewish Messiah,” her husband said. Needing further help, Ceilia was visited by a woman from the American Board of Missions to the Jews after the young wife prayed for someone to help her understand the Bible.

This change provoked Martin to wrath. He argued against her, ridiculed the content of some tracts she’d given him, and generally resisted—until he could no longer. Reading the Bible, recalling earlier encounters with Christians who linked Jesus with the Messiah’s Jewish roots, Rosen became convinced: he, too, had to follow Christ.

This led to ostracism in their families, a difficult time (to say the least) at the sporting goods store where he worked, and finally a conviction: if Martin Meyer Rosen could find faith, how would other Jews discover the very Jewish prophet named Jesus?

That led to the next chapter of Rosen’s life, and it was one that would reshape American evangelism for decades.

Reflect: Have you—or someone you know—suffered in your family because of your faith? How did you respond to the hostility or estrangement?

Key Bible Texts

And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: (Luke 24:19 KJV)