I was in Tully’s for coffee today and had a book with Hebrew in it with me. Along with my kippah, this caught the eye of a very sweet lady with long grey hair and a big t-shirt boldly printed with swooshing letters, “JESUS!” For whatever reason, Christians don’t witness to me very often — sometimes I wonder, “Am I chopped liver?” Anyway, she caught sight of the book and said “Wow! Is that Hebrew?” then went on with a big smile and lots of exclamation points about how Jesus was a Jew himself and was I aware of this?
I smiled in turn and asked her if she’s a big book reader. “Oh yes!” she exclaimed, so I recommended to her my book Why the Jews Rejected Jesus and said she could find it at her local King County public library. I wrote out the title for her on a piece of paper.
I think — I know — lots of people, not least Jews, who would be annoyed or at least made uncomfortable at being accosted in public this way. I don’t mind, in fact I find it charming — though maybe that’s because it happens so rarely, and this lady was herself charming. Anyway, we talked for 10 or 15 minutes. Normally I’m quite interested in hearing people’s stories about themselves but in this case my interest kind of slipped when she started talking about her theory on Obama being the anti-Christ.