Hi Albert,

Jews certainly acknowledge that Jesus existed — that much is a matter of history and naturally they reject His claim to be Messiah.

I think they would look at the claims of the prophets in the Old Testament that seem to suggest the Messiah will be a political leader to prove that Jesus did not fulfill them. (He will of course, just not yet.) They believe Israel to be the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53, whom we believe to be Jesus.

It may interest you to know that some scholars believe that the explicit statements about Jesus in the Deuterocanonical books (for example, Wisdom 2), in part, convinced the Jews to exclude those books from their canon when they finalized it sometime after the Christian Church and Jewish synagogue went their separate ways.

I was hoping to refer you to a book but I can't find it right now. It was by a rabbi who looked at Jesus through Jewish eyes.

One thing you might like to do.

I am not an expert on this so permit me to refer you to someone who is. If you listen to the radio show:

Catholic Answers Live

which you can do on:

• some AM/FM radio stations
• Sirius satellite radio
• EWTN radio including shortwave
• Internet broadcast, and
• on Internet pod cast

there is a woman, Rosalind Moss, who is a convert to Catholicism from Judaism. She is featured on every other Wednesday night, either at 3pm Pacific Time or 4pm Pacific Time, you'll have to check the schedule for a given week to know for sure, then you can call in at:

1-888-318-7884 (1-888-31-TRUTH)

and ask her your question. The best time to call is just before the show starts. You don't even need to be listening to the show on the radio to call in. They play the feed on the phone, however you might want to listen to a show or two just to get the flavor and flow of how it goes first.

She might also have some relevant books but I don't know for certain whether she addresses your specific question in any of them.

Eric Ewanco