I FOUND SHALOM
DENNIS KARP’S STORY
I was born in the Washington, D.C., area into a
middle-class Jewish family. We were not Orthodox,
but we did follow the rhythms of Jewish life. On
Friday nights, we went to synagogue for the
Shabbat evening service and on Saturdays, we
attended Shabbat morning services. We attended
all of the holy days, and in our home, we
maintained kosher laws by not eating pork or
shellfish. Our county had a large Jewish population,
so we were not seen as out of the ordinary, and
I had virtually no contact with “Christians” or
“Christianity” except for some friends in school.
We were just friends, without any religious
dimension.
College was much the same except that I had
walked away from Jewish practice. I had found it
hollow and lacking. My hippie lifestyle took over
and I had no time for much else. Again, there was
no real contact with anything that could be called
religious.
It wasn’t until after I was married and had two
children that a believer I knew through my work
invited me to visit his church to hear a Jewish man
speak about Jesus and the Passover. To this day
I don’t know why I said yes, but off I went with
my wife and two kids to his church. To say that my
Jewish jaw hit the floor is an understatement!
I did not want to believe what I heard.
Jesus…Jewish…Passover…Last Supper?
Are you kidding me? Yet, I went up to
the man who gave the presentation
and said that I would like to meet
with him to ask him some questions.
Let me be perfectly clear: My
intention was to prove him wrong and
defend my so-called Jewishness. Yet every
question that I asked him throughout
the following eight weeks was
answered from the Old Testament.
As I think back, if he had quoted
the New Testament, the
questioning and the meetings would have stopped
right there. You see, to me, the New Testament was
a book for the Gentiles, not for the Jews. It was an
antisemitic book, according to all that I knew. And
I wanted nothing to do with it.
But I became curious. If the Old Testament
spoke of the necessary death of a Messiah, and a
virgin birth, and of sin that required sacrifice, then
maybe the New Testament had something to say.
And so, one night I just picked up the Bible and
started reading from the book of Matthew. I read
Matthew, then Mark, then Luke, and then John.
I remember my wife asking me this question when
I was about halfway through John: “Well? What do
you think?” I answered, “It’s very interesting, but he
is just saying what the first three guys said.” My
understanding was that of a child, but this much
I began to realize—this New Testament is a Jewish
book. It constantly refers back to the Old Testament
and it is definitely not antisemitic.
I have now come to see the Scriptures as one
book, from Genesis to Revelation. I don’t see New
or Old, just God’s word and truth. And for this
I am eternally grateful.
SPECIAL EDITION | THE CHOSEN PEOPLE | 7
1938
Kristallnacht
1939–1945
The Holocaust
WORLD WAR II TO PRESENT DAY
Increasing antisemitism across the globe
2006
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights: antisemitism
a "serious problem" on U.S. college campuses