Why Are All These Jews Smiling?
1960s
I In th the 1960 1960s, ti times were h i changing. Th The use f of di media d and d ti i advertising was l di exploding, d
and new means were being
sought to get the message of the gospel to the Jewish people. But it was often said that no “real Jew” or “sane Jew”
would ever accept Jesus as the Messiah. In response, the “Smiling Faces” ad was born. In the fall of 1971, 39 Jewish
believers, men and women of all professions, gathered to have their photo taken in the parking lot of the Mission’s
building in Hollywood. The finished booklet contained individual photographs and testimonies of how each person
came to Yeshua, hence the reason for their smiles. The Smiling Faces ad campaign showed the world that Jewish
believers were not marginal or strange people, but doctors, lawyers, businessmen and women, ministers, engineers,
homemakers, students, and more. A full-page ad was taken out in the New York Times, and the responses began to
pour in, including interest from the chief psychiatrist of a hospital, a rabbi, several doctors, and many professionals.
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One missionary organization alone requested 50,000 booklets and 1,400 copies of the ad reprints. Eventually, more
than a half million of the testimony booklets were printed and circulated among the Jewish people around the world.