Finding Josef…

More than eleven years after the fateful day of finding my friend Josef Hausner’s obituary online, I was able to find his grave in Jerusalem on the afternoon before Shabbat on 30 August 2013. I cannot translate every line of his tombstone without some glitches but with the assistance and investigation of my Israeli friend Sheila Gyllenberg, I was able to draw near to this place I at once both dreaded to approach but also knew I needed to find.

Here lies my friend, the former rabbi, the former Holocaust survivor, the agnostic turned professor for the “Moonies,” Josef Hausner, who I spent months and months sharing Jesus with when I first moved to New York City in the early days of 2000. The last time I saw Josef alive was on the third night of Hanukkah 2001 and I left that night, after sharing one last time with Josef about Messiah Jesus, never knowing if I would ever see Josef in heaven. I still do not know.

Therefore, this Shabbat afternoon was an emotional moment for me beyond description. The marker was covered in dust as no one obviously had been to see Josef for quite some time. I cleaned off the dust as best I could. I cried. I talked to the grave. I told him how much I loved him. I told him how much I missed him. I told him how much I longed, hoped, to see him in heaven. I also told him that I just did not know, just didn’t think, I would see him there and how much that hurt on an emotional and spiritual plane. Josef has indeed made me realize, given me a glimpse of understanding of what Paul meant in Romans 9:3.

I also told him that even in those dark moments when I sometimes felt that “quitting” that it was his face, his story, his need for Jesus that kept me going. I could not quit. Tzedakah Ministries had to keep ministry going and the work of sharing Jesus with the Jewish people because there were others like himself, there were other Josef’s who needed Jesus. Tzedakah had to keep sharing the truth of Messiah Jesus with the Jewish people. I sensed in that moment, wherever Josef was, he smiled and that gave me a pocket of peace even in a land where for the moment there is still no peace.

I write this on a Shabbat morning in Jerusalem that is waiting for the possible outbreak of another war. Little do they know there is a war being waged for their soul. They need peace. They need Jesus. They do not need to be become another Josef.