Jews for Jesus Founder Moishe Rosen Dies at 78

Moishe Rosen, founder of Jews for Jesus (JFJ), died
Wednesday in San Francisco after a long battle with prostate cancer. He was 78.

Since it was founded in 1973, JFJ has been a leader in
Jewish evangelism, with thousands of Jews embracing faith in Jesus as Messiah
because of the ministry. It employs more than 200 missionaries in 11 nations
and has distributed more than 50 million gospel tracts to date. 

“More than any other single person, Moishe has been
responsible for putting the idea of being Jewish and believing in Jesus on the
map,” JFJ board member Lon Solomon told Charisma last year. “He has
inspired several generations of young Jewish men and women to have a burden to
reach their own people. He has been a marvelous example.”

“Moishe Rosen has had a tremendous influence on the field of
Jewish missions, on the church and on so many who have sought to serve God in
making the gospel known,” added current JFJ executive director David Brickner.
“He was an example to me of many things, but particularly of courage, of
curiosity and commitment.”

Reared in Denver, the son of Jewish immigrants from Eastern
Europe, Rosen accepted Christ in 1953 along with his wife, Ceil. A short time later
he sensed a call to ministry and after attending seminary at Northeastern Bible
College in New Jersey, he was ordained at Trinity Baptist Church in Wheat
Ridge, Colo., in 1967.

He spent the next five years working with the American
Board of Missions to the Jews, now called Chosen People Ministries, before founding Jews for Jesus in 1973 with young
Messianic Jews who had embrace Jesus as Messiah during the Jesus movement.