The Missionary Who Converted to Judaism

Gavriel Glenney, née Clayton, grew up in Bradenton, Florida in a devout Christian home. His parents were Evangelical Christians, always in search of truth and sharing their faith with others.

Gavriel participated in missionary youth groups and was taught that, as a servant of God, his job was to teach his religion to others, especially Jews.

“I would find a Jew at the local supermarket. I’d be very friendly and strike up a conversation. We were trained to bring up certain passages in Isaiah, and we had a number of canned responses to refute any type of argument.”

Gavriel would engage in conversations, citing Isaiah 7 (that purportedly discusses a virgin birth) and Isaiah 53 (that supposedly discusses Jesus as the Messiah). Because the average Jew usually doesn’t have a basic knowledge of the Prophets, they weren’t able to reply to his text-based arguments.

Gavriel was even taught it was okay to pretend to be Jewish in order to fool Jews into converting.

Hypocrisy and Inconsistencies

While still a devoted Christian teen, Gavriel began noticing the hypocrisy of church leadership and it bothered him deeply. For example, one church leader was having an extramarital affair with a married woman in the community. The members of the church became aware of his behavior. This leader conveniently claimed that God spoke to him directly and told him he was supposed to be with this woman.

Later, he “repented” and believed that his repentance washed away all the consequences of his actions.

Gavriel was flabbergasted by this behavior and thought, Two families were destroyed in the process, but his repentance made it all okay? How can that possibly be?

Gavriel serving in the American Army

The leader kept his position in the church, with no consequences. Gavriel was shaken by these events and the community’s reaction—or lack thereof.

At the same time, Gavriel started noticing inconsistencies in some of the textual sources of Christianity.

“For example, Numbers 23:19 writes that God is not a man and won’t change His mind. The Torah itself writes that God is not going to take human form. This continues throughout the rest of Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. But then, Christianity comes along and decides that suddenly, God did take human form?

“We have a saying in the South, ‘That dog don’t hunt.’ It made no sense, and it was getting to me.”

Gavriel eventually left the church and joined the Army.

“We went to Thailand and Japan, and trained by practicing war games with other armies.”

During the war, Gavriel would repel out of helicopters in order to get to ground to fight. He lived through immense trauma during that time. “As the saying goes, there’s no atheist in a foxhole, so when bullets start flying, you believe in a God.”

Other Religions

Gavriel’s religious re-awakening began by dabbling in other religions.

His first stop was Buddhism, because Gavriel actively practiced martial arts. But Gavriel had a questioning mind, and one day he asked his Sifu (Sensei Kung Fu Master) “How can a man who weighs 500 pounds tell me anything about self-discipline?”

His Sensei didn’t have an answer, but Gavriel was asked not to come back to the dojo.

Next, he explored Islam—for a short time.

“I thought, yeah that’s definitely not it. Killing in the name of God? That sounds a lot like Christian history. There are 2,000 years of Christian history written in Jewish blood.”

Brush with Death

After the Army, Gavriel met a Gentile woman and they married. A few years later they were expecting their first child.

When she was three months pregnant, Gavriel was driving in the rain Southbound on the highway. He started skidding in the rain, his vehicle fishtailed, and he ended up spinning around. He found himself looking South in a Northbound lane. The back end of his truck hit a car, and the front end had a head-on collision.

Gavriel looked at himself in the rearview mirror and saw that he was covered in blood. First Responders arrived on the scene, and Gavriel didn’t want the paramedics to call his wife because he was worried she might miscarry from the stress. They eventually called his parents who came to the scene of the crash. From their description on the phone, they assumed the worst.

They took him to the Emergency Room, where they had to cut off his clothing. He had a burned imprint in his skin from the seatbelt that stopped him from hitting the front window. But the second collision must have caused the latch to open, because his head hit and shattered the windshield. He had over one hundred lacerations that needed many stitches.

“My head is full of scars, hidden by hair. It’s a miracle that I survived.”

Gavriel admits he wasn’t making good choices at that point in his life and wondered why God had kept him alive.

Tragedy Strikes

Six months after the car accident, Gavriel’s wife gave birth to a beautiful baby boy.

When Austin was two years old, doctors discovered that he had a leaky valve in his heart and blood was pouring into his lungs.

“It was a very traumatic experience for me. That day is a blur. It was out of nowhere. He was essentially drowned in his own blood and died.”

At first, Gavriel blamed God for that devastating event. He couldn’t understand why his own life had been spared but his child’s had not.

Gavriel and his son Austin

“I was living a terrible life and my son was innocent; he didn’t do anything wrong, and God took him from me.”

Gavriel’s initial coping mechanism was drugs. “I fell into a depression. I started doing drugs because I didn’t want to live.” Cocaine, meth, and marijuana laced with cocaine to avoid “the munchies.”

At the same time, Gavriel and his wife started having marital problems.

“The death of a child either brings you closer together or farther apart. We grew further apart, and my drug usage continued. I did so many drugs one night that I felt like my heart was going to rip out of my chest.

“God owed me nothing, and yet He had mercy on me and saved my life that night. One year after that night, we were divorced.”

One night after the divorce, when Gavriel was all alone, using drugs, he thought, What am I doing? Do I really want to kill myself? Gavriel had a fear that if he died that day, he may not be worthy to enter Heaven and see his son.

“He can’t come to me, but I can go to him. If I live my life according to any religious standards, perhaps I will merit being able to see him in the Next World.”

Gavriel stopped doing drugs cold turkey and decided to once again research his options, find a religion that resonated, and get serious about it. He was determined to meet his son again someday.

Gavriel went through his mental Rolodex of religions.

Islam? No.

Buddhism? No.

Judaism? I’ll never fit in with the Jewish people. I never wear just white and black.

So he again went back to Christianity and decided to get serious about it.

Gavriel attended a Christian Theological College and became a licensed Minister, following in the footsteps of his parents who were also Pastors.

But while he was working on a diploma in Biblical Studies, he couldn’t ignore that what he learned still had several unexplained inconsistencies. “It made me have more questions, and those questions had no answers. You can’t bridge the gap,” he said.

On the Long Road to Judaism

Gavriel’s parents were prominent leaders in the Southeast’s Christian ministry, overseeing multiple ministers. Though it was hard to break from their beliefs, Gavriel left their church and gave Messianic Judaism one last try.

“Messianic Judaism is basically Christians with a tallit and tefillin,” he says. “That was my last experience before I left. Now, they all call me a heretic.”

Ironically, his parents were also exploring Messianic practice while still leading their church. But when Gavriel fully rejected belief in Jesus, they became deeply concerned about the path he was choosing.

“In the end I had to give up everything for Judaism. I gave up family, cheeseburgers, and every friend I ever had. I had to sacrifice it all.”

(Spoiler alert: his parents eventually converted as well.)

“Most Jews don’t realize what converts have to give up and what they have to sacrifice.”

Gavriel sees how many Jews simply take Judaism for granted. “The Torah is the greatest gift to mankind. It’s easy to dismiss something when it’s handed to you. But I want every Jew to realize how precious a gift they have. Many people forget that.”

He searched for a synagogue and tried Reform and Conservative options, but felt they were not a good fit. The only Orthodox synagogue nearby was a Chabad House, and he saw that there was a Bible class offered before Shabbat services at 9:00 a.m.

Gavriel sat in the back because he didn’t know how the Jews would take to a non-Jew sitting there with them.

After the class, the Rabbi asked if anyone had any questions. Then he turned directly to Gavriel and asked him if he had any specific questions.

Gavriel was shocked. “This was the polar opposite to Christianity. Christians don’t like questions. The leadership will say you lack faith. That’s why I love Judaism. The first time I ever met an Orthodox Rabbi he said, ‘Do you have any questions?’

“I was thinking, are you crazy? You want my questions?”

Gavriel stayed for the service and was completely lost, but the Kiddush afterwards made up for it. While he stayed away from gefilte fish and herring, he loved the cholent.

He stayed at Chabad, attending classes for a year, when he finally decided that he wanted to convert. He was determined to become a full-fledged Jew.

The Chabad of Bradenton did not conduct conversions, so he decided to move to Texas.

He gave up his profession and his home, risking everything just to attempt to convert. When he arrived at the Young Israel of Houston, he didn’t even know if he was going to be accepted.

He began to learn Jewish law in-depth and was given 15 books he had to read as part of his conversion process. An avid reader, Gavriel read them all and was thirsting for more.

After another year and a half of intense learning and dedication to Judaism, he was finally able to convert.

“At my last meeting at the Beit Din (Jewish court) they told me, ‘You know, we are the most hated people on the planet.’

“Yeah, okay,” Gavriel responded.

“Are you sure want to join us and be a part of all this?”

“Yeah.”

“I told them in the great scheme of the universe, if I was willing to die for my country when I served in the Army, then why wouldn’t I be willing to do the same for God?”

After that powerful statement, they informed him he could become a Jew. He completed his conversion nine years ago.

Gavriel’s Parents

Jumping back in time to about a year before his conversion while Gavriel was in Houston, he got a call from his parents.

After examining all the sources and quotes that Gavriel had told them that undermined the foundations of Christianity, they decided to leave the religion. “They told me they had left Christianity and were in the process of converting to Judaism.”

Today, Gavriel is married and lives in Israel. His parents also moved to Israel, and now they all live in Beit Shemesh.

Gavriel and his wife, Dina

Gavriel speaks around the world about his story and his work as an anti-missionary.

He believes that if approached by a missionary, it’s better to just not engage in conversation unless you are well-versed in Scripture. Gavriel believes that all Evangelical Christians should be considered missionaries since converting others, especially Jews, is considered to be an integral part of their service to God.

Gavriel and Dina with his parents Chana and Gershom on their conversion day