Brothers Benjamin and Reuven Berger were born in New York City to parents who had barely escaped the Shoah. They were observant Orthodox Jews living in a Jewish neighborhood, attending Yeshiva until the end of high school. After studying architecture and design in the mid-1960s, Benjamin left the states for Europe. He quickly found work with a Copenhagen architect. In 1967, something totally unexpected happened.
“I came home from work and was reading the evening newspaper when I sensed someone was in the room with me. I tried to look out of the corner of my eye because I knew there was a very powerful, unknown but wonderful presence at the far end of the room. The presence advanced. I could not identify it, but it was drawing nearer. I perceived holiness and pure love. I was frightened. I am not psychic and I was not imagining this. Suddenly, it was as if G-d took a key and opened the door to my heart which had been tightly locked. It warmed me from the inside. It was pure love. I heard a deep, inner voice from beyond which seemed to fill the whole universe. It said, ‘I am the G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, nothing is hidden before me. Your life is open before me.’ I instantly experienced two feelings, one of delight in a G-d who knows me and a feeling of fright that He knows everything about me. I then heard one word—Yeshua.”
