Tree of Life Messianic Congregation

Testimony of Messianic Rabbi Joel Liberman

Joel Liberman accepted Yeshua as his Jewish Messiah in the fall of 1972 on the Biblical Festival of Yom Teruah (known as Rosh Hashanah) at the age of 6. His father Paul led him to the Messiah after he had accepted Yeshua the year before after being challenged by the Messianic prophecies found in the Tanakh (Hebrew Scriptures). It was then that Joel became a “second generation” Messianic Jew and was thereafter raised in a Messianic Jewish home on the East Coast. He studied with a Messianic Jewish Cantor and became a Bar Mitzvah at age 13 at Beth Messiah Messianic Synagogue in Rockville, Maryland in the fall of 1979.

After spending his high school years on the East Coast, Joel’s family moved to the West Coast where he attended San Diego State University in pursuit of a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting. It was during those years at the University that Joel’s parents founded Tree of Life Messianic Jewish Congregation in San Diego, with Paul Liberman serving as its Messianic Rabbi. Tree of Life occasionally led outreach on the SDSU campus.

It was during that time that Joel became actively involved over the years not only with Tree of Life in various leadership capacities, but with the Young Messianic Jewish Alliance (YMJA) as its Treasurer and Vice-President, working with the youth of the Messianic Jewish Movement. He began to realize that ADONAI had laid a calling on his heart to win his Jewish people to their Messiah. Sha’ul’s (Paul’s) letter to the Roman believers (especially chapters 9, 10 & 11) began to tug at his heart in a strong way in this regard. Joel graduated SDSU in 1988 with a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and obtained his CPA license two years later.

In 1994, ADONAI called Joel’s parents and his brother to make “aliyah” (moving to Israel, where they resided for nine years). A Messianic Jewish leader from Los Angeles was recruited and installed as the next Messianic Rabbi to lead Tree of Life in its next stage of development. Later that year, Joel met his future wife Darcie at a Messianic Jewish conference held in San Diego and they were married in the spring of 1995. Today, Joel and Darcie have two children, Avi, eleven years old and Ariela, eight years old.

In late 1995, it became apparent that Tree of Life’s second Messianic Rabbi had a calling on his life to make “aliyah” as well, and this eventually occurred in early 1996 (where he resides to this day). Simultaneously, Joel had begun to sense ADONAI calling him to shepherd Tree of Life, albeit on a part-time basis, since he was employed full-time in a local CPA firm.

In March of 1996, Joel was formally installed as Tree of Life’s third Messianic Rabbi. As a Messianic Jewish congregational leader without any theological credentials, he immediately began coursework to obtain s’micha (full ordination) as a Messianic Rabbi with the International Alliance of Messianic Congregations and Synagogues (IAMCS), with s’micha being conferred in late 1999. Joel continues his formal theological education today by working on a Master of Arts Degree in Biblical Studies, which he hopes to complete in 2008.

In an effort to raise more awareness of the Messianic Jewish community locally, Joel became very involved in the planning of the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America’s (MJAA) annual Southwest Regional Conference on Messianic Judaism and in 2001 became the Treasurer of the MJAA for a two-year term, followed in 2003 by another four-year term on its Executive Committee. In 2007, Joel was elected to be the Treasurer of the International Messianic Jewish Alliance (IMJA) and was appointed to a two year term on the Steering Committee of the IAMCS. In 2009, he was appointed to serve another two year term on the IAMCS Steering Committee and was appointed to be the Executive Director of the IMJA. Over the years, Joel has been a frequent conference speaker and is asked periodically to speak in other venues, sharing the Scriptures from a historic and prophetic viewpoint. He helps coordinate Messianic Jewish conferences and divides his time between his family, CPA practice, shepherding Tree of Life, and serving the Messianic Jewish Movement as his offering to the Lord.