He Tried to Escape His Jewish Identity. It Followed Him to Scotland

Clashing with an antisemite in a foreign country is a frightening experience, especially if you are trying to distance yourself from your Jewish identity and the antisemite sees right through you.

In seconds, you are no longer an individual. You are a stand in for the Jewish people. You are blamed for the world’s problems. The accusations are false, and you are not prepared with answers, not even the basics.

That is exactly what happened to Rabbi Yonatan Gal Ad in Scotland more than twenty five years ago, back when he was still known as Yoni, a confused young man searching for truth.

“It’s not that the antisemite was talking about some nation I happened to belong to by accident. I felt it was about me. I started answering him, and some good things came out,” Rabbi Gal Ad recalls.

That moment became one of the defining turning points of his life.

A Youth Shaped by Political Idealism

As a teenager in the early 1990s, Yoni was deeply idealistic. When the Meretz party was founded, he joined enthusiastically, convinced he could help build a better future.

“We handed out fliers in all kinds of places, went to events, planned demonstrations with signs, and in general we were fired up for change. The slogan was: ‘The power to make the change!’”

Two core beliefs fueled his activism.

“We saw the Haredi and religious as the people dragging us backward, getting in our way as we wanted to advance toward Western culture and become a little America.”

Another deeply ingrained idea was appeasement. No matter how many Israelis were murdered, the belief was that if Israel would only be kind enough and give land, the violence would stop.

These ideas shaped his worldview until his army service shook it to the core.

The Army and a Shattering Realization

Yoni enlisted highly motivated and was accepted into an elite Intelligence Corps course. He became an officer and excelled. In his role, he was exposed to classified information that contradicted everything he had believed.

What shocked him most was the realization that the other side did not merely want a portion of land for peace. It wanted everything.

He saw a carefully crafted language of diplomacy masking coordinated terror. He watched Israel repeatedly apologize and appease, only to face growing hostility.

“The more I saw Israel trying to placate the other side, the more the criticism and antisemitism against us grew,” Rabbi Gal Ad says. “No matter what we did, the world not only didn’t respect us, it attacked us more. And the more violent the other side was, the more the world justified it.”

The contradiction was painful. The worldview he had built his identity upon began to crumble.

Leaving Israel to Escape Identity

Feeling disillusioned and powerless, Yoni left Israel and traveled to Scotland. He imagined he could start fresh, free from labels and expectations.

“I felt like a free man. I felt no one knew who I was. I was basically starting life from scratch.”

But everywhere he went, someone asked the same question.

“Tell me, are you Jewish?”

“That was the last thing on earth I wanted anyone to ask me about.”

He later reflected on the teaching of Chazal: Whoever flees from honor, honor pursues him. “I feel that whoever runs from Israel, from his identity, his identity runs after him.”

Searching for Truth Everywhere

In Scotland, Yoni found himself debating people of other faiths. Again and again, he was forced to confront questions about Judaism that he could not answer.

“I realized not only could I not answer them. Sometimes they knew even more than I did.”

He had studied Greek and Roman mythology and many world philosophies. Yet he barely knew his own heritage.

“How can a person reject his own identity and want to adopt other identities when he doesn’t even know where he came from?”

He began studying Judaism alongside Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Mormonism, and Hinduism. What surprised him was that many of the beautiful ideas he encountered elsewhere had roots in Judaism.

The Monastery That Changed Everything

His search eventually led him to a Buddhist monastery.

Even there, something inside him resisted bowing to statues or reciting mantras. Instead, he remembered a phrase his older brother, who had become observant years earlier, had taught him: Shema Yisrael.

In the monastery library, among shelves of idolatrous texts, he found a Hebrew Tanach.

He began reading intensely.

One early morning, the abbot saw him studying and asked, “What are you sitting here reading all day?”

“I’m reading my people’s book, their story. Mine.”

The abbot asked, “Tell me, are you Jewish?”

This time, he did not hesitate.

“Yes, I’m Jewish.”

“So what are you doing here at all?”

In that moment, he realized the contradiction. A Jewish man, in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Scotland, learning Torah.

He left the monastery soon after.

Discovering the Power of Torah

On his journey home, he encountered public debates between religious preachers. He found himself answering their arguments.

“The little I knew was strong enough to refute the unfounded arguments of seasoned preachers.”

That realization gave him tremendous strength.

Back in Israel, he began learning seriously at Ohr Somayach. The process was gradual, with questions, setbacks, and renewed commitment.

Friends thought he had lost his mind when he refused to go out on Friday night. Yet some of those same friends later began learning Torah themselves.

Today, Rabbi Yonatan Gal Ad lectures worldwide. He translated nine of Rabbi Arush’s books into Spanish and has reached millions through online lectures. He is also a personal coach and couples counselor, bringing Torah wisdom into everyday life.

Through Hidabroot’s Home Circles program, he even shares his life story in living rooms across Israel.

“I feel that the Creator of the world gave me a private seminar and invested in me. I want to give back and make it possible for anyone who wants to ask questions about Judaism to get answers, from the heart and with joy.”