Mons. David Maria Jaeger OFM

David-Maria Jaeger is not your average priest. He was brought up in a Jewish middle-class family in Tel-Aviv. Currently, he is serving as one of the judges of the Roman Rota, the highest appellate tribunal of the Catholic Church. After his secondary school studies, he lived in seclusion for six years, and he underwent a complete religious transformation which resulted in his conversion to Christianity. Subsequent to obtaining his doctoral degree in Canon Law, he taught in Jerusalem and Rome. He worked for two decades as the legal advisor of the Holy See during the series of diplomatic negotiations conducted with Israel. To this day, David thinks fondly of Israel, and has a very strong connection to the country: “I am genuinely happy and grateful for being a member of the Jewish nation. I have Jewish – more precisely, Jewish-Israeli ancestors. And naturally I cannot imagine it being any other way; but why should I?