I am not a specialist of him, despite seeing him one time.
What I can say:
The man is named Jean-Marie Elie Setbon. He is French, has written a book on his conversion, give conferences and is a theogian.
He took the baptism name of “Jean-Marie” in tribute of the Paris former Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, who was himself a convert from Judaïsm.
He was born in 1964 in Paris. His family was Jewish, but not really praticing.
When he was eight years old, he began to be attracted by the Christ, thanks to a cross on the wall of his bedroom on holidays. He made the sign of cross as a sign of love.
When he was around twelve years old, he started to a mass and took the communion for the first time. He was attracted by “la chose” (the thing), which is the Eucharist, and this attraction would never disappeared. In mass he felt he was “at home”.
The same year, he made his barmitsva. With the money he received, he bought himself a cross that he hid from his family. He buy himself a New Testament and read it a lot with enthousiam.
He began around twelve too, to be scooled in a Jewish school. He discovered here his religion and was a practicing Jew since the age of15 years old.
But his religion remained a paradox: he prayed Jewish prayers at school and made his sign of cross in his bedroom.
At eighteen years old he go to Israel for eight years to follow a rabbinic education. He became a “ultra-orthodox Jew” (by his own word).
He married and they had seven children all born with a very short gap between two births. He was a rabbi, and still periodically attracted by the Eucharist.
His wife died a few months after the birth of their 7th child.
He became a stay at home father, (all the children were under ten years old), they lived on social assistance. He distanced himself with the Jewish community.
During this period, he feel an experience of being strongly attracted by the Christ, with chills, in front of a big calvary, on a beach in Normandy (France). He feels that the Cardinal Lustiger who was dying made him a sign.
After some time, he was deeply touched by a movie on Karol Wojtyla’s life. So, he started to go at mass regularly. To met some Christians was difficult at first.
He was baptized in 2008.
He remarried with a Catholic woman and they had a child.
In their family, all members discuss and debate openly faith and religion. They search answers in the Bible for their actual problems and the social/societal problems. He lead his children to this at meal time. That is probably this open climate of dialogue which is favorised by his rabbinic formation, that leads (in my opinion) to the conversion to all of his children to Catholicism, although he didn’t requiered it.
A Catholic family where all members debate faith at meal time, read the Bible is very rare in France. Religion is very private. It is perhaps one of the main reasons why we are so cold to faith.
I include a reference, but it is in French of course.
