SUBJECT:
A JEWISH PHOTOGRAPHER RECEIVES NEEDED FURTHER EVIDENCE AFFIRMING THAT THE SHROUD OF TURIN IS THE GENUINE BURIAL CLOTH OF JESUS CHRIST FOLLOWING ALMOST A HALF CENTURY OF STUDY, EXAMINATION, AND DISCERMENT.
A chronology of belief and work by Barrie Schwortz, official documenting photographer of the Shroud of Turin Research Project:
1978:
Barrie Schwortz, 32 years old, was the official documenting photographer on a scientific team, the first and only ever permitted to perform an in-depth examination on the Shroud of Turin, believed to be Christ’s burial cloth. Over the next three years, the team determined that the Shroud was not a painting, a scorch, a photograph, or a rubbing.
1995:
Doctor Alan Adler, truly the foremost blood expert in the world, and also Jewish, answered the final question that had kept me [Barrie Schwartz] from accepting the Shroud’s authenticity because the blood on the shroud was still red. Old blood is supposed to turn black or brown, sometimes just within a matter of hours. That really stopped me. Dr. Adler told me that testing found a large amount of bilirubin in the blood. Somebody who’s been tortured like Jesus was beaten the night before in the garden of Gethsemane, scourged and capped with a crown of thorns the second day, and ultimately crucified and speared, would have gone into shock, flooding the blood stream with bilirubin and that blood stays red forever.
Barrie Schwortz, then realized that this last piece of evidence gave him no choice but to accept that the Shroud of Turin was Jesus Christ’s actual burial garment.
1996:
Barrie Schwortz created www.shroud.com which has become the largest and most extensive resource about the Shroud of Turin. This was five years before Google’ creation.
2009:
Barrie Schwortz created STERA, Inc., the Shroud of Turin Education and Research Association to facilitate future research.
2013:
Barrie Schwartz presents at TEDx Talks in Italy at the Vatican. Watch here:
Excerpts:
At age 50, I was forced, for the first time as an adult, to confront my own beliefs about God. I walked away from Judaism when I was 13 . . .. I walked away from Judaism and never looked back. I never even thought about religion. Now, at age 50, I was being forced to confront that which I had avoided most of my adult life. . .. I had to look in my own heart for the first time. To my shock, I found that God had been there all along, just waiting for me to look and acknowledge Him. So, with that knowledge I’ve rediscovered my own faith after 50 years. Better late than never, I guess.
And it’s still hard for me to believe that 35 years after commencing work on the Shroud of Turin, I’m called an expert on the Shroud of Turin. How did that happen? This was not my idea. To answer the question that I posed at the beginning: What was a Jewish man like me doing working on the most important relic of Christianity? Why? Well, it took me a long time to figure out the answer, but now it’s obvious. God wanted me to do it. Isn’t it funny how God always seems to pick a Jew to be the messenger? I’m the messenger. So, all I can ask is how many Jews can claim that it was the Shroud of Turin that brought them back to their faith of birth in God? I can.
2023:
Yours truly, relishes an email conversation with a very kind and considerate Barrie Schwortz. “He made everyone feel special.”
PLEASE PUT ME ON YOUR MAILING LIST. DAN
7 messages
daniel steele <daniel.steele Thu, Apr 13, 2023 at 6:24 PM
To: bschwortz@shroud.com
Barrie Schwortz <bschwortz@shroud.com> Thu, Apr 13, 2023 at 9:36 PM
To: daniel steele <daniel.steele
Dear Daniel,
Thank you for writing. Our mailing list is a self-subscribed list and you can easily join by going to this link https://www.shroud.com/email.htm and entering your e-mail address in the box provided. Only an e-mail address is required although you can enter any of the optional items if you wish.
I hope this is helpful.
Warmest regards,
Barrie____________________________________________________________
Barrie M. Schwortz bschwortz@shroud.com
– – –
Shroud of Turin Website https://www.shroud.com STERA, Inc.
The Shroud of Turin Education and Research Association, Inc., is a non-profit corporation registered in the state of Colorado and a tax exempt public charity granted 501(c) (3) status by the Internal Revenue Service. STERA, Inc. Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/stera.inc
Daniel Steele <daniel.steele Fri, Apr 14, 2023 at 8:52 PM
To: Barrie Schwortz <bschwortz@shroud.com>
Yes Mr. Schwortz I’ll do that. Thank you. Fr. Spitzer said in the last several weeks on Youtube in an hour and 39 minutes presentation that the Shroud in the next couple of years would be made available for carbon testing for the purpose of determining evidence of some kind of brief low temperature nuclear event that would explain why no body or remains [have been found in the cloth]. If you can’t find that presentation let me know and I’ll be glad to send it to you. My very best, Dan
Barrie Schwortz <bschwortz@shroud.com> Fri, Apr 14, 2023 at 8:58 PM
To: Daniel Steele <daniel.steele
Thanks Daniel,
Yes, he and I are friends and I am familiar with that video (and many of his other videos as well).
Warmest regards and thanks again, Barrie
Daniel Steele <daniel.steele Sun, Apr 16, 2023 at 5:50 PM
To: Barrie Schwortz <bschwortz@shroud.com>
Dear Mr. Schwortz, I can’t leave our conversation without mentioning that re: those who seek to “evangelize” you, I always heard that Saint Pope John Paul II, coming from Poland, had many Jewish friends and one of the ways he always showed deep respect and friendship for them was to totally accept them
embracing their religion, heritage and traditions; he thought too much of them as true friends to ever allow his beliefs to get in the way of those relationships. I have always tried to model my relationship with Jewish friends the same way and it has been deeply rewarding. I bet you see this same tenor in people who have deeply thought out their religious convictions in a holistic, well thought out manner, perhaps people like Fr. Spitzer. Thank you for all you are doing. My best, Dan
Barrie Schwortz <bschwortz@shroud.com> Mon, Apr 17, 2023 at 4:59 PM
To: Daniel Steele <daniel.steele
Dear Daniel,
Yes, Pope John Paul II’s best friend was a Jewish man from Krakow who went with him to the Vatican when he became Pope and stayed with him until John Paul’s death.
I know people are well meaning when they do evangelize me, so I have learned to accept that as part of my involvement with the Shroud. I now look at it as an expression of love and am not offended when it happens (and it happens quite often). J
No, Fr. Spitzer never evangelized me. He’s one of the good guys!
Warmest regards, Barrie
Daniel Steele <daniel.steele Mon, Apr 17, 2023 at 7:01 PM
To: Barrie Schwortz <bschwortz@shroud.com>
Dear Barrie, don’t feel need to respond, but I joke (maybe not) that the greatest Pope brought his Polish friend along with him to the Vatican to guard him, the Pope, against the shark prelates I suspect/hear are all around the Vatican.
Fr. Spitzer, a young priest in the early 80s, would give the most wonderful sermons, humorous and down to earth, at our parish while he was studying at Catholic U. We knew he was special and have been following him ever since (even tried to get one of our sons to go to Gonzaga while he was President there).
Thanks for sharing, Dan
MARCH 16, 2024:
Barrie Schwortz gives his last Shroud presentation to Rabbi David Vazques and the Congregation Beth Phila:
Rabbi Vazques concludes the interview stating:
Do I believe that the man in the shroud is Yeshiva, the Messiah? Yes.
Barrie Schwortz responds:
And I understand that. I don’t go there. I’m not a rabbi or priest. I always point to the religious leader in the room because I’m usually in a room with a religious leader of some sort, right. And it’s always a point where I say, that’s the rabbi’s job, or that’s father’s job. My job is to present you with the evidence that convinced me, solely by the science, that [the Shroud] has got to be the real [burial cloth of Christ].
JUNE 21, 2024:
Barrie Schwortz moves on from this world to the eternal. Rest in peace!
For your spiritual health and well-being,
Dan Steele
