Miriam was born to a Southern Baptist family in Washington state. Her father was in the US Army until 1965, when he went into the ministry and began pastoring churches. So the family lived in many places as she grew up.
Within the church Miriam taught "Old Testament," including the Prophets' promises to Israel for ingathering to the Land and Redemption for the world. Having lived in Germany for so many of her formative years, she was particularly influenced by the gravity of the Holocaust. In 1985 she became involved in the Soviet Jewry movement, saying in letters over and over: "Those of use born in a free country are obligated to those who are not!"
Miriam converted to Orthodox Judaism in 1988. In 1990 her husband was asked to go with Rabbi Meir Kahane to Fort Worth, where he spoke at the first B'nai Noach conference, sponsored by Vendyl Jones' institute.
In July of 1990, Miriam moved to Israel with her husband and two daughters. During the thirteen years there, they lived in various communities in Judea. Her older daughter, Amira, became a Hebrew teacher and the younger, Yael, served in the Israeli army. Miriam studied Torah at several yeshivot, and with various teachers, in Jerusalem and Safed. She calls Avraham Sutton her primary teacher and mentor.
In the year 2000 she and her husband divorced, and in the following year she began traveling in Asia and the US on what she calls her spiritual journey. Meeting people of other cultures, she came to see the Noachide Covenant in a whole new way. Encountering Israelis traveling after the army, she came to see the journey of the secular Jew, searching for his Jewish identity. The idea of ushering in the Redemption took on a new dimension.
Miriam is a practitioner of an energy healing method called Shefa (a Hebrew word meaning "abundance"), which is becoming increasingly popular in Israel. Shefa is similar to the more commonly known method of Reiki, however, it is completely based on Torah methods. She sees Shefa as a tool to bring the world closer to Redemption, through prayer and repentance necessary for complete healing.
She returned to the United States in 2004, living for a while in California, Texas, then Oklahoma with her aging parents. She is currently serving as the Educational Director of a new organization--Noahide Nations, which shares her international vision for B'nai Noach in as an integral part of the Redemption of Israel.
"I will set you for a covenant to the people, for a light unto the nations…."
—Isaiah 42:6
"Fear not, for I am with you; from the East I will bring your offspring and from the West I will gather you. I will say to the North, 'Give them over!' and to the South, 'Do not withhold! Bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the ends of the earth…'"
—Isaiah 43:5-6
Contact:
Miriam Ben-Yaacov
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