“The audience was transfixed throughout his lecture”

“In the rapid-fire style of a professional comedian, Reb Asher had the audience of mostly younger people at Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem Synagogue in stitches.:

– in Update ’94; The Jewish Learning Network of Michigan; Detroit :

“Rabbi Asher Wade’s extraordinary life story kept the packed audience awed.”

“Inspirational, …Rabbi Wade made his talk quite a powerful experience.”

“Fascinating lectures.”

– The Australian Jewish News, Melbourne Edition :

“Today, he is an orthodox rabbi, a Gerer Chassid, living in Jerusalem who combines his work as a clinical psychologist with lecturing in Israel and around the world. Indeed, meeting him in Melbourne with his white beard and peyot, dressed in Chassidic garb, it is hard to imagine him [having stood] in a church on Sunday mornings preaching the gospel!”

Once a Protestant pastor and now a Gerer Chassid, Asher Wade is a man who “likes to see [things] in black and white.”   Indeed, garbed in a black satin kippah and a long black coat with white fringes poking out, the 49-year-old Jerusalem resident […] describes he and his wife’s journey as moving from Christianity with its vague decrees to “love God” to Judaism with its “nitty-gritty, down-to-earth grassroots stuff.”

 “Rabbi Wade has also earned fame for his inspirational tours of the Israeli Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem. He lectures often, retelling the story of his transformation. He toured Australia in November, speaking in Sydney, Perth and Melbourne, and has given talks in South Africa, Switzerland, England and Canada. Several Atlanta Jews already know of Wade’s story and are anticipating the upcoming lectures. Among them is Trevor Horwitz, a Congregation Beth Tefillah member.   “Rabbi Wade will enable us to travel vicariously through his intellectual, spiritual and emotional voyage,” he says. “I am certain this will be an experience not easily forgotten.”

Rabbi Wade talks about his conversion and uses the Holocaust story to inspire Jews to further explore their tradition. While serving as a tour guide at the Holocaust memorial, Wade emphatically disapproves of some photos on display that show mangled, often-naked bodies of concentration camp victims. He asks participants on his tours to lower their heads as they walk through those portions of the museum. “He showed a great deal of respect when [we went] through one room with immodest pictures,” says Mindy Ellis, an Atlanta resident who took a tour of Yad Vashem with Wade in 1999. “He told us that these people could be our bubbies and zaydes and they wouldn’t want us to see these pictures. It really touched me that he had that sincerity, that thoughtfulness.”

Today, by mere physical appearance, one could easily dismiss Rabbi Wade as just another haredi (rigorously Orthodox) Jew, with his large black hat and curly white sidelocks. [With] three doctorates, Rabbi Wade has blended his fluency in German, knowledge of the church and 20 years of Holocaust research to become the most sought-after Orthodox tour guide at Yad Vashem. He states passionately that “university can send a man to the moon, … and do much good in the world.” But, he adds, “it can’t create an ethical society.” The disturbing photographs that surround him serve as his somber case-in-point.

– Yeshiva University; “The Commentator”; Volume 66, Issue 5; December 11, 2001

Then there was Shabbos with Rabbi Asher Wade.   …It is amazing how comfortable Rabbi Wade felt when he came to Yeshiva University. I commend the students on an exceptional turnout and response. It is one thing to have a great Rav speak at Yeshiva. But to hear words of Torah from someone who used to be a Priest is also quite moving. If I had to pick one word to describe our Asher Wade Shabbos, it would be Chizuk. We should only be zoche to host many more influential figures at Yeshiva.