Daniel Botkin

Daniel Botkin was born and raised in Illinois. He studied art in college and graduated from Illinois State University with a B.S. in Art in 1971. In 1972 he became a born-again disciple of Jesus (Yeshua) after reading through the Bible. He married his wife Teresa in 1975, and 9 months later they went to Israel and worked for a year as house parents at Jewish Voice Broadcast youth centers in Jerusalem and Nahariyah. Daniel and Teresa spent a little over 2 years in Israel. They studied Hebrew, worked on the archeological dig on the Temple Mount, worked on a kibbutz, and took groups of young people from their home congregation for 6-months stays in Israel.

In 1985 Daniel went to graduate school at Illinois State University and took linguistic courses to be a teacher of ESL (English as a Second Language). He taught ESL for 4 years at Western Illinois University, then moved his family to New York and taught ESL for two and a half years. While in New York, the Botkin family lived in an Orthodox/Hasidic Jewish neighborhood and attended a Messianic Jewish congregation, where Daniel served as an elder.

In 1995 Daniel moved his family back to Illinois, started publishing Gates of Eden bimonthly and started Gates of Eden Messianic Congregation. Daniel and Teresa have one son, Benjamin, and 6 daughters - Shoshanna, Betsy, twins Abby and Anna, Emily, and Autumn Sunshine.

Daniel's articles and cartoons have been featured in First Fruits of Zion, Messianic Outreach, The Jewish Press, Petah Tikvah, Messianic Home, and other Messianic and Christian publications. In 1997 Daniel received an honorary Doctor of Literature degree from the Evangelical Reformed Methodist Church. Daniel has also received various awards and grants for his artwork which has been exhibited in art shows across the nation.

Daniel has traveled and spoken in churches, Messianic congregations, and at Messianic conferences.