I always thought Jews were people who believed in the Old Testament, and honored God. I figured that no one had presented Christ as Messiah, and when they did, they would soon want to follow him.
The biggest surprise of my life was going to an Orthodox Synagogue this year, and sitting for 2 1/2 hours. I heard only one reference to the "Redeemer". But what I heard plenty of was the Talmud. There would be a Bible reading surrounded by the Talmudic interpretation which generally went from the ridiculous to the sublime.
To cite only one thing, did you know that the Talmud says Aaron did not construct the golden calf to be worshipped, only to be a reminder of Moses when he was gone? Because Aaron was the high priest, and he needed to be perfect, so therefore he would never actually worshipped the calf. The only people who worshipped the calf were 3000 Egyptian rabble rousers who had followed the children of Israel into the desert, and it was them God destroyed.
And so it went on and on through the readings. The Talmud is their Bible, and it is commentaries made by men about things written by God, and those commentaries are just wrong in so many cases.
I think Jews are indeed a totally different religion than Christians. We may owe them the Old Testament, and the prophecies about Jesus, the entire story of creation and the fall, but they are not just people who need to find a Messiah.
My understanding is most of the newer sects of Jews are NOT looking for a Messiah at all. So very hard to convert them to something they are not looking for. I think with evangelism of Jews, we need a whole new perspective on what they believe and why. And then present Jesus as the answer they were not looking for!