The search for the biblical blue dye is told in a new visitors center

(JNS) KFAR ADUMIM, Israel - It was four decades ago that three childhood friends from New Jersey who had immigrated to Israel heard of a young Jerusalem rabbinical student who was looking for scuba divers who could help him find snails off the Mediterranean coast.

The three young men knew nothing about snails or the centuries-old search for the biblical blue known as tekhelet, but it was an adventure that would change their lives.

"It became a hobby that became an obsession that tuned into a mission," Baruch Sterman, who took part in the sea outing 40 years ago, told JNS this week.

Sterman, 63...