Question:

How was it that Jewish scholars can ignore the prophecies of Daniel chapter 9:24-26 about when the Messiah would come? This prophecy clearly points to Jesus.

Answer:

I do not think it is fair to say that Jewish scholars simply ignore Daniel 9:24-28.  In fact, a number of Jewish authors have commented on this passage (see below). What one might say is that they misinterpret this passage, choosing to not see what you and I think are the rather obvious messianic interpretation.  If one chooses not to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, then one will, obviously, interpret passages such as Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, Isaiah 7, Isaiah 9. Daniel 9 and other passages in a way which allow one to deny their messianic implications.
To be specific, Jews will interpret the word we understand to mean Messiah (Hebrew meshioch) in Daniel 9:24 to point to an anointed one–to a king, but not the Messiah.  The word meshioch means anointed one, which does not necessarily and automatically refer to the Messiah.  In fact, there are several uses of the Hebrew word which are certainly NOT a reference to the Messiah.   Unfortunately, all of us have the tendency to read our ideas into the Scripture, so we ought to learn from the Jewish misinterpretation of the Messianic passages such as Daniel 9:24-26 that we, too, must be careful to not read our conclusions INTO the Scripture (eisegesis) rather than discovering truth FROM the Scripture (exegesis).  I agree with you that his passage is quite obviously messianic!!!
Here is a Jewish interpretation of Daniel 9:24-26;   https://jewsforjudaism.org/knowledge/articles/daniel-9-a-true-biblical-interpretation/   This author does what I describe above, which is interpret the anointed one to be a prince of Israel, but he does not identify what prince, which seems fishy to me, and he adamantly denies that the anointed one is the Messiah.  I believe that his interpretation is a stretch, and is fairly obviously incorrect.  However, he does not ignore the passage!
John Oakes

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