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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Many Jews will not accept you as a Jew if you're a convert.  That's just the way it is.[/quote]

Well, 99% will. not sure what you're trying to say [/quote]

It’s funny, even though converts are much more observant than I, I never truly accept them as Jewish. Culturally, they’re just not the same. I feel slightly bad about feeling this way, but I still feel it.[/quote]

Judaism is an ethno-religion. That’s why you feel that way. One can be ethnically Jewish—through having Jewish bloodlines—and have no knowledge of Judaism as a religion.

Roughly 10-11 million of the approximately 16 million Jews in the world are Ashkenazi, which is an ethnicity. If you’re Ashkenazi, you’re Jewish. Doesn’t matter if you’re even aware of your Ashkenazi identity; you’re still an Ashkenazi Jew.

Same thing, I believe, for Sephardim and Mizrahim, which comprise essentially all of the remaining Jews in the world.

Of course, converts are just as Jewish as anyone else is, from a religious standpoint, and they should be accepted in synagogues. But they are not part of the Jewish people, from an ethnic standpoint, and never can be. That’s quite significant, given how much of the Jewish year is taken up with holidays and observances that celebrate or commemorate events in the history of the Jewish people. I’ve often wondered whether a convert would feel as though they can connect with those traditions, when it isn’t their history. [/quote]

Your worldview is small. How can a person commemorate events that weren’t in their history? Have you asked any of the millions of immigrants to the United States who happily celebrate the 4th of July and embrace our traditions? People who relocate to a new state / area and adopt the traditions there (move to the south, start caring about college football, etc).

Our temple has many folks who have converted to Judaism and they are active congregants.  Your world view is parochial and is one of the reasons people leave Judaism (not welcoming, tribalism). [/quote]

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