Reply to Converting to Judaism - anyone willing to share their experience?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We've had three people in our family convert. Two "converted too far" and wanted to make their spouses be more religious than they wanted to be, and those two ended in divorce.

The one who did not do that went to conversion classes (for a year? 18 months?) weekly, and is not kosher, but does light candles and have challah on Friday nights, and the older kid goes to Hebrew School once a week. They don't go to temple ([b]right now it's not safe[/b], but when it was they didn't go regularly either - maybe twice a year). [/quote]

Where do they live where it's not safe to go to shul?[/quote]

A major city in the country where the temple is under construction so all classes and services have been moved to, ironically, a nearby church, which doesn't have the same level of security as the temple's property. [/quote]
A major city probably has multiple synagogues for them to try, if they feel unsafe in the church their synagogue is renting. They could also have a conversation with their synagogue leadership about the security measures in place at the church. Sounds like, since they never went much anyway, the security concerns are just an excuse for them to go even less.[/quote]

Shame on you! What the hell is wrong with you? Not all cities have a lot of temples. Churches are not persecuted nearly as often as temples. People are not killed for being Christian nearly as often as people are for being jewish. [/quote]
Again, you said they live in a major city. If you said they lived in a small city or if, in fact, they live in a major city that only has one synagogue (or only one that isn't Orthodox), then obviously my comment isn't relevant to them. But there's no "shame" in pointing out that most "major cities" have multiple synagogues or suggesting that they could look into another option.

As for the security at churches, yes, churches aren't targets in the same way that synagogues are and so they might not have the infrastructure (shatter-proof glass, panic buttons, etc) that a synagogue building has. I'm not questioning the legitimacy of their concerns about security in that building. I suggested that they could talk to their synagogue leadership about their concerns. Maybe the synagogue has hired a security guard for all of their services at the church. Maybe the church [i]does[/i] have security infrastructure. If your family member [i]did[/i] talk to the synagogue about their concerns and felt they weren't adequately addressed, again, my comment just isn't relevant to the situation. You're the one with the information, not me.

Finally, you were the one that said they are twice-a-year-members. It's not unreasonable to apply my knowledge of other twice-a-year people to say that their interest in attending synagogue at all was not that high to begin with and the security concerns (certainly they're entitled to feel however they feel about their personal safety) are probably not the only reason they've stopped attending. I know plenty of people who just don't like synagogue, but are actively Jewish in other ways (lighting candles and having challah, observing holidays at home, participating in community programming at JCCs, sending kids to Jewish camp, etc), some of which you've also said this family member does.[/quote]

Just stop.[/quote]

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