[LMB] Life catches up with Rene Vorbrettan OT:

[Azalais Aranxta]

On Fri, 20 Oct 2006, Victoria L'Ecuyer wrote:

> From: quietann
>
>> This makes sense, since a baby is considered Jewish as long as
>> its mother is Jewish, and there have not been a huge number of
>> converts to Judaism over the centuries (the rabbis discourage
>> conversion, in fact...)
>
> Me:
> Why do rabbis discourage conversion?

They don't, necessarily, nowadays.  Especially not if you have
any Jewish ancestors at all.

However, as Quiet Ann said, Judaism has never been a
proselytising religion, at least not within the last couple
millenia.

The other factor, which she did not mention, is that in mediaeval
and renaissance Europe, accepting a convert or converts openly
could be the destruction of a Jewish community.  During the years
when forced conversions of Jews to Christianity, expulsions of
Jews from entire countries coupled with the theft and forced
baptism/conversion of their children, and such were the norm, an
every day occurrence, the Church was vigilant over Jewish
converts to Christianity to ensure that they did not revert to
Jewish practise and belief and would only tolerate Jews
practising Judaism, if it tolerated them at all, so long as they
did NOT attempt to convert Christians or accept Christian
converts.  It was in large part a survival measure.  Conversions
happened, but the convert had to be very determined and the
process was generally rather secretive.

~malfoy


****************************************************************
Azalais Aranxta (~malfoy)
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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/malfoymadness

"I know the true world, and you know I do. But we needn't let it
think we all bow down." --Christopher Morley