Letters/Discussion Forums
Exclusivity: Jews are their own worst enemies
There are many religions in the world, but to the best of my knowledge, the Jewish religion is one of the very few, if not the only one, that doesn’t proselytise. Not only that, but we don’t try to convert as many people as possible to Judaism; we actually discourage them from doing so.
Yossi Bogacz
There are at least two consequences to this approach. The first is that contrary to the promise that we will become as numerous as the stars in the sky, we remain negligible in numbers, compared to other nations. The second consequence is that we became hated because we reject people who want to join us, which means that we are [seen as] a racist people.
It actually may be too late to change our attitude because there is an assimilation rate of about 90 per cent in the US and Latin America and I suspect that most of them don’t go through any conversion process.
Similarly, in most other Jewish communities around the world, excluding Israel, the assimilation rate is about 50 per cent, which means that in less than 100 years there will be practically no more Jews left outside of Israel.
I suggest that all conversion processes should become “nominal” and automatic, with no conditions, just a suggestion to spend a year in Israel. David Ben-Gurion predicted that with the establishment of the State of Israel, the Jewish communities in the Diaspora will disappear.
Our religion has been and continues to be, the major factor behind anti-Semitism which in turn has brought upon our people the most terrible tragedies, including the Holocaust. It is too easy to blame everybody else while portraying ourselves as angels!
Highlands North, Johannesburg