Oh look, the joker who “couldn’t help himself ;)” can dish it but he can’t take it 🥲 converts aren’t treated poorly. Jewish people in general are treated poorly, and eschewing the entire concept of Judaism as a race and twisting a frightening moment for antisemitism around to center the experiences of converts who feel they “don’t belong” when any subject of race pertaining to Judaism is raised is literally peak fragility, and really not in the Jewish spirit. It’s also literally racist. You can be afraid of being able to express yourself religiously as a white Jewish convert, and that is absolutely valid and painful and unacceptable in a free society; you can be fearful of the wellbeing of your fellow Jews in Israel, that is beautiful and valid.
But a white Jewish convert does not get to co-opt the epigenetic experience of existing as an ethnic Jewish person. A convert does not remember the Holocaust in their blood, didn’t grow up with parents who insisted on having hiding holes in case the Nazis come back.
And while I fully embrace the halachic principle that converts are members of our religious tribe to an equal extent as ethnic Jews, I cannot strip or hide the Jewishness from my face and my genes if there was another attempted ethnic cleansing, as we are witnessing Hamas have every intention of doing (as the world looks on and cheers).
Unfortunately, I know a number of reform converts who identify as anti-Zionist. This is literally an abomination, and pretty much as culturally appropriative as it gets. Israel is not just a holy place for me, it’s where my ancestors come from and are buried. It’s my literal homeland. I appreciate a convert’s connection too, and that’s why Israel is sacred and accessible for many different cultures and peoples.
But non-Jewish converts are not ethnic Jews, and I will not be bullied into silence about that fact by “politically correct” secular Jews or non-Jews who would rather Judaism be centered on a completely secular and assimilated experience. That is part of its modern expression, but it will never be all of it. And you don’t get to erase or manipulate what makes you feel uncomfortable or excluded.
