Jewish people

[salsamummy]

I work in a leisure centre and was told I had to leave asap as a group of Jewish young men had hired the whole centre and as a woman I couldn't stay. The receptionist was told she couldn't move from the reception area whilst they were swimming. Can you explain why? I haven't seen any or know of any Jewish people in this area so obviously just visiting .

What's the saying? "Two Jews, three opinions!"

No streams of Judaism actively seek out converts, all make it hard to convert (in order to demonstrate sincerity), and some make it harder than others.

Some streams of Judaism will not recognise conversions carried out by other streams.

And although the Jewish scriptures require converts to be treated 100% equally to natal Jews, some streams do not follow this practice. Ironically, these are often the more Orthodox streams, which tend to follow more practices than the non-Orthodox streams.

Stepaway, that sums up nicely! That's part of what I appreciate about (most strains of) Judaism: argument and discussion are encouraged. "Israel" means "he who struggled with god".

Bobbie, surely a conversion from an Orthodox schul with an appropriate beit din, at least a year living the holidays etc would qualify someone for marriage? If not then that really surprises me as I've attended weddings where one or both people are converts and an Orthodox or Conservative rabbi (seen both) is the officiant.

Stepaway, I've also had the difficulty in converting explained to me as being partly about making sure people know what they're getting into, that it's not a whim - with regard to anti-semitism and with regard to keeping the mitzvot.