Aside from not being religious (though I seem to have acquired a ferocious ethnic identity somewhere)
There's a lot to this point. I've been known--by which I mean that if you hang around me for a week or two you'll probably hear it--to say that Judaism is race, religion, and culture; and to each Jew, the proportions are different. If you have a strong ethnic identity, that's born of race and culture, not religion.
In re "Why didn't Jews convert?"
How exactly are you getting that question, and in what context? Is the question "Why didn't they convert when they came to the New World in order to assimilate"? Because...honestly, I'm bothered by the notion that Jews had some expectation of conversion then. Or is it more "why, when faced with the choice of horrible burning death or conversion, did so many Jews choose the fire"?
and then for some reason, they didn't trust that the conversions were genuine.
To be fair, many weren't...
When I've been asked for my explanation of anti-Semitism, my first reaction is to think "Is this person asking me to excuse it? To make them feel better by saying it was partly the Jews' fault?" I don't know if this is my craziness or not.
I suppose it depends how the question is asked, once again. I tend to see it, when asked by a person in the modern day, as an honest ignorance. Most of the people I talk to don't seem to have any ingrained antisemitism, and are almost confused by the notion...so they want to know why in the world there was an Inquisition. It doesn't make sense to them.
no subject
There's a lot to this point. I've been known--by which I mean that if you hang around me for a week or two you'll probably hear it--to say that Judaism is race, religion, and culture; and to each Jew, the proportions are different. If you have a strong ethnic identity, that's born of race and culture, not religion.
In re "Why didn't Jews convert?"
How exactly are you getting that question, and in what context? Is the question "Why didn't they convert when they came to the New World in order to assimilate"? Because...honestly, I'm bothered by the notion that Jews had some expectation of conversion then. Or is it more "why, when faced with the choice of horrible burning death or conversion, did so many Jews choose the fire"?
and then for some reason, they didn't trust that the conversions were genuine.
To be fair, many weren't...
When I've been asked for my explanation of anti-Semitism, my first reaction is to think "Is this person asking me to excuse it? To make them feel better by saying it was partly the Jews' fault?" I don't know if this is my craziness or not.
I suppose it depends how the question is asked, once again. I tend to see it, when asked by a person in the modern day, as an honest ignorance. Most of the people I talk to don't seem to have any ingrained antisemitism, and are almost confused by the notion...so they want to know why in the world there was an Inquisition. It doesn't make sense to them.