I'm sure there were many who converted to Christianity and other religions willingly both before and after the Inquisition and assimilated successfully. The basic premise would have stood even if they had all initially converted by force. That wasn't my point. My point was it was an odd rhetorical tool to use such an impressive number (2…
I'm sure there were many who converted to Christianity and other religions willingly both before and after the Inquisition and assimilated successfully. The basic premise would have stood even if they had all initially converted by force. That wasn't my point. My point was it was an odd rhetorical tool to use such an impressive number (200M!) to show successful assimilation when there's no doubt that many of their ancestors did convert by force.
Anyway, I came to the conclusion a long time ago that I think people who don't want to partake in Judaism just shouldn't. Assimilate away if that's what you choose. The social punishment that often comes with it may be difficult and unfortunate, but it is far from getting killed for eating pork in 99.9% of cases. It is also hard to say that the social punishment is responsible for Judaism's persistence although one can certainly speculate.
I'm sure there were many who converted to Christianity and other religions willingly both before and after the Inquisition and assimilated successfully. The basic premise would have stood even if they had all initially converted by force. That wasn't my point. My point was it was an odd rhetorical tool to use such an impressive number (200M!) to show successful assimilation when there's no doubt that many of their ancestors did convert by force.
Anyway, I came to the conclusion a long time ago that I think people who don't want to partake in Judaism just shouldn't. Assimilate away if that's what you choose. The social punishment that often comes with it may be difficult and unfortunate, but it is far from getting killed for eating pork in 99.9% of cases. It is also hard to say that the social punishment is responsible for Judaism's persistence although one can certainly speculate.