Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin
Google Trend "convert to Judaism" at all time highs (trends.google.com)
10 points by anonporridge on Nov 13, 2023 | hide | past | favorite | 2 comments


I've known two converts to Judaism. One was a folk musician who came to believe (whether it was true or not I have no idea) that his grandmother had been a Sephardic crypto-jew. He taught himself Hebrew and Yiddish at a high level - the guy was honestly a genius, last I heard he taught at the synagogue - and married a Jewish woman from the US. He wouldn't talk much about middle east politics, but when pushed a bit on it (not by me) he did emphasise that you don't have to approve of everything the state of Israel does just because you're a Jew. He certainly loved Arabic culture and music, and expressed regret that he'd failed to teach himself Arabic.

The other guy was an evangelical Christian, and he definitively approved of everything Israel did, and then some. If anything, he was disappointed they didn't do enough to claim land in Judea and Samaria. He got some sort of official position at the Israeli embassy and defended Israel in the newspapers. No matter what, of course. I don't know exactly when he decided to discard Jesus from his beliefs, but honestly it didn't change much.

I'm guessing this trend is a bit of A but mostly B. Maybe a few people deciding to "get into their heritage" to say "not in my name", but probably more people excited that a country is bloodily living out ethnonationalist fantasies and getting away with it.


Any explanations ?




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: