Reply #14: My life story is the opposite of your friend - I was born in Israel [View All]

[sabra]

grew up in an orthodox family and am now liberal and practice the egalitarian view of Judaism. I find those who convert or find the "light" go in with full gusto and want to achieve the highest levels of practice they can. I know many in that boat. Here's a fun fact for your friend, Michelle's first cousin is a highly regarded Rabbi in Chicago: http://www.forward.com/articles/14121/
Though considering how he reacted to Emmanuel I wouldn't imagine him being that impressed :-) Here's another fun fact, Obama got 77% of the Jewish vote (higher than Kerry and a little less than Gore/Lieberman): http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1034574.html

In regards to 1 mill moving to Israel, I find that hard to believe as it's even more expensive to live in Jerusalem than NYC (plus there are more Jews in NY than all of Jerusalem). Bottom line is that you probably won't be able to "convert" him to see it your way, so find a new topic like sports and then both of you could complain about how bad your city's team is.

peace - "shalom" :hi: