Originally Posted by sperbonzo
Actually, there are a lot of reasons.
People (even Jews sometimes), commonly mistake the term "Chosen" as meaning "better". Chosen people refers to Jews thinking that they were picked out to help mankind, and to serve god... quite often having god punish them terribly for not doing these things properly.
Also, since the Crusades, people have been attempting to wipe the Jews off the face of the earth. Since the Jews were pushed out of their homeland, and ended up scattered throughout the world, (some going through Spain, until the Christians took over and started the inquisition, then into the Nordic countries, while others into Eastern Europe and Russia) At this point there is only 1/4 of 1% of people in the world that are Jewish. (0.25% of the population). Probably one of the smallest minorities on the Planet. Only orthodox Jews have large families, so that number is not increasing at all, and as some Jews move out of their faith, it erodes that tiny amount. Thus there is a push within Jewish families to keep the faith going.
The other thing is that Jews continue to be persecuted throughout the world (It's actually true, look it up. Try googling "hate crimes against Jews"). Also because Jews do not believe that god is so concerned with rituals and rules, but rather with how you behave towards those that you deal with, as well as your family, and community, Jews often stop practicing the rituals. Therefore, Jewish tradition is to keep hold of their history all the time, so that they don't lose sight of their roots completely and thus die out as a people altogether.
Jews never refuse anyone that truly wishes to convert to being a Jew, but they NEVER go out trying to find converts either. People have to come to them completely on their own. That's another reason for their low numbers... They don't advertize like the other religions have done! :-)
Just an explanation of what the thinking is, since you asked, not pushing an agenda here at all, or trying to start some kind of debate.
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