Question:
I often hear rabbis complain that the Jewish people are shrinking due to intermarriage and assimilation. But it is you rabbis who are the major obstacle to Judaism growing! If you would make conversion a bit easier, many more non-Jews would join us. Why do you stubbornly insist on a long and difficult conversion process, when you are closing the door to many potential converts?
Answer:
I would like to nominate you to be the next prime-minister. You have come up with a brilliant formula that could greatly benefit the world.
You argue that the Jewish people would grow if only it were easier to become Jewish. If we apply your logic to some other scenarios, most of society's problems could easily be solved. We could reduce the number of people living below the poverty line by simply making the poverty line lower. And we could have many more millionaires around if you didn't need so much money to be one! The crime rates would drop dramatically if we just legalize criminal activity. And if we dropped the average life-expectancy people would live so much longer!
Either Judaism is truth, or it is not. If it is truth, then truth can't be saved by diluting it. And if it isn't, why bother saving it at all?
The road to conversion is a challenging one. I have seen the hard work sincere converts put in to become Jewish. They inspire me and I am proud to know them. And I have seen the sad consequences of "quickie" conversions too. To paraphrase Groucho Marx, how could someone respect a religion that bent the rules to let them in?
Perhaps the implementation of the conversion system isn't perfect. That is something that the rabbis should indeed be working to improve. But we can only fight assimilation by presenting pure, unadulterated Judaism in an accessible and relevant way. That is a Judaism that can be respected - by Jew and non-Jew alike.
it is very disrespectful to imply that someone to convert should get rid of pets, in case you don't know pets are members of families and to some people they are very important for emotional and psychological support. Anyone who would suggest I should abandon a pet in order to convert would have been kicked out of my life asap.
I don't mean any disrespect, but people tend to forget that animals are secondary. Hashem is always first. Im glad you love your animals, and they bring you lots of joy.
There are no studies on Jewish pet ownership, anecdotal reports do suggests that pet ownership is less common among Orthodox Jews than among the general Jewish population. One possible explanation for this may be that Orthodox Jews on average have more children than do other Jews, leaving them with less time and money available to care for pets.
As an orthodox Jew and cat owner I cannot imagine why a convert would need to get rid of pets. Many religious Jews do not have dogs because they live in cities, where it is difficult to keep a dog and they often have large families, making it inconvenient and maybe too expensive to care for a dog. And Polish Jews traditionally did not like dogs, while German and Hungarian Jews liked them very much. But a prominent Orthodox rabbi who moved to Israel years ago got a dog for his children. (The children wanted a donkey, so the rabbi compromised on a dog.)
For the benefit of those who don't me I have been an Orthodox Rabbi these past 50 years. My eldest son was married to a convert who brought her dog with her. When their first son started to crawl she divided their apartment into dog zone and son zone. They both crawled to the gate and licked each other. While it was adorable, she was very concerned. We inherited the dog and we had her for the next four years until she expired. There is no need to abandon a pet as long as the pet does not cause risk to other people. I would suggest not holding onto snakes (especially poisonous ones) and would also question holding onto full blooded wolves but if the wolves are well adjusted then I would not mind them either. The same holds true for lynx and certain other felines.
A few years ago, I was walking on the West Side near the piers. A frum young man came towards me and my friend; he was walking two livestock guardian dogs (LGDs). I love dogs and was thinking of getting an Anatolian Shepherd, which one of his dogs was. I mentioned how unusual it was to see LGDs in Manhattan (or anywhere in NYC, for that matter) and he explained that his family had been planning to buy a farm and they'd kinda jumped the gun on acquiring the dogs. The farm deal fell through but they'd become too attached to the dogs to let them go. So maybe the thinking about pets among the observant is evolving, especially given that caring for very large dogs in urban areas requires a lot of commitment.