Re: [Marxism] Shattering a 'national mythology'

[Jim Farmelant <farmelantj@xxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 11 May 2009 10:06:06 -0400 Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
> http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/966952.html
> Shattering a 'national mythology'
> By Ofri Ilani
> 
>

It should be kept in mind that in ancient times that Jews were 
very much in the proselytization business. I have seen estimates 
that the Roman Empire's population was as much as ten percent Jewish. 
Presumably those Jews were not all descendents of folk from Palestine. 
So the new Christian sect was following in the footsteps of their fellow
Jews
when they started traveling about the Empire looking for Gentiles
to convert. However, one advantage that they had all the other Jews 
was the dropping of the requirement that male converts had to undergo 
circumcision. That requirement was, not too surprisingly, a show stopper 
for the many Greek and Roman men who were otherwise intrigued by 
Jewish teachings. In fact many of the synagogues in the Roman Empire 
had special sections reserved for the Gentiles who would frequent the 
services without undergoing formal conversion.

Judaism didn't get out the proselytization business about the fifth or
sixth centuries C.E. or so when Christianity and Islam had
become the dominant faiths, making it dangerous for
Jews to continue to seek converts.  However, in places
outside the Christian and Muslim worlds, Jewish prosleytization
continued for some time afterwards.

Jim F.
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