by David_Jay 13 Replies latest jw friends
DAVID JAY:
Maybe I missed it but were you raised Jewish or did you convert after leaving the Witnesses?
I also don't blame you for not wanting to exhaust yourself catching up with what the JW religion is morphing into! You're glad you are out and that's how I feel.
I also agree that it is disturbing to see violence perpetrated against Jewish religious centers or any other religion!
LongHairGal:
Maybe I missed it but were you raised Jewish or did you convert after leaving the Witnesses?
I am a Sephardic Jew, a Hebrew.
My parents were abusive so an aunt of no blood relation took me in. She was one of Jehovah's Witnesses and I went to meetings, field service, etc., with her from there.
When I was 17 I began to prepare for baptism as one of Jehovah's Witnesses. But my blood relatives protested and said it couldn't be done. Being that they mostly speak Ladino, they tried to phrase it the best way they could, saying I was one of the "Mexican Jews" and thus could not become a Christian for that reason.
The elders studying with me told me that my family was lying, that it was impossible for someone to be a Mexican Jew, that this was Satan the Devil using a trick to try to stop me from becoming one of Jehovah's Witnesses. So I got baptized. I was 17, and I didn't know any better.
About ten years later, when Portugal and Spain began to set things in motion to welcome back descendents of those Jews who were expelled in 1492 (via the Alhambra Decree during the Spanish Inquisition), I was contacted by a rabbi. That was also the time the Catholic Church opened documents from the Spanish Inquisition to the public, allowing descendents to read the records.
When this evidence came to light the elders would hear none of it from me. Realizing that I got baptized as a Jew and with ties not only to Spain and Portugal but Zionist connections to Israel (and with none of the elders willing to discuss the matter with me to help me make sense of things) I left the organization and (unlike the wife of Lot) did not look back.
It turns out that what my family members meant by saying we were "Mexican Jews" is that our family was among the group of Jews that settled in Mexico and founded Monterrey. When the Mexican Inquisition started we escaped into what is now South Texas. To this day I can go down to Monterrey and when I speak people marvel at my accent and use of unique Ladino words since city natives have a particular dialect due to their ancestors having picked up a little Ladino and merged it with colloquial Spanish.
Technically speaking my baptism was invalid, so you might say "technically" I was never "officially" one of Jehovah's Witnesses. (But I became a pioneer and ministerial servant nevertheless.) The elders, of course do not see it this way so made me write a letter of disassociation (which I did under protest, but didn't care at the time since they were being so mean about things).
Today I laugh about it because for people who are supposed to be members of the one and only true religion, they sure know nothing about Jews. Not knowing anything about the Alhambra Decree, the Spanish and Mexican Inquisitions, nor that history remembers the "Mexican Jews" who settled there for a short time--well, it doesn't speak very well of an organization that is supposed to represent the God of Abraham. (I can still remember seeing and hearing one of those elders laugh in my face and say: "There's no such thing as Mexican Jews.")
DAVID JAY:
Your story is amazing! And what can you expect from an ignorant elder with no college education? I'm sure he has zero knowledge of world history.
The Jews were scattered all over the world! I'm glad you got out of the JWs and were able to reconnect with your heritage.
Regards,
A Special Thanks ESPECIALLY to ATHEISTS
You're welcome Jay.
