Gentiles converting to Judaism vs. Transgenders transitioning to their gender ID

There are parallels and differences.

Converting to Judaism	Transitioning to one’s gender ID
One can feel a Jew while being a Gentile from birth. It’s an identity. It doesn’t obligate one to convert.	One can feel one sex while being another from birth. It’s an identity. It doesn’t compel one to transition.
Judaism is such an important part of Jewish culture that one can only enter the Jewish People via learning and adopting the Jewish religious lifestyle, according to Orthodox Judaism.	Gender, the idea you are one sex and not the other, is so uneventful for many as theirs is ingrained via people pointing to their genitals. Later in life, secondary and tertiary sex traits will develop.
But some people just know they are Jews. They need to learn a lot to be accepted and live as a Jew, but where there is a will, there often is a way.	But in some kids, it works else. They feel a different gender from their biological sex. They may need a lot of medical work to have their sex match and live their gender.
If Jewish doesn’t refer to DNA or being oppressed, then what is it? Many converts have some Jewish ancestry, but not necessarily so. Some got intrigued via our religion, the State of Israel, or Jews they met. Many then won’t have ‘Jewish DNA,’ whatever that’s supposed to mean. What we do know is that they’ll have character traits that we seek to have.	This is often confused with sexual attraction but is unconnected to sexual preference. Unrelated are: ● Needs a man/woman for sexual attachment, ● Has sexual relations with people they do/don’t sexually prefer, ● Have a gender like/unlike their biological sex, and ● Transition/Don’t transition into looking like their gender identity.
Rabbis make as sure as possible that their fascination with Judaism is not a passing fad because there is no way back.	In younger kids, gender identity can still change spontaneously, so specialists try to make as sure as possible that a transition will not be regretted. Sperm and egg cells are frozen if needed for later use.
Secular Jews sometimes find it hard to take converts seriously. If no one in your family was persecuted, how can you be a Jew? If you have blue eyes like the Herrenvolk, how can you? But often, ultra-Orthodox Jews celebrate them for having such an esteemed lineage as their parents Abraham and Sarah.	Some cis-people immediately understand transgender is a real thing and take it seriously—for close ones sometimes after coming to terms with it. Cis-men and women may find it hard to accept the revealed gender and/or transition. They may feel the other as intruding into their group, while they haven’t suffered their oppression. Accepting someone’s transition may be hard if you are erotically charmed by their previous sex and not bisexual.

About the Author

MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, an almost daily blog contributor to the Times of Israel, and previously, for decades, he was known to the Jerusalem Post readers as a frequent letter writer. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. None of his content is (partly) generated by AI. * As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. He doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. He, therefore, wanted a broad bio that readers interested can track a bit about what (lack of) backgrounds, experiences, and education contribute to his visions. * If you don't know the Dutch, get an American peek behind the scenes here: https://youtu.be/QMPp6h6r72M * To find less-recent posts on subject XXX among his 2000 archived ones, go to the right-top corner of a Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". One can find a second, wilder blog, to which one may subscribe, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/. * Like most of his readers, he believes in being friendly, respectful, and loyal. Yet, if you think those are his absolute top priorities, you might end up disappointed. His first loyalty is to the truth. He will try to stay within the limits of democratic and Jewish law, but he won't lie to support opinions or people who don't deserve that. He admits that he sometimes exaggerates to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. He holds - how Dutch - that a strong opinion doesn't imply intolerance of other views. * Sometimes he's misunderstood because his wide and diverse field of vision seldomly fits any specialist's box. But that's exactly what some love about him. He has written a lot about Psychology (including Sexuality and Abuse), Medicine (including physical immortality), Science (including basic statistics), Politics (Israel, the US, and the Netherlands, Activism), Oppression and Liberation (intersectionally, for young people, the elderly, non-Whites, women, workers, Jews, LGBTQIA+, foreigners and anyone else who's dehumanized or exploited), Integrity, Philosophy, Jews (Judaism, Zionism, Holocaust, and Jewish Liberation), the Climate Crisis, Ecology and Veganism, Affairs from the news, or the Torah Portion of the Week, or new insights that suddenly befell him. * His most influential teachers (chronologically) are his parents, Nico (natan) van Zuiden and Betty (beisye) Nieweg, Wim Kan, Mozart, Harvey Jackins, Marshal Rosenberg, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and, lehavdil bein chayim lechayim, Rabbi Dr. Natan Lopes Cardozo, Rav Zev Leff, and Rav Meir Lubin. * One of his rabbis calls him Mr. Innovation [Ish haChidushim]. Yet, his originalities seem to root deeply in traditional Judaism, though they may grow in unexpected directions. In fact, he claims he's modernizing nothing. Rather, mainly basing himself on the basic Hebrew Torah text, he tries to rediscover classical Jewish thought almost lost in thousands of years of stifling Gentile domination and Jewish assimilation. (He pleads for a close reading of the Torah instead of going by rough assumptions of what it would probably mean and before fleeing to Commentaries.) This, in all aspects of life, but prominently in the areas of Free Will, Activism, Homosexuality for men, and Redemption. * He hopes that his words will inspire and inform, and disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. He aims to bring a fresh perspective rather than harp on the obvious and familiar. He loves to write encyclopedic overviews. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds should be disputed. In short, his main political positions are among others: anti-Trumpism, anti-elitism, anti-bigotry and supremacy, for Zionism, Intersectionality, and non-violence, anti those who abuse democratic liberties, anti the fake ME peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, pro-Science, pro-Free Will, anti-blaming-the-victim, and for down-to-earth, classical optimism, and happiness. * He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to parents who were Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork. He grew up a humble listener. It took him decades to become a speaker too. Bullies and con artists almost instantaneously envy and hate him. * He holds a BA in medicine (University of Amsterdam) – is half a doctor. He practices Re-evaluation Co-counseling since 1977, is not an official teacher anymore, and became a friendly, empowering therapist. He became a social activist, became religious, made Aliyah, and raised three wonderful kids non-violently. For a couple of years, he was active in hasbara to the Dutch-speaking public. He wrote an unpublished tome about Jewish Free Will. He's being a strict vegan since 2008. He's an Orthodox Jew but not a rabbi. He lives with his library in Jerusalem. Feel free to contact him. * His writing has been made possible by a (second-generation) Holocaust survivors' allowance from the Netherlands. It has been his dream since he was 38 to try to make a difference by teaching through writing. He had three times 9-out-of-10 for Dutch at his high school finals but is spending his days communicating in English and Hebrew - how ironic. G-d must have a fine sense of humor. In case you wonder - yes, he is a bit dyslectic. 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