Judaism is what’s called an ethnic religion, rather than a universalizing religion. Ethnic religions generally don’t seek converts. There are accounts of forced conversion by Jewish fundamentalists in the Second Temple Period, but even then it tends to be of peoples they regard as ethnically related and ‘fallen astray’ rather than people they see as out-and-out foreigners. Ethnic religions are regarded as a pact between the Divine and a specific set of people - and outsiders are either viewed neutrally or negatively coming (or trying to come) into the faith. As such, ethnic religions generally only propagate by birth or, less often, intermarriage. They don’t want outsiders flooding into their private ethnic pact with the Divine, and, indeed, sometimes regard it as religiously offensive.
Universalizing religions, on the other hand, are quite explicitly peddling a view of the world that does not, theoretically, have ethnic or cultural borders. Christianity and Islam, both universalizing religions, desire Asian Christians as much as African or European Christians. Theoretically. There is a… great deal of difference between what is taught and what is executed, but in general you can assume that universalizing religions like those more or less always want a person as a convert, regardless of their background. The pact with the divine is regarded as personal, rather than ethnic, and the divine regarded as largely impartial to all the minute divisions of mankind.
They believe that God wants us to use our free will, which means that proselytizing isn’t kosher (har har.) Where Christianity and Islam have spread pretty aggressively (often literally), missionary work or let alone forcing people to convert is anathema to Judaism
As a Jewish person myself its for a few reasons:
- We don’t forcibly convert, we also actively convince people not to convert (I mean using every argument possible to convince people). Jewish Philosophy states that if someone is holy enough to go out of their way to join they’re holy enough to be Jewish (the conversion process is long and if it’s not sincere they aren’t accepted).
- Jewish power structures have always been contained, in Israel for example Jewish religious leaders have little power.
- Judaism has a long history of expulsions and being massacred, also forced conversations away from Judaism
- Due to Jewish fundementalism its common to see people stop identifying as Jewish. For many people the Jewish community can be extremely hostile and unwelcoming, a few examples include: women, Neurodivergant people, Queer people, people without a Jewish education, people who dont fall into traditional gender roles/expressions, etc
Judaism tries to disincentive people to convert while Islam and Christianity both try/have tried very hard to convert people, often at the tip of the sword.
Is the disincentive effort a filter? To weed out those who are not fully committed?
Okay just to make something clear: While Muslim rule spread by force, getting told “comvert or die” was generally a very rare occurrence. Better living conditions for non-Muslims were a thing depending on the time and place, but even then the Islamization of the modern Muslim world outside Arabia was a very gradual process that took, for example, four hundred years in Egypt of one-sided cultural osmosis. Admittedly there was some foul play involved at some points, but almost nobody was converted at the tip of a sword.
Convert, pay up an extortionate tax and/or become a slave, or die, is forced conversion.
One thing no one mentioned yet.
Christianity really spread once it became Rome’s state religion, and Islam was always about expanding.
Once the Jews got kicked out of their homeland they were stateless people. Pretty hard to go against local religion when you’re a guest with no army.
