I wanted to thank Yichusdik for his or her (sorry, I can’t tell from your moniker what gender you are) kind and welcoming words regarding my initial post.
As a rule, I have found the Orthodox community here, and in the other places where I have lived in the US and Israel, welcoming in the “we’re all Jews together” way exemplified in your post. And when I don’t find that, I try to just move on.
Some people (Jewish or not) think that it’s their duty to drive in the left lane at precisely the speed limit in order to police the driving of everyone behind them. They are the same type of people who told my young son that sticking cardboard cut-outs of Sabbath candles on the window and adding paper flames as the sun set on Friday night when he was in the hospital and unable to light actual matches was worse than not doing anything at all.
There is nothing anyone can say to make people like that change their minds, or to make them see that what they are doing is actually against the religion they are so bent on defending. I am sure there is a name for it, and that many people on this chat will know where to find the exact prohibition in the Talmud, but I do know enough to know that it is forbidden to deliberately make someone feel badly, and it must be doubly so to do so to a small child.
I didn’t intend to go on such a rant, but there it is. Stopping now. Shavua tov to all.