Lavdavka, being a baal teshuva I certainly empathize with your feelings. Perhaps people do judge or whatever because you look different, but don’t judge Judaism by the Yidden. No one is perfect yet.:) Still, the majority (I would like to believe) of Yidden just want to know you and that is why they perhaps ask tactless questions sometimes. My husband and I daven at one of the major yeshivas in Brooklyn and I have been asked what my last name was … and then told… oh, hmm, i never heard of that name. (lol) What can you do about people who don’t think? (The rest of our family is not yet frum so of course they have not heard the name.) Just daven these people get some much overdue seichel. When I come to shul/yeshiva I try to think why I am there, and it is to connect to Hashem and his Torah — it is nice to also connect to my fellow Yidden, but sometimes it just doesn’t exactly flow smoothly.
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