I wish it were better known and appreciated that the majority of non-Mediterranean European ancestry in Ashkenazim mostly comes from people who willingly converted to Judaism, even despite great personal risk. As we've learned from genetic studies, most of these people were women; over 90% of male Y-chromosomal lines are from the Middle East and Mediterranean while about 60% of female mtDNA lineages are.
These European women and men knowingly chose to become Jewish despite the fact that they would be persecuted for it, that they and their children would be subjugated to exclusionary laws, and that they could lose their reputations and standing with their former communities. They could and were at certain times even executed for becoming Jewish or having romantic relationships with Jews, and would be murdered in pogroms like the 1096 Rhineland massacres because they were Jews.
This man's name is lost to us today, but he became Jewish and remained Jewish in a hostile environment where there were zero benefits in wider society for doing so. With the recent massacres looming over his head, he was even anxiously considering the possibility that he might someday kill himself rather than give up his identity as a Jew should a mob come for him and demand he convert to Christianity.
Of course at times they weren't even given the option to convert/be baptized into Christianity. They were massacred along with the other Jews of the community.
When it was discovered that Marina Davidovna Surawicza had converted to Judaism in the 18th century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, she was arrested, tortured, and eventually executed.
The same thing happened to Maryna Wojciechówna and Paraska Daniłowna, both of whom were executed during the same time period because they converted and married Jewish men. They arrested Maryna at her own wedding.
I understand the frustration, grief, and anger in posts where people respond to the deep, longstanding mire of antisemitic rhetoric that people use to hurl primarily at Ashkenazim to delegitimize them and their heritage because of their history in Europe. I understand what it is to watch people spin narratives out of misapplied discourse about modern conceptions and racial politics in countries like the USA, especially when those narratives become the foundation for excusing or promoting dangerous misinformation, violence, and hate against Jews just because some of their recent ancestors lived in Europe and may have had on average lighter skin, hair, and eyes, (none of which are exclusive to Europeans or to America's present conception of "white people.") I understand what it's like facing an onslaught of ignorant and false statements designed to delegitimize, deny, and accuse Jews for Bullshit Reason #263434.
I just want you to know that you have ancestors like Marina and the man from 11th century Germany whose name we'll never know, people with an extraordinary amount of bravery and personal conviction who chose to be Jewish despite knowing that they would be oppressed and perhaps even killed for it.
Do not let antisemites make you feel ashamed that these people are part of Am Yisrael.
