To change, to convert? Why bother?

At religious instruction classes, I encountered The Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan, and the sincerity of the traveller in that book was overwhelming.

For some years I deserted religion in favour of Marxism. The republic of goodness seemed more attainable than the Kingdom of God.

I recovered my infant Judaism, but in a reformist version.

I learnt pity, sympathy, and what it was like to be at the other end of the stick. Such lessons can't be learnt in lecture halls.

I was not comfortable worshipping another Jew.

Discrimination against Jews can be read in Thomas Aquinas, and insults against Jews in Martin Luther.