Christians have been trying to convert Jews for two thousand years. And for two thousand years Jews have been resisting with notable resiliency. Judaism has lost more Jews to apathy or assimilation than it ever has—or probably ever will—to the blandishments of Christian missionaries. Jews unwilling to affirm the beliefs or practice the rites of Judaism are rarely ripe candidates for the ardent Christian proselytizer. As a matter of fact, these approaches have most often revolted even the most cynical Jew. In modern times proselytism has become a kind of chronic nuisance, having two main effects, both of them negative. It produced a deep-seated anti-Christian attitude within the bosom of the Jewish body, and it facilitated a defensive withdrawal by Jews from the larger “gentile world.” Jews sometimes justify this inwardness with words like “peoplehood.” Non-Jews have as often labeled it “clannishness.”