Hello my dear fellow classmates,

So back in Sefer Vayikrah which we learned earlier this year, as well as in Sefer Shmot which we learned last year, it is evident that Hashem commands us to take care of the Ger, Yatom and Almana. I would like to focus on the Ger. It is clearly stated that Hashem expects us to treat the Ger as if he was one of us and to nor persecute him just because he lead a "different" life style before his conversion to our religion. Unfortunately, there are still people today from many different Jewish backgrounds who often tend to mistreat the converts in several different ways. My co-worker, for example, is a convert and he has told me stories about how people treated him which simply made my heart ache. Far away from North America, in Switzerland, my sister-in-law faced the same mistreatment at times. People often say that there is nothing to be done and that there will just always be certain people who will act in a despicable manner and that one must simply ignore it and move on. I tend to disagree with such a statement. i think that it is important to fight against ignorance and stupidity and shed light on the inappropriateness of these peoples' behavior. Now why am i ranting on about this subject? Let me explain. If i ever hear anyone mistreat the Gerim, i will not only bring forth the argument that it is a commandment in the Torah that we are ordered to treat them with respect. We are all descendants of Avraham. Avraham himself, was a convert and destroyed the idols of his previous religion since he knew that that religion had no value. He is seem as a hero to us all for finding God and believing in the true Hashem. Firstly, we are all converts since we emerged from Avraham who is a convert. Secondly, Gerim should be respected since they, like Avraham, are heros who discovered Hashem and the beauty of Judaism while abandoning their prior invalid beliefs. Converts, to me, are people who should be put at a higher level for everything that they decided to overcome and change in their life,as Avraham did, in order to follow Hashem.