a couple weeks ago I moved offices, and am in a very Jewish part of the city now.
Twice in the last week, while outside my office, an Orthodox Jewish guy has come up to me and asked "Excuse me sir, are you Jewish?"
when I say "no" in both cases they just walked away.
What the hell did they want, do you think? should I say yes next time and see?
It is common in Orthodox Judaic areas for Jewish men to ask this during the holiday of Sukkot. It is not an attempt to convert anyone, but if you answer "yes", it is usually followed up with a question related to whether you have performed your day's prayer and shaking of the lulav and etrog.
https://forward.com/news/184484/meet-the-are-you-jewish-chabad-guys/
This is typically only experienced in very Orthodox locations as it is a "mitzvah" (good deed) to assist anyone in the fulfillment of this.
Sukkot is the "forgotten" of the major Jewish holidays, the Orthodox are attempting to help "lost" Jews experience a piece of Judaism again. In this small way, the hope is to have someone experience a tiny spark of increased desire to learn more about their Judaic self, even if only to a small degree. As opposed to converting anyone, it is targeted toward helping Jews who are not religious to have a moment of connection to their Judaic roots.
In a very loose sense, it would be like during Easter (admittedly a poor choice in the sense that Easter is NOT forgotten by any means, but being a major holiday it is what I opted to represent a level of importance) having a Catholic asking, "Are Catholic" and if you were to reply something to the effect "I used to be" then they would ask, "Have Crossed Yourself today? No? May we say a blessing together then?" And you would say a prayer and make the sign of the Cross. Will that bring you back to your Catholic roots? Doubtful. But even if it made you think for a moment about performing that ritual, that is fulfilling the "mitzvah" as just the thought by itself has placed before you a path to return and allowed you the freedom to follow that path or not.
My apologies if you (or anyone) viewed this equivalence as a "strawman" (or otherwise inappropriate) statement. In honesty, all of this was more of a response directed toward Tinsel in the hope he will participate in Sukkos next year...who knows, maybe he will even build a Sukkah and invite people over to celebrate with food and drinks since it is actually a great excuse to get together with friends, family, and even strangers over the course of 10 days! A belated "Chag Sameach, Tinsel"! ;P
