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| Jewish Author Michael Chabon: Marrying 'in' is racist & genetically unsound |
The facts are as he states them – which are facts I have used myself when discussing this issue:
The liberal American Jewish population is shrinking dramatically while Orthodoxy continues to grow. The American Jewish future is Orthodox.
I don’t see this as anywhere near arguable despite the best efforts of much of heterodoxy to dispute it. Don’t get me wrong. I am happy about the rise of Orthodoxy. But I am sad about the loss of so many Jews from their Judaism.
In earlier periods of American history, Jews wishing to be as American as possible meant abandoning differences with our Christian neighbors. Most American Jews whose parents immigrated here from Europe had little to no Jewish education and thus could not abandon the archaic observances of their parents - fast enough! They could however be nominally Jewish without any of its ‘intrusive’ rituals.
As Ingall notes - Reform and Conservative Judaism was the best way to do that and they happily complied in the mistaken belief that this would save Judaism. When in point of fact it has done the opposite. These days the desire to even be nominally Jewish has all but disappeared. Ingall cites 5 reasons for this calling them tectonic shifts.
1) Ignorance about what Judaism is really all about - is due to a total lack of any Jewish education with no frame of reference about it anymore via traditional parents that were at least partially observant. That has long ago ceased to be the case as fewer and fewer Jews care about that with every passing generation.
2) Intermarriage – which is a direct result of that lack of education. That is becoming so widely accepted that in some cases seeking a Jewish marriage partner is seen as racist!
3) The increasing ‘disaffiliation’ with any synagogue among American Jews is on track from being a plurality of American Jews to becoming a majority .
4) The predisposition to liberalism sans any religious content has caused many of these Jews to abandon Israel. This is wholly unlike the near universal support Israel used a generation or 2 ago from almost all of Jewry regardless of affiliation. Now the only way Israel is supported by far too many American Jews is if the government there is like-minded politically. The more left wing the government in Israel is, the more likely they will support it. To the extent that any government there departs from that liberal/left mindset is to the same extent the American Jew will depart from their support.
5) And Finally there is the increasing abandonment of anything identifiably Jewish as definitive of Judaism – redefining Judaism as liberalism. Here is how Ingall defines the ‘new Judaism’ of the left:
Moral relativism; multiculturalism; rejection of religion; globalism; elevation of the group over the individual; exchange of God-given rights for government-conferred rights; inversion of private property; casting aside the preciousness of every soul…
One liberal value worth separate note is the diminution of not only the traditional family but of the concept of family itself. The ghoulish consequence is a radically low birthrate among the Jews of liberalism, well below the replacement rate and among the very lowest of any ethnic or religious group in the United States.
These 5 tectonic shifts have led to a tsunami of self-immolation. With its high intermarriage rate and low birthrate, American Judaism is now in a demographic free fall.
This unfortunate fact should not be celebrated. One might even suggest sitting Shiva on the ‘death’ of so many Jewish souls whose offspring may not even be Halachicly Jewish!
There is nothing new here that I have discussed before. But Ingall makes the case much more dramatically than I have.
The question – as always - is what can we do about it? Heterodox leaders seem to feel their last best hope is in Israel. They might be thinking, “If we can’t win ‘em over here – maybe we can win ‘em over there.” At least in Israel being Jewish means something even to those that are not fully observant.
In my view exporting their version of Judaism might do for Israeli Jews what it did for American Jews. That is clearly not the answer.
In my view exporting their version of Judaism might do for Israeli Jews what it did for American Jews. That is clearly not the answer.
What about Orthodoxy trying to reach out more to American Jewry? Is that even possible anymore considering all the above?
The answer is clearly, yes. Outreach works. Ask Chabad, Aish HaTorah, and NCSY, These 3 organizations are perhaps the most successful outreach groups in all of Orthodoxy. But the sad truth is that with all of their successes, it is not nearly enough to even make a statistical dent in the vast numbers of Jews leaving the fold. It might not even be possible to do it anymore on any kind of grand scale. Especially for those that have married out and have children. (Although there are exceptions and this demographic should not be totally abandoned either.)
One thing Orthodoxy is not doing is broadening the base of our outreach. Ingall makes this point very loudly and clearly. I think he’s right. It behooves all of Orthodoxy to be more proactive in reaching out to our non observant coreligionists. How? Let me allow Ingall to answer that question in his own words:
As a first step, enrich your communities by proudly broadcasting you are there for all Jews regardless of background. Encourage congregants to earnestly welcome less observant families and singles. That is the way of a refined Jew. Run a concurrent learning service on Shabbat mornings. In addition to Talmud study, offer classes and programs accessible for Jews elsewhere on the ladder.
With all the upsides and issues of Orthodox hegemony in American Jewish life, we'd rather have our Jews back. With profound regret, millions of Jewish souls are being lost to the Jewish future. Many are being misled from their rightful inheritance and many are dropping it on their own. And many are neither being led nor making a choice. They just don't care.