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| The end of the Jewish line for at least half of the 70% of Jews that intermarry. |
Those are the immortal words of the great Billy Joel. How true. It is with sadness that I continue to report the imminent demise of heterodoxy. A view recently shared by attorney Matthew M. Hausman in an Arutz Sheva opedwhere he defends comments made by Israeli Minister of Education, Rabbi Rafi Peretz. Peretz compared intermarriage in the US to a second Holocaust.
Hausman noted that Peretz:
…was roundly criticized by liberal Jews, including the ADL and representatives of the Conservative movement. Some claimed his remark was contemptible or somehow constituted “Holocaust denial.”
But despite the outrage and continuing controversy over his stark analogy, liberal and non-Orthodox organizations may really have been angered by the implicit indictment of their apparent inability to ensure Jewish continuity among their followers.
How true. A fact acknowledged in the past by some of the more honest leaders of the Conservative movement. Leaders like Jack Wertheimer and Daniel Gordis. Both of whom in essence said pretty much the same thing. Albeit in the context of a wake up call rather than the context of their demise.
I don’t like using the word Holocaust to describe anything other than the actual Holocaust where 6 million Jews were killed ‘Al Kiddush HaShem’ - ONLY because they were Jewish. But if there was ever an apt analogy, this would be it. While a spiritual death is not the same as a physical death (for one thing the former is reversible - the latter is not) the enormity of the spiritual death of literally millions of Jews by virtue of their abandoning their Jewish heritage cannot be understated. Intermarrying adds to that in the sense that in about half those cases, the children will not even be Halachicly Jewish. And their parents won’t even care
Some might see this as some sort of triumphalist statement by Orthodox Jews. But not this Orthodox Jew. I can’t even begin to express my feelings about the tragic loss of so many Jews. Though they are physically very much alive - as far as Judaism is concerned if they abandon their faith they are spiritually dead. Dead - unless they somehow find their way to back to their roots by embracing the essence of our being, the Torah – our guide to living both in this world and the next. Unfortunately the likelihood of that happening on any mass scale is practically nonexistent.
I have said this before. Many times. As far as I am concerned there is nothing to celebrate here. The demise of these movements signifies a tragedy of epic proportions - the demise of the vast majority of Jews in the country. The very reason these movements were founded was to assure Jewish continuity in a country that was defined by the ability of its citizens to assimilate into a common culture. A culture that was in part incompatible with some of the Halachic requirements of the Torah for every Jew.
The founders of these movements felt that we needed to assimilate as much as possible in order to survive and thrive in the culture the new world had to offer its nation of immigrants. The Reform movement abandoned observance entirely. And the Conservative Movement tried to do that with a combination of (1) ‘Halachic’ pronouncements that were hardly Halachic (such as the permit to drive to Shul on Shabbos) ...and (2) looking the other way while their members increasingly over time completely abandoned Mitzvah observance.
Instead of trying to preserve Judaism and perpetuate it into the future with these remedies’ the exact opposite happened. We now see the fruit of this enterprise. Both for Reform and Conservative Judaism. As Hausman notes there is virtually no difference between the religious practices (or more accurately – the lack of them) between the vast majority of Jews that identify as either Conservative or Reform. (Yes - there are exceptions. There are always exceptions.) It is increasingly becoming even more evident by those identifying as neither - intermarrying with complete abandon!
Had these movements been successful in their mission, they would be thriving! ...NOT unsuccessfully seeking ways to become more relevant. If the leaders of these movements were to be truly honest, they would admit their massive failures. But why be honest when you might be able to find your way out of this quagmire?
Such an attitude is clearly a pipe dream. A far better approach would be for them to be honest and admit their failure - instead of criticizing those who are merely stating the obvious - even IF it is said in the politically incorrect way Peretz did..
It would be far better for their leaders to have a little more contrition and seek the advice of those of us that have had success in – not only keeping Jews Jewish – but in actually growing our numbers: Orthodox Jews. Something advocated by the above mentioned Conservative leaders (who are apparently a very small minority of them.)
It has been said that more important than the Jews keeping Shabbos is that Shabbos has kept the Jews. Those are words that heterodoxy would have been wise to live by. They didn’t. And sadly we are paying a very steep price for that.
Would we have lost a lot of Jews anyway? Absolutely. There are plenty of Orthodox Jews that go OTD. But far more stay observant throughout their lives and raise their children to do the same thing.
Had heterodoxy followed Orthodoxy's example they would not have had anywhere near the attrition they have now. Had they educated their members (especially the children of those members) to understand the importance attached to observance (instead of endorsing non observance as did Reform rabbis or looking the other way as did the Conservative rabbis) we would be looking at an entirely different scenario and would probably not be having this conversation.
So sad. Sometimes I feel so sad. Especially when reminded of this situation.