Interfaith Marriage - What to do about it? (believe, marry, religious)
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Intermarriage has reached record levels in the U.S.
The intermarriage rate is currently at 58% for all Jews and about 70% for the non-Orthodox see the link below for the Pew Study:
What is even more alarming is that only about 20% of the children of intermarriages are being raised as Jews see the child rearing chart for the Pew Study below:
Unless something is done to deal with the crisis it looks like we are going to lose a large portion of our population in the future.
We have a lot of very intelligent people in the Jewish Community let’s put our heads together and brainstorm. Perhaps we can come up with some good ideas on
how to at least stem the tide of intermarriage and its associated assimilation. Ideas please.
What do you think we should do?
Last edited by Rachel NewYork; 01-22-2020 at 06:41 PM..
Reason: Topic title revised at request of the OP.
Be observant Jews.
Learn Torah.
Do the mitzvot.
Don't intermarry.
Give our children a Jewish education.
The fastest growing segment of the Jewish population is the observant. So we are actually gaining in the sense that the number of observant Jews is increasing.
It’s a sad sad tragedy. Sorry to say I think that battle is already lost. As has happened many times in Jewish history, when Jews seek to alter or minimize the Torah, within a few generations, those Jews disappear entirely from the earth. The good news is that a group of Torah observant Jews have always remained and will always. G-d made no promises to Jews who believe they know better than Him. But He did promise the rest of us.
That said, clearly some of these Jews can be saved. If even only 1 can be saved, it’s worth the effort. But I have no solutions. I’ll be curious if anybody else here does.
Very good points! I agree with Tzaphkiel that education is the key. I think that besides giving our children a good Jewish education, we need to reach out to the adult Jewish children of the intermarried, the unaffiliated and other adult Jews. Through education we need to show the beauty and value of Judaism. Perhaps then people would see the value of Judaism and assimilate less.
I also agree with theflipflop that we should try to save as many Jews as we can.
There's really nothing to discuss.
You either follow this: Halakhah: Jewish Law
Or, you do not.
Then, you either die and it does not matter, as you are dead or, you proceed to afterlife and then you get what you deserve. It's that simple.
I'm not Jewish, but I'd say acceptance and assimilation sure beats the heck out of persecution and isolation. It took my immigrant Hindu parents years to understand that they couldn't expect to live in a society and not expect their kids to be exposed to different ideas, possibly embrace new ideas and reject some beliefs, and/or possibly fall in love with someone who wasn't of the same ethnic/religious background.
Don't worry. Judaism isn't going to disappear anytime soon as long as the ultra-Orthodox and Israel are still around.
I'm not Jewish, but I'd say acceptance and assimilation sure beats the heck out of persecution and isolation. It took my immigrant Hindu parents years to understand that they couldn't expect to live in a society and not expect their kids to be exposed to different ideas, possibly embrace new ideas and reject some beliefs, and/or possibly fall in love with someone who wasn't of the same ethnic/religious background.
Don't worry. Judaism isn't going to disappear anytime soon as long as the ultra-Orthodox and Israel are still around.
The flip side to your opening position is "conformity and loss of identity surely beats tradition and a sense of self". The only reason Judaism continues to exist in any meaningful sense is, as you say, because there are those around who do not intermarry. Therefore, if we value Judaism, you have posited the answer of "be part of the group that doesn't intermarry, or be just like those people."
I'm not Jewish, but I'd say acceptance and assimilation sure beats the heck out of persecution and isolation. It took my immigrant Hindu parents years to understand that they couldn't expect to live in a society and not expect their kids to be exposed to different ideas, possibly embrace new ideas and reject some beliefs, and/or possibly fall in love with someone who wasn't of the same ethnic/religious background.
Don't worry. Judaism isn't going to disappear anytime soon as long as the ultra-Orthodox and Israel are still around.
I’d respectfully disagree. I think persecution beats the heck out assimilation. At least with persecution, you can still exist as a Jew. Assimilation is a form of destruction. As they say, we’ve lost more Jews to assimilation in the last hundred years than even hitler, y’s, himself could accomplish.
I'm not Jewish, but I'd say acceptance and assimilation sure beats the heck out of persecution and isolation. It took my immigrant Hindu parents years to understand that they couldn't expect to live in a society and not expect their kids to be exposed to different ideas, possibly embrace new ideas and reject some beliefs, and/or possibly fall in love with someone who wasn't of the same ethnic/religious background.
Don't worry. Judaism isn't going to disappear anytime soon as long as the ultra-Orthodox and Israel are still around.
Careful.
If one of the most prominent Jews of this time, Kissinger, said that there will be no Israel by 2025, I'd be not betting much on half of your hopes.
Also, Jews survived as unified people through thousands of years by not intermarrying. There are biological reasons, why intermarriage is not advised. And they know it.
While I do agree with you that it is good to be open to other cultures, there is a balancing act between being open to another culture and still maintaining a separate identity.
Throughout history one of the things that has has helped us survive as a people is having a strong Jewish home environment where we can pass down Jewish values to our children. This requires two Jewish partners that are on the same page and delivering the same message. When you have conflicting religious messages the children can get easily confused and this is basically the mess we find ourselves in today.
I am also not prepared to write off a large portion of my people. We are all ultimately responsible for each other and when I say that I am referring to all people.
Anyway that’s my two cents.
Let’s move on and discuss how to deal with the issue
which is really what this thread is about.
Last edited by Maccabee36; 01-16-2019 at 06:32 PM..
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