A conscious decision not to produce Jewish descendants is lamentable and means that liberal Judaism will have fewer stakeholders in the future
By AMIEL UNGAROrthodox Same Sex Protesters521(photo credit: TIM SHAFFER / REUTERS)
For the latter-day happy warrior US Vice President Joe Biden, Jewish Heritage Month seems to be about American Jewish support for gay “marriage.”At the rate things are going in Reform rabbinical seminaries, which are considering admitting candidates with non-Jewish spouses, it is conceivable that by next year Biden or perhaps former president Bill Clinton may salute intermarriage as the epitome of Jewish Heritage Month. If Biden’s grotesque amalgam of gay marriage and Jewish heritage constitutes an affront to observant Jews, well, that is the penalty they will have to bear for increasingly voting Republican.Gay “marriage” has become the last refuge of the failed political leader. If you have not managed to turn the economy around, you can still stake a claim to Lincolnesque leadership qualities by backing further assault on the traditional family. French President Francois Hollande recalled Marie Antoinette’s famous bread and cake aphorism by effectively saying that if they don’t have jobs let them enjoy gay marriage.While this may at least make political sense to politicians from the left, the need to espouse a bad idea whose time has come has gripped even Britain’s Conservative leader David Cameron. The UK prime minister is prepared to tear his party apart over gay marriage to justify his credentials as a Tory modernizer. What is worse is that such a policy exacerbates demographic trends that threaten to transform Great Britain into “Al-Albion,” or suck it further into the multicultural morass whose grisly fruits we recently witnessed in the streets of London and the suburbs of Stockholm.It would be grossly unfair to ascribe the West’s demographic decline and its vulnerability to a hostile Islamic takeover to gay “marriage.” The major contributory factor is the sexual revolution that affirms the old Yiddish expression that when milk is cheap one does not need to own a cow.One presumably can make a case that gay “marriage” represents a welcome reversal of the trend because it presumably inspires greater fidelity. However, despite studies that show gay couples functioning as loving and competent parents, it is hard to imagine such couples spearheading a fertility surge that matches the heterosexuals and insures at least a demographic replacement rate. By the nature of the relationship we are almost always talking about “planned parenthood” and less sizable families.Gay “marriage” thus compounds the disturbing Western trend towards smaller and even childless families. And since Jews have a penchant for being ahead of the curve, Jewish communities in the Diaspora, already hemorrhaging from intermarriage, will be further handicapped in efforts to achieve Jewish sustainability outside the State of Israel.I have few illusions that this argument will carry much weight with supporters of gay marriage. Therefore, I will perversely add the contention that by supporting gay marriage, liberal Jews are effectively undermining their own position within the Jewish community.One could look at the recent wedding in Jerusalem of the Belzer rebbe’s eldest grandson. This over-the-top wedding with a cast of 25,000 Hasidim demonstrates the power of demographic regeneration. To say that Belz was decimated by the Holocaust would be an understatement; that it was on the verge of annihilation would be nearer the mark. The demographic comeback of the movement reflected both a declaration of faith and a willingness to shoulder the burden of large families.Belz is not an isolated case and the lines of Orthodox demographic ascendancy and liberal Jewish decline will soon intersect. This is not uttered in a spirit of triumphalism. The diminution of the Jewish people as a result of assimilation or a conscious decision not to produce Jewish descendants is lamentable. This means that liberal Judaism will have fewer stakeholders in the future and Diaspora politicians prospecting for Jewish support will be tailoring their message quite differently. Contributor Amiel Ungar is also a columnist for the Hebrew weekly Besheva
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