Lamenting the crisis under which world Jewry finds itself, The Jerusalem Post’s editor-in-chief Zvika Klein’s recent Friday column was devoted to the subject of why Israeli politicians just don’t get it.
Quoting different leaders, what stood out the most was the staggering 70% of intermarriage that is happening in the US. If that trend continues, within a reasonably short period of time, the Jewish community will simply disappear. Who wouldn’t be concerned by such troubling news?
But there is hope, and it’s what no one feels comfortable talking about. While agencies such as Nefesh B’Nefesh are wholly devoted to the cause of aliyah, at the same time, they do their best to weed out Jews they deem less qualified to live in the Jewish homeland. That includes those who are intermarried, do not identify with Orthodox Judaism, and have possibly shifted over to another set of religious beliefs. It also includes those who are not fully Jewish.
The problem with that weeding process is that, short of bringing them to Israel so that they can become reacquainted with the holidays, customs and traditions – not to mention giving their kids a much better chance of marrying a Jew – that massive sector will assuredly be lost as future Jews.
Conversely, bringing such families to Israel will almost guarantee a completely different outcome! Once here, they will be confronted with the traditional Friday night Shabbat dinner, where families gather together, light candles, and connect in a meaningful way.
![American Jews [Illustrative]](https://images.jpost.com/image/upload/f_auto,fl_lossy/c_fill,g_faces:center,h_537,w_822/433149)
Rebuilding Jewish identity
They will learn to relax on Saturdays, because few things are open. It won’t be their usual day to wash the car, run to the mall or catch up on jobs they’ve been putting off.
With so many biblical, cultural, and national holidays and observances, they will begin to solidify and take on a new identity – one which is more aligned and unified with their people.
Of course, as their children attend school, they will learn Hebrew, often speaking with no detectable accent, unlike those who arrived at a later age. Their friends will be other Jews, and their orientation will be geared towards teaching them their history as they slowly become part of the country’s future.
Those kids will serve in the military, study in our universities, and choose their marriage partner from the vast pool of Jewish candidates who live here. This is the right recipe for saving Diaspora Jewry, for those who are truly interested in doing so.
For those who are, instead, fixated on the purity and percentage of Jewish blood running through the veins of individuals, and for those who are closed off to anyone other than the religiously observant, saving world Jewry might already be a cause which has been written off.
That is because they no longer consider Diaspora Jews as Jews worth saving. Years ago, I had this very conversation with one such person who I thought shared my own passion for bringing every Jew home, regardless of what they believe. Their only criteria had to be what is written in the 1950 Secular Law of Return – being the child or grandchild of a Jew.
Sadly, once the conversation turned toward the unaffiliated and intermarried, the response was that they should remain in the Diaspora as they were, in his mind, not eligible to come. From his point of view, they had made their choice to abandon Judaism and were not worth saving, even if another Holocaust were to happen.
He was, in effect, closing the door to hundreds of thousands of his own people who, irrespective of their religious affiliation or marital status, remain ethnically Jewish – a distinction which no one can erase or deny.
For anyone who has been paying attention, the accounts of antisemitic attacks, denigrating verbal sentiment, or attempts to disenfranchise Jews from many segments of society are only widening, with no signs of letting up.
Sure, you may not attend a synagogue and may even be married to a gentile, but what happens if your last name is Rosenberg or Levine? Will you get any special dispensation just because you have assimilated and no longer closely identify with the traditions of your people? Probably not!
The truth of the matter is that assimilated Jews will still be looked upon as strangers, different from all others. Born with that Jewish gene, they will never be able to scrub it out of them, and that is why their lives will still be in peril despite the choices they have made.
Anyone who thinks they are not worth rescuing either has no heart or conscience and has a misplaced perspective as it relates to what Judaism teaches us about loving our neighbor as ourselves.
World Jewry is truly at a crossroads on so many levels. There is danger when it comes to their safety, their continuity, appreciation for their identity and, most especially, the survival of their homeland.
While some may see them as an extra burden, their presence here can make such a great difference. As they are strengthened in a new way of life, we, too, will receive that benefit by the sheer numbers, replacing others who have left.
Yes, they will need lots of help learning the language, the customs, and the uniqueness of our society, but once they do, they will become an asset in so many ways that it will be a mystery why no one considered this sooner.
Regrettably, Klein is right. Many Israeli politicians are unable and unwilling to confront this issue, almost accepting the loss of Diaspora Jews as a foregone conclusion. It’s sad to say, but those who feel that way are simply lacking the vision that is needed to see the great potential that could bless this nation by embracing the “lost” of their people.
Each one of us who has made our own aliyah journey should reflect on just how fortunate we have been to be gathered to our people and be part of the Zionist dream, becoming the envy of nations, as we pooled our collective resources to build an enviable society.
There is no reason this cannot and should not happen. It already exists in our Law of Return. The real tragedy for world Jewry is that it’s just not being done. We can change that, and we must!
The writer, a former principal of Jerusalem elementary and middle schools, was a member of Kibbutz Re’im from 1994 to 1999. She is the author of Mistake-Proof Parenting, based on the time-tested wisdom found in the Book of Proverbs, available on Amazon.