I’ve seen the future, and it’s black and white.
It was a sunny Sunday morning in our Lower East Side community playground, animated by a frenetic blur of whooping kids, my own included.
Alone on a bench, I’d neglected to bring a book from home and wasn’t in the mood to socialize with the parents nearby. I opted instead to subject the ad-hoc collection of children to an informal Jewish identity census.
Before disclosing the outcome of this thoroughly unscientific survey, it’s important to recall that this neighborhood was once the beating heart of Jewish life in America and the historic core of what still remains the world’s largest Jewish city.
Here then are the survey results: Of the 23 children in the playground, three were fully Jewish, and two were gentiles. A whopping 18 kids were half-Jewish.
It later occurred to me that with one notable (and Sephardic) exception, every one of my wife’s closest Jewish friends has intermarried, though most fully intended not to. Her own sister recently celebrated her first wedding anniversary with her tall and handsome gentile husband from Alberta.
That intermarriage among American Jews is a ubiquitous phenomenon is widely known. But its accelerating pace is nevertheless astonishing. According to figures from the National Jewish Population Survey, only 13% of those who were married before 1970 intermarried, a figure that more than doubled to 28% during the 1970s, reached 43% by the second half of the 1980s and hit 47% by the late 1990s.
According to the NJPS, three-quarters of self-identified Jewish adults with intermarried parents themselves marry non-Jews. And only a third of intermarried couples raise their children Jewish.
Across the East River later that same afternoon, I witnessed an entirely different demographic state of affairs. Ahead of a visit to my Aunt Irene’s in Flatbush, we stopped by a playground in Boro Park, a congested, square-mile patch of Brooklyn that is home to one of the world’s densest concentrations of Jews.
The fenced-in grounds were a stormy sea of black and white: yarmulke-d, tzitzis-ed and peyes-ed boys scooted and climbed, while their sisters, concealed modestly from head to toe, biked and seesawed. Young mothers sporting mournful black kerchiefs pushed carriages as their husbands, uniformly clad in black pants and white shirts, yapped into cell phones in Yinglish.
Make no mistake, the Boro Park playground represents the Jewish future in America.
In a 2008 speech, Hebrew Union College sociologist Steven M. Cohen said that “we are now in the midst of a non-Orthodox Jewish population meltdown,” noting high rates of intermarriage and low levels of affiliation among the offspring of intermarried couples. He contrasted this situation with the demography of American Orthodox Jews.
“Among Jews in their 50s, for every 100 Orthodox adults, we have 192 Orthodox children. And for the non-Orthodox, for every 100 adults, we have merely 55 such children,” he explained. “In nearly two generations, in our own lifetime, the Orthodox have embarked on a path to nearly doubling their size. At the same time, the non-Orthodox are en route to nearly half their number.”
The rapid growth in the Orthodox population is borne out within my own extended, and very typical, ultra-Orthodox family. My late father, who left his rigorously Orthodox fold as a teen, was one of six children. They, in turn, had 24 kids (of whom I am one). These two-dozen have given birth thus far to 110 children — a number sure to grow, considering the relative youth of many of my younger cousins. Indeed, the oldest among the 110 have wedded and have begun producing a gigantic litter that could one day approach 1,000 people — all within four generations!
The implication of all this? The ranks of secular and religiously liberal American Jewry will be greatly diminished by the end of this century, leaving behind a legacy of thousands of gentile Goldsteins, Bernsteins and Kaplans. The shrunken Jewish community in the United States will be increasingly composed of the fervently Orthodox, with a reduced representation of more moderately devout Jews.
In 1964, Look magazine ran a cover story entitled “The Vanishing American Jew,” which posited that assimilation, low birth rates and intermarriage would conspire to extinguish American Jewry by the end of the 20th century. As it happens, it was Look magazine that vanished first.
But ultimately Look wasn’t that far off. The figure it referred to — that fleeting creation of the 19th-century Jewish Enlightenment known as the modern American Jew — is indeed on the way to becoming a relic. How ironic that this was a fate once widely thought to be reserved for the now resurgent ghetto yid, who may well end up being the typical American Jew of the 22nd century.
Uzi Silber is a writer living in New York.
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Drop outs from Orthodoxy may well keep the more liberal branches of Judaism going.
Calling non-Jewish people "Gentiles" is like calling black people the N-word.
Very good article. As a Jewish man, who doesn't typically date Jewish women I can tell you they, Jewish women, are fully to blame for this predicament. With some exceptions, such as your wife, they are the most difficult, self-entitled group of people I have ever met. And please don't quote me, I want to live the rest of my life with my "you know what" intact...
It is only logical that the "liberal, assimilated" Jew is on a path of self destruction. When one exchanges their true Jewish heritage for a leftist political commitment what do you expect? I suspect that those running the Forward are also secularists who would die for Obama and cannot raise children who will be Jewish. I also believe that the leftist, secular Jew also hates the thought of the Orthodox gaining in numbers. And this is where we find the self-hating Jewish anti-Semites.
The Orthodox typicaly consider secular jews as goyim until we start jumping through their black and white hoops. We're not going anywhere as jews, certainly not disapearing, you just have to shut your eyes tight enough and believe that the playground in brooklyn is filled with "authentic" jewish kids and the playground in manhattan is not. It's the knew "faith". Out of the chosen people some feel more chosen than others.
Growing up as a Conservative Jew in the 60's and early 70's, it was very clear that what I was taught would demographically not transmit. We were, and largely still are, unwilling to adjust the litergy and speaking from the pulpit to the realities of our history (vast internal and historical evidence that 5 Books of Moses was written down much later with large human involvement, at a minimum). The commentary in the Atz Haim version of the Torah that my congregation uses is vastly more intellectually consistent than the prayor books or the average rabbis' speaking from the pulpit. If the Conservative movement doesn't find the courage and will to align the liturgy and worship conversation to be reasonably consistent with what people intellectually understand, a demographically insufficient number of people will see it as worth changing life choices (who they marry)for, and the demographic decline will continue. I can't predict what will happen if such an alignment were to be made. Faith is a difficult thing. But I, for one, would rather go down telling the truth as I see it, instead of choosing to go down being afraid to speak the truth as I see it.
As someone who grew up in the Orthodox community but no longer lives that life, I agree with your observations based on my own experience.
My brother and his wife have 10 children and with only the first 5 married at this point, already have more than 20 grandchildren, all Orthodox (actually Chassidic). Size of families alone would lead to Orthodox majority even if all other Jewish groups retained their Jewish identity. But, as you say, many intermarry and they and their children and grandchildren have only the most tenuous connection to Judaism, if at all.
"The reality(?!)" should look at his own flaws and those of Jewish men like him before he starts blaming Jewish women. He seems to conveniently forget that many Jewish women have long since rejected Jewish men like him for their self-centered attitude and (kernel of truth to stereotypes)peculiarly Jewish male mix of insecurity and arrogance. As Nora Ephron has educated us, Jewish men are NOT automatically, qualitatively better (full disclosure: my husband is an exception to all of the above), and Jewish women who intermarry have the advantage that their children will automatically count as Jewish no matter who they marry. Indeed many such women DO have the knowledge and wherewithal to raise Jewish children with non-Jewish husband. "The Reality" should also know that non-Jewish women (i won't use the obvious epithet)can also teach Jewish women about being difficult and self-entitled (as I know from sad experience...)
I'm sorry if I offended "True Reality" but you obviously have been married too long to offer any true insight. And since I have been conducting my sociological study for several decades I stand by my conclusions. I do agree that we all have our faults. However nothing has served to drive Jewish men away from a Jewish wife as much as the materialism, and sense of entitlement, of Jewish women.
As for Ms Ephron she needs to get over her bitterness regarding Carl Bernsteins affair. Once a horn dog always a horn dog, not even a domineering Jewish wife can change that. Then again Ms Ephron doesn't even consider herself jewish...
In defense of Jewish women, I have a beautiful, caring andf loving wife, a woman of valor. Why do so many non-Jewish men marry Jewish women? They must see things the Jewish men miss.
@The Reality:
I am sorry I have offended you, but you have no cause to claim that sociological studies that have clearly not asked Jewish women what they dislike about Jewish men and why Jewish women intermarrry tell the whole truth, nor to suggest that I have no insight to offer (for the record, I have had in my life plenty of good Jewish male friends, too, and as a scholar of American Jewish history, I have reached my own conclusions regarding the historic materialism and assimilationism of Jewish men that are just as valid, if not more). Your reality is not the only one and however "correct" your sociological results may be, you have clearly displayed your biases in attacking Nora Ephron, a wonderful, talented, and funny women who had plenty good reason to be bitter against the cruel cheater Carl Bernstein (began his affair when she was pregnant) AND Dan Greenberg. Whatever may or may not be true about the past, I can't think of anything that will drive Jewish women away more than the attitudes of Jewish men like you (long recorded in literature, history, and sociology).
I suggest in the future, you even the score and conduct a study of why Jewish women what they dislike about Jewish men, as well as why non-Jewish men might think differently regarding assimilation. THAT might offer some much-needed insight into the this issue.
@Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg:
Thank you for the reminder that not all Jewish men think like "True Reality."
@True Reality
Thanks for proving my point.
P.S. @The Reality
I should have thanked you for proving my point. Anyone who looks to confirm his stereotypes will always find a way to do so, others, like myself prefer to keep an open mind.
Chag Sameach.
" with her tall and handsome gentile husband from Alberta"
Was it really necessary here to add in "tall" and "handsome" as vaguely coded indicators of non-Jewishness? If that's what you believe, then what's the point of this column - after all, if "gentiles" (an ethnic group I am unfamiliar with) are all tall and handsome, who the hell wouldn't want to marry one?
I dont know what park on the lower east side you were in but the parks I go to are full of orthodox jews.
"reserved for the now resurgent ghetto yid"
Shows how you feel about Orthodox Jews. It's not just about high birthrates. There are baalei teshuva, converts, and immigrants, who are also helping to augment the growth of the Orthodox community.
While I resent the creeping sense of uniformity that is often symbolized by black hats, I find it a better alternative to the anything-goes attitude found outside of Orthodoxy.
The real story here should be about how Reform tried to boost its numbers with lenient conversions, patrilinear descent, and gay rights recognition- and still continues to decline in numbers.
"like myself prefer to keep an open mind."
"...peculiarly Jewish male mix of insecurity and arrogance. As Nora Ephron has educated us, Jewish men are NOT automatically, qualitatively better (full disclosure: my husband is an exception to all of the above), "
"I can't think of anything that will drive Jewish women away more than the attitudes of Jewish men like you (long recorded in literature, history, and sociology)."
"as a scholar of American Jewish history, I have reached my own conclusions regarding the historic materialism and assimilationism of Jewish men that are just as valid, if not more"
Well "True Reality" I'm glad you have an open mind. Although it seems that your "Open mind" has drawn several conclusions about Jewish Men that are similiar to the way I feel about Jewish women, albeit with an added sense of bitterness. Seems someone has a double standard...
Well, whoever you are, you're obviously upset, which rally proves my point all along that what is good (or alternatively unkosher) for the goose is the same for the gander. I'm sorry about whatever bad experiences you have had, but please get over your own bitterness (and yes men can be bitter too, although its obviously not cool to say so) and double standards (which definitely weigh against women) before you judge others.
And you're obviously upset if you've just used my handle:)
What is missing in this article is an analysis of the "why": Why is intermarriage so widespread? It would also be interesting to debate about what could be done. Alas, whenever I read about the reality of Jewish life in America, all I can read is a description of the social reality - never a call to the Jewish public to take action. Sadly, the reason is that there is no real Jewish community out there, with an accepted leadership having any authority and a decision-making process. No one is responsible for anything.
Why is intermarriage so widespread? Because Jewish distinctiveness has disappeared. The Jews are no longer a minority group with its own language and lifestyle. They are simply part of mainstream middle class American society. True, they belong to a minority religious group; but they are largely irreligious people - a religion of irreligious people is not a tool of social distinctiveness and group pride.
How could Jewish distinctiveness be restored? The American Jews need an educational system that puts all of its emphasis in recreating a Jewish (i.e. a non-American) identity that has its own historic narrative. This means a return to a Jewish language as a tool for the recreating of a Jewish society. The downfall of American Jewry is its having given up on its own language.
An interesting article; thank you. I am a quintessential protestant moderate-conservative WASP. I've always had a "thing" for jewish women. I've dated three of them. (There don't seem to be a lot of them here in Texas). The third, Beverly, I very much wish that I'd met in a different life, one in which we could've made it work.
Why do I feel a special attraction for jewish women? I think that in part its due to have been raised almost from birth on stories (and movies) about Moses, Samson, David & Goliath, Danial in the Lion's Den, Ruth, Esther, Rachel and, yes, Mary, Joseph and Jesus.
In part it's due to the fact that, with one exception, the nine or ten jewish men & women that I've got to know well or fairly well were of demonstrably above average intelligence & education; the word "genteel" applies. One was a college professor of mine who escaped the Holocaust (and had some fascinating stories to tell), one is my dentist, one is my GP and one is an attorney whose services I was in serious need of years ago. That one exception was the second (jewish) woman that I dated (briefly) who seemed to be brain-dead from too much (admitted) drug-use in her teens & twenties;(*great* in the sack though!).
I'm always a little saddened whenever I read something to the effect that a jew marrying a non-jew is a bad thing. I think of Beverly, wistfuly recall some happy moments and once again speculate about what might have been. Jeff in Houston, Texas; staunch supporter of Israel; served in Iraq et al.
As in the heavily orthodox skewed US Jewish population of the early to mid 1900's, a great number of Orthodox raised children will exit that lifestyle as for better higher quality of life achievable through the moderation of religious observance thru Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, Humanistic, and whatever comes in the denominational evolution next in this young century. Just talk to the 70 and 80 year olds at the Reform synagogues - many came from Orthodox backgrounds.
Additionally, many of the offspring of the intermarried will identify and live as Jews.
Judaism will survive and prosper. To think its future is bound up in Orthodoxy simply because of a higher birthrate is simplistic and misguided. The author needs to get outside of Brooklyn and the Lower East Side to see the whole picture.
whoa, this topic brought the loons out of the woodwork!
i'll only comment that "gentile" is not a bad word. shiksa and sheygets, you bet -- ethnic slursville. but gentile is from a latin root that means "of the tribe" or "of the people" -- there's no moral judgment there (unlike shiksa and sheygets, mean bug or unclean thing)!
i know we jews LOVE to get worked up about stuff. intermarriage is a worthy topic. the use of the word gentile? not so much.
First, I suggest that Uzi go back and read the (I assume 2000-2001) NJPS that he quotes. He will find some other data that bears heavily on what he said: as of that study, there were 297,000 Orthodox Jews in the U.S. over the age of 18. However, there were 347,000 other Jews who had been raised Orthodox but were no longer Orthodox! More Orthodox have left the denomination than remain! The Orthodox better reproduce at a high rate since they lose at such a high rate!
Second, this idea that intermarriage causes us to lose Jews is so absurd that it makes me fear that we don't have the brains we need to survive! Does anyone really believe that someone who is a committed Jew (regardless of denomination) would be so willing to de-commit just because he or she marries a person of a different faith? We all know people who have intermarried and have not lost their commitment; I can't think of a single committed Jew who lost his or her commitment through intermarriage.
Intermarriage is thus not a cause of loss of commitment but a result of it. People who aren't very committed to begin with are of course not hesitant to marry outside the faith.
If we are to survive, we better begin to do a better job of distinguishing between causes and effects. Our problem is not that people intermarry; it's that we haven't figured out how to make Judaism compelling in modern America.
Extrapolations of the dire future of Social Security often seem to assume that existing living recipients will never die; extrapolations of the supposedly inevitable victory of Orthodoxy likewise shortsightedly assume that everyone born Orthodox will remain Orthodox. Religious belief is not genetically determined.
There will always be a diversity of opinion in any human group, and Jews seem to excel in that regard. Orthodoxy is not by itself elastic enough to contain that diversity. There will always be women who want to be rabbis, will always be gay and lesbian Jews who want to marry the person they love, there will always be people who intellect and consciences cannot allow them to blindly accept traditionalist dogma and authority structures, and liberal Jewish movements will continue to exist to welcome them. There will always be Jews who do not want to be Orthodox but still want to be Jewish; the relative relaxation of persecution occasioned by the Enlightenment and the bourgeois revolutions permitted this diversity to manifest itself in formally structured ways. Barring the re-emergence of violent antisemitism and a return to the circle-the-wagons ghetto mentality, that diversity will still flourish.
All the extant non-Orthodox movements arose from real historical, sociological, economic, and intellectual reason that are no less valid today than they were in the past and are not likely to change any time soon. So long as the preconditions exist, the result will exist.
It wasn't too long ago that people were predicting the inevitable extinction of Orthodoxy. Real trends observed and documented and extrapolated confirmed it until unforeseen historical and sociological changes shifted trends in another direction. Even an amateur student of history should know to expect the unexpected and to remember that what has changed in the past is pretty much guaranteed to change in the future.
I remember a lecture in the '80s at the JCC in Binghamton where a demographer cited the trends of Jewish demographic decline as indicated by studying the Jewish Population Studies since the '60s. She concluded by saying we shouldn't draw negative conclusions about the future of American Jewry. Instead, she predicted that in 100 years there will still be 6 or 7 million Jews in America...and they'll all speak Yiddish.
LOL at Roberts "Calling non-Jewish people "Gentiles" is like calling black people the N-word."
Wow, talk about reaching. First, "gentile" doesn't equate a derogatory meaning like "the N word" How many goyim (you don't like "gentile") were raped, murdered, robbed, beaten, enslaved, land conquered and so forth by Jews?
Your equation is a slap to the face of black people. One must assume you were joking or at least being sarcastic.
Notice you didn't call it the "G word".
The discussion is interesting and the article provocative. Just another angle on this is the importance of culture and how that creates a glue of continuity. The American Jewish community has merged so neatly into the American experience of choosing whom you are, that Jewish culture has also merged and blended into American culture. So now there is a hybridization.
Yet I don't believe this is new and I do think we have done this over the centuries. The difference today is the strong pull in America and the world overall towards a "saccaranized" culture. I do believe this is changing for Jews and non-Jews, too. So though the numbers of Jews are going down I think through all segments of the Jewish community a stronger Jewish culture, with intercultural expressions is emerging. Life is interesting, the Jewish people have been through this before, and we're still here and "crazy" after four thousand years!
The Jews who came to the United States at the turn of the century grew up in traditional religiouis East European cities and towns. Large numbers were teens, impoverished older people, porgrom victimes whose Jewish communities and educational systems were destroyed by pogroms, transfer, illness and death. They came to America for physical and economic survival, not to transplant Judaism. Most commandmnt observqnt Jewish teachers , rabbis and leaders did not immigrate to America. The struggle for survival through Americanization became the goal of the young people of that generation. When we look at the majority of the fervently Orthodox, they trace back to the relatively few Orthodox rabbinic survivors of the Holocaust who, in a short time, rebuilt observant Jewish communities in America made up of survivors and the fervently Orthodox who came to the States in the first decade of the 20th century and were determoined to maintain and build Orthodox Judaism. Tremendous numbers of Jews raised in decidedly non-Orthodox homes and communities joined their ranks and are now the parents and grandparents of fervently Orthodox Jews. Out of the depths they called upon the L-rd. He answered them, strengthened them, and they continue to flourish. The lost ranks of habitual Orthodox from the turn of the century has no relevance to the current state of Orthodoxy.
Daniel, my Leftist friend....do you believe in G-d, Torah or Israel as an undivided Jewish nation?
Should Jews re-claim the entire land of Israel, and rer-claim the entire Temple Mount, and plan a re-building of the Holy Temple?
What messages and lessons do you get from Torah?
WHO or what is G-d? Did the prophets speak to G-d, or forsee the future?
Do tell how you, a self-admitted MARXIST, can drink all the ACORN Kool-Aid and claim to not like Buraq Hussein? Is it because Hussein seems to NOT be left-wing enough for you?
Are you proud to be Jewish? WHY BE JEWISH?
Do you belive that jews should only marry Jews? If you have, or plan to have children, do you want them to grow up Torah-observant Jews?
Please answer. I am curious as to the self-loathing and self-destructive Jew----who has chosen suicidal Leftism over Torah and Hashem? Is the Judaism of your ancestors your religion, or is some sort of Leftist Marxism?
I must go now. Shabbos is coming, and I must get home.
May G-d Blass you.
Re: "Gentile" - let's not forget that Mormons also refer to anyone non-Mormon as "Gentile". There was a Jewish Gorvernor in Utah in the early 20th century, who I believe was their first Gentile Governor.
As Yogi Berra may have said, beware of predictions, especially those regarding the future. Who says that current trends will continue unabated forever? Personally, I believe that the ever-tightening bonds of neo-Haredism will motivate masses of young Orthodox to flee those constrictions. And, as today, these refugees will continue to re-inforce the ranks of Jewish scholars, atheists, Yiddishists, Zionists, and foodies. Secular Judaism will continue to grow and flourish. (And, if not, most of us will not be here to see it anyway.)
I do not understand why the author refers to this as a demographic "meltdown". Jewish organizations have lobbied in favor of increased immigration and multiculturalism for decades now, is the author suggesting we turn away from this policy?
Our kids are not like we were growing up. They have gone to school with people of other faiths and races, and they have learned to put aside such differences and work together. By reaching across these former barriers, they are building a society of peace and love that will be free of the problems we have all faced in the past. Soon we will be one big happy sea of brown humanity, and divisions over race and faith will be gone.
There is nothing more beautiful than seeing a Jewish girl marry a Black man, or a Jewish man marrying a Black woman. It brings us one step closer to the day when such distinctions no longer matter. I hope others will join me in encouraging such relationships to the maximum possible extent.
I'm shocked to read the slur "gentile". That is a racist term. Please don't call people that name. That term is an expression of contempt akin to "shiksa" and "goyim"; and an attempt to smother other Americans diversity and nationalities.
It embraces the Manichean worldview that there are only two kinds of people: goyim and non-goyim.
Please stop that.
Why is it that Forward and the Jewish Establishment demonize any Europeans Americans who are concerned about demographics yet express a strong concern about their own declining demographics?
It is a documented fact in every study done on interfaith marriage that out of ten offspring, 1 or 2 will grow up to be self-identifying Jews. We live in a highly secular culture and why is it so surprising that for most American Jews whose religion is the Secular Torah of Liberal left politics, abortion on demand, homosexual marriage, why should it surprise anyone that these people will disappear from halachic Judiasm. Perfectly understandable AND desirable. Let those who have always taken pride in being Jewish keep the Faith, baby. As the orthodox have always done and are doing so today.
And let those who seek the approval of their 'peers' by adopting the current, trendy and chic social mores, let them disappear forever from the ranks of the Jewish nation. As they have always disappeared.
NewYorkRob - Using the term "gentile" or the term "goyim" is exactly at the same level as saying "foreigner". Is it okay to say that "Armenian is a foreign language", or would that be demeaning? Every people of the world sees itself in contrast to others. It's so normal, so common. The Jews are no different than others - they traditionally call themselves "Israel" or "yehudim" (Jews), and they call others "goyim" (other peoples) or "nokhrim" (foreigners). Denying the legitimacy of a term to define ourselves vis-a-vis others is actually a type of descrimination against ourselves, since no one would demand erasing "foreigner" or "outsider" from someone else's dictionary. Have you ever studied the Hebrew text? Well, check Psalms 126, for example: "az yomru ba-goyim higdil ha-shem la'asot 'im elleh..." ["then shall the goyim (the other nations) say (that) God has done great things with these people (Israel, the Jews)]... The understanding of "goyim" as a derogatory term is a figment of the imagination of Jews who have little acquaintance with their own civilization and their own peoplehood identity. It is a neutral term, meaning simply "other peoples".
As a non-observant but respectful Jew, let me paraphrase Mark Twain (aka the gentile Sholem Aleykhem): "The reports of our demise has been greatly exaggerated".
The movement of individuals between the extremes of Ultra-orthodoxy and secularism goes both ways. And will enrich both ends of the spectrum, and the middle as well.
As for the Mormons, the Morman church in Salt Lake City donated the land for the first Jewish cemetary in that state. The Mormons consider themselves members of the tribe, so let them be.
If Othodoxy is the One True Judaism and if Orthodoxy alone will survive and all non-Othodox Jews and Judsisms will vanish into the dustbin of history, why then all the hate and vitriol on the part of the Orthodox posters here? I would have expected that those who hold the monopoly on spiritual truth would be a wee bit more compassionate, and that persons convinced of the unassailable supremacy of their doctrine and its inevitable demographic triumph would have other uses for their time and energy than venting their spleens against those who disagree but are destined very doom to disappear.
Ben Levi: you are correct that "goyim" does not in itself carry a negative connotation. However, there are numerous Biblical verses in which a negative meaning can be inferred when Israel, then the lone monotheist culture, is contrasted with the other nations of the world, the goyim, who are presumed to be by default idolaters. Some of that even perdures into the siddur, such as the first paragraph of the Aleinu: God has not made us like other nations of the world who worship vanity and emptiness and bow down to a god that cannot save.
That continued into Yiddish where the word "goyish" acquired a pejorative sense, like in "a goyishe kop"; just as "yid" became synonymous with "mentsh" "goy" acquired the opposite meaning. So, there is a negative subtext that can't be ignored.
Yochanan, you have it backwards. The Forward and its Liberal Left abortion worshipping and homosexual marriage worshipping ideologues-in-arms are the ones who are constantly denigrating and disparaging Orthodoxy. But you are right on one thing, most of them and their descendants will vanish into the stream of assimilation. But, as many of their comments proclaim, this is a good thing. So all is good, they will happily remove themselves from the Jewish people and the Orthodox will continue to nourish and turn out authentic Jews.
George, you seem like such a happy person. I suspect you a really a gay liberal trying to make-whatever it is you're pretending to be- look bad.
An interesting point: The religion of the children follow the mother. Children of a Jewish father are not necessarily Jewish. Intermarriage (which is the topic here, not words derived from the Pale) is creating a sad loss of identity.
Even amoung couples where both parents are Jewish, the Americanization creates among Jews acceptance of Christmas Trees as a sign of national identiy, not Christianity. "White Christmas" was written by a Jew raised in New York.
It is a topic worthy of discussion. Our small population has generated some of the most brilliant (albeit non-religious) persons: Einstein, Freud, many within our government (and economy). Hopefully this will continue...the Jewish brilliance and identity, which comes from a Jewish father, and a Jewish mother: Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox.
Yochanan, allow me to straighten you out, as much as is possible, on certain matters. I am a 64 year old Jew who has never voted Democratic in my life, with 5 children and 11 grandchildren, some religious, some not, ALL self-identified Jews. My advice to you is simply this-come out of the closet and live as the homosexual you are.
George, honey, anyone can write anything they want on the internet. Why should I believe you?
You demonstrate a very weird and unhealthy obsession with liberals and gay marriage. I mean, most straight people comfortable in their sexuality don't really give a crap what two men or two women do together and most people who are politically aware and insightful enough to properly understand the realities of politics do not simplistically demonize everyone who disagrees with them as evil incarnate. So, quite honestly I have to wonder what your issues are ;)
Have a super day! :) :) :)
George, honey, anyone can write anything they want on the internet. Why should I believe you?
You demonstrate a very weird and unhealthy obsession with liberals and gay marriage. I mean, most straight people comfortable in their sexuality don't really give a crap what two men or two women do together and most people who are politically aware and insightful enough to properly understand the realities of politics do not simplistically demonize everyone who disagrees with them as evil incarnate. So, quite honestly I have to wonder what your issues are ;)
Have a super day! :) :) :)
Yochela, my fageleh friend, you are free to believe anything you want. The only person who appears to be bent out of shape over sexuality matters is you.I couldn't care less what people do or don't do in respect to their sexual life. I have simply stated what many commentators have: for most Liberal Left Jews their real religion is the secular Torah of abortion on demand and homosexual marriage. This appears to have offended your homosexual sensitivites and unleashed your last comment which reeks with offended homosexual anger.
George, honey, anyone can write anything they want on the internet. Why should I believe you?
You demonstrate a very weird and unhealthy obsession with liberals and gay marriage. I mean, most straight people comfortable in their sexuality don't really give a crap what two men or two women do together and most people who are politically aware and insightful enough to properly understand the realities of politics do not simplistically demonize everyone who disagrees with them as evil incarnate. So, quite honestly I have to wonder what your issues are ;)
Have a super day! :) :) :)
Georgie Porgie:
Yet look who was the first to bring up the gay topic: "Hymie" and yourself. Gay marriage and abortion don't figure into the article at all, yet both of you somehow managed to thrust it into the conversation. I find that just a wee bit suspicious ;)
2 points:
1) Today's Orthodox Jews are far less likely to leave the fold than in previous generations. This is due to extremely strong Jewish educational institutions, strong supportive communities, no pressure to break the Sabbath to keep a job, and just the fact that if you live in an Orthodox community, being Orthodox does not make you different. In my community, there are so many that learn Torah every day and live a totally Jewish life that foreign influences are not likely to steer them away like their predecessors. 2) The intermarriage rate has less to do with how the average Jewish female acts, and more to do with simply human chemistry. If you live closely with gentiles, act like them, then it is going to be hard not to marry them, no matter how strong you are in your identity.
As others have noted above, a trend tracks history, not necessarily the future.
The Orthodox communities have reached a point of economic meltdown due to the combination of high birth rate, the intensive religious education and the lack of secular education - all central factors giving rise to the observed trend lines.
Economics are going to force moderation in some or all of the above factors, and in some time, things will look rather different.
For it is written...In that day it shall be----"The LORD is ONE" and His name one. Zechariah 14
It's a safe bet that anyone who thinks he knows the future will turn out to be wrong.
There are several assumptions in the article above that are questionable.
For starters, there is this business about "fully Jewish" and "half-Jewish" children. There is no such thing. One is either Jewish or one is not.
There is only one standard for determining who is or who is not a Jew: the opinion of the community in which they live. Now, some believe that the one definite standard of Jewishness is Torah and halakhah, and they are not incorrect. The reality, though, is that "the Torah is not in heaven." It is not an absolute that is the same in all places and in all times. History testifies to this. Torah and halakhah is and always has been whatever a given community believes it to be. So, it is entirely possible - nay, probably -- that these 18 "half-Jewish" children Silber writes about are, in the eyes of their communities, just as fully Jewish as the Hasidic children he writes about in the subsequent paragraph.
Another issue is the quaint notion that religious identity and observance is somehow genetically programmed and determined, and that religious belief and practice -- both of individuals and communities -- is static and immutable and untouched by larger social forces. The Orthodox are very good at what might charitably be called retention and what might uncharitably be called mind control; such is the dynamic in all "fundamentalist" religions. Liberal religions have the problem that their very fundamental ideals of freedom and individual autonomy counteract the group cohesion that authoritarian religions foster. Compare the explosion of Protestant denominations in Christianity once the authoritarian rule of Rome was thrown off, and the meltdown of liberal denominations like the Episcopalians compared to the "fundamentalist" varieties. Yet liberal denominations -- both Christian and Jewish -- are holding their own. As long as there will be people, there will be a diversity of predispositions, beliefs, and ideals which will lead some to abandon the religions they were raised in for other options, moving either to the right or the left.
The denial of change -- of its constancy, of its inevitability -- is probably the greatest sin the historian or the social scientist can make.
Another false premise in the article is the notion that there exists a single unitary "Jewish community" in America. If there were, then the article might have some kind of point. If there were just one Jewish community, then the supposed decline of the liberal movements and the rise of Orthodoxy would constitute an evolutionary reorganization of the community. But that is not really the case. Orthodoxy and Non-Orthodoxy essentially have very little to do with one another. They are, for all intents and purposes, separate and distinct entities. In fact, they are essentially two separate and distinct religions and peoples. The demographic changes in Orthodoxy really have no direct relation to any demographic changes on the other side of the divide. The decline of the Episcopal Church could be attributed as part of the same system as the rise of evangelical churches, but Orthodox Judaism and Liberal Judaism are now essentially two ships that pass in the night. If the Orthodox population eventually comes to out-number the non-Orthodox population, that need not really be of any significance. Since they share nothing in commmon, there is no competition of resources, so the numbers are irrelevant. Jews, of whatever stripe, have always been a minority and an oft-repeated mantra in Torah is that size doesn't actually matter.
So, just as the Orthodox failed to disappear into the dustbin of history as liberal Jews proclaimed a few generations ago, I think it's a bit premature to herald the doom of the non-Orthodox as well. Moreover, this dichotomy ignores the possibility of the rise of a third option that transcends the two.
'The Orthodox are very good at what might charitably be called retention and what might uncharitably be called mind control'
Adherence to any philosophy/religion/ideology is 'mind control'. Once you accept any of the previous as a guideline for living, it can be said that your actions are 'controlled'. You need to widen your understanding to realize ALL that which comes from external sources has a controlling ability on your actions.
i think it's safe to say this struck a nerve!
re: the moron who thinks gentile is derogatory. A least others argued the point (tho not strongly enough, i.e. to tell him he's an ignorant, politically correct fool).
---One can argue about whether intermarriage is a symptom or a cause, but that verges on semantic; it's obviously both. children of intermarriage are far more likely to have, if anthing at all, a knowledge of their jewish heritage that's watered down to meaninglessness. and jews who intermarried are often likely to be a of a mindset that will give top billing to their spouse's faith, i.e. the one that they did not grow up with, the one which did nothing to alienate and offend them.
----those who contend that 'outside brooklyn' lies a flourishing--and self-sustaining---world of non-orthodox Judaism with a bright future are surely kidding themselves. how many third and fourth generation committed reform jews are there?
And bolstering that claim with the fact that many orthodox-from-birth grow up to join other denominations is even funnier---so: as long as there is a living, growing orthodox Judaism, there will always be disaffected individuals among the orthodox who migrate to the other branches! In at least some case, this is simply because those are the branches that will have them and/or allow them to live as they wish, rather than because those denom's have a set of positive values that these people hold dear. But, again, how many Reform, etc. Jews have a multi-generational tradition, or some set of consistent, unchanging values that they have successfully transmitted further down the line than their own children?
.......this is not to argue the essential correctness of this or that belief in orthodox judaism, merely asserting it's obvious advantage, and greater success, as a set of defined values/traditions/principles that live on, down thru multiple generations.
I think any time one group asserts its supremacy over another it strikes a nerve in the group deemed inferior.
- Things change, and intermarriage (isn't interesting how only Jews seem obsessed with this issue that is as old as humanity itself?) is not necessarily the result of being alienated or offended by Judaism. It is one of the results of living in a world where antisemitism is more restrained than ever before in history and where individuals are generally considered free to make their choices about their personal lives and destines without being confined to predetermined prepackaged traditional boxes.
There was a time when intermarriage was equivalent with total rejection of Jewishness. That is no longer the case. It is now possible for Jews to marry non-Jews while still remaining committed to their identity as Jews and seeking to preserve that for their children. It could be argued that exogamy is contradictory with commitment to Jewishness and Judaism but that implies the existence of an objective and absolute standard of Jewishness that exists independent of the lives of individual Jews and Jewish communities.
- As for mutli-generation committed Reform Jews, consider that the Reform movement has existed for over 150 years, is the largest of the affiliated movements and is actually growing. There have not been nearly enough defections from Orthodoxy or converts to account for that, so something else must be going on.
- What makes you think that non-Orthodox denominations do not have "consistent, unchanging values that these people hold dear?" If they did not, they would not exist.
- Yes, it is very true that authoritarian religions have a greater success in retention than liberal religions. One need only look at Islam for confirmation. -
The future of American Jewry lies in quality education - it is not a question of Orthodoxy vs. Reform. A Jewish community that is so utterly ignorant of the Jewish civilization will not survive throughout the generations. The situation today is "post-assimilation". In other words, it's not a reality in which Jews are in the process of abandoning their heritage for someone else's heritage; rather, they have already abandoned their heritage for someone else's heritage. Most American Jews couldn't recognize the 22 letters of the Hebrew alpahabet. Most couldn't recite the names of the months of the Jewish calendar. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if a clear majority couldn't recite the names of the five Books of Moses (it's obvious that very few have actually read the books).
There are many ways of being Jewish. Just take a look at Israeli society, or just read a nice story by Sholom Aleichem - and see that there are all kinds of Jewishness. In both examples (in Israel and in pre-Holocaust Yiddish-speaking communities), you can see a Jewish society creating its own culture in its own language. That's called "peoplehood". Being part of the American peoplehood by language, by culture and by education - leaving the Jewish world only to those for whom it's a profession - is a major crisis in Jewish history. It is an abandonment of Jewish historical continuity.
Ben Levi brings up a good point: Israel is about 50% secular and non-religious, and non-religious Israelis don't seem to have any problem preserving Jewish identity or ensuring that their children remain Jewish.
That's because they live, participate in, fight, and die for a Jewish state. They are surrounded by the historic places most other people only know from the Tanakh. They speak Hebrew. And if they should ever somehow forget that they are Jews, there are plenty of psychopathic homicidal antisemites right outside their borders to remind them.
It was secular non-religious Jews who created Israel and for the most part still govern it and for the most part defend it. The solution for preserving Jewish identity for those who do not wish to be Orthodox would be to make aliyah.
It's not perfect, though. Crucial issues such as who even qualifies as a Jew and who people can marry are abdicated by the government and entrusted to the Orthodox rabbinate, which has the position of an established religion. Everyone has freedom of religion in Israel except Jews. Moreover, most olim from the United States are themselves Orthodox.
If more non-religious and non-Orthodox religious Jews were to make aliyah, both the United States and the State of Israel would benefit.
While the rapid demographic decline of the 90% or so of non-orthodox American Jews is incontrovertable and inevitable, it is often assumed that the orthodox community will continue to survive, indeed thrive in the near and distant future. The future is a long time. Things change. The vast bulk of the orthodox are immigrants or offspring of immigrants. Very few of them are third- or fourth-generation Jewish Americans. The present non-orthodox Jewish Americans are largely only three or four generations removed from orthodox predecessors. There is no example in the US or any other modern country of a large, stable orthodox Jewish community existing over more than four or five generations. Continuity is already a problem in the modern orthodox community. My bet is that massive change facilitating assimilation is right around the corner for the ultraorthodox.
The article speaks for itself. Deformed, Deconstructionist and (soon) Undeservative Judaism are just exits from Judaism. Orthodox is the best and only way to go. Raise your children and family in that fashion, and Jewish survival is more certain.
This article, while arguably impolitic, is not without basis. Notwithstanding the current dwindling strength of Reform Judaism, America’s largest Jewish denomination, its future is cause for some concern. There’s the well known and recently updated study that showed that 100 Reform Jews will result in 10 identifying Jews in four generations. Conservative Jews did a little better, with 29. Ultra-Orthodox, by contrast, yield 3,401 Jews after four generations. I rest my case
Gentile: anyone who is not a Jew (Oxford English Dictionary,and most of the online dictionaries)
The orthodox seem to be getting only stronger.The children of the so called modern orthodox are young people who are more right wing then their parents.My grandchildren are being raised in an othodox environment where their mothers wear sheitels and their fathers pray 3 times a day and eat only glat. They are college educated and most have professional graduate degrees and both parents make a living.
There are a few exceptions, but dso many of you letter-writers blithely dvide Jews into Orthodox, Conservative and Reform. It flows from this that if one thinks independantly one is no longer a Jew. I feel very comfortable and very Jewish without having to chant in a synagogue to prove it.
Yes, my grandmother was Orthodox (but not my grandfather). But there is a universal evolution in Western culture from blind religiosity to increasing secularism. When a European Moslem abandons Islamic orthodoxy, he does not ipso facto become less Turkish (or Iranian or Arabic or Indonesian ...). When an Brit leaves the Anglican church he remains British. Gandhi may or may not have been a practicing Hindu, do not know. But it is irrelevant to this question: either way no one would deny that he was Indian (or Bengali). Similarly when a Jew is not Orthodox or completely unaffiliated with the synagogue that does not make him less Jewish.
What will, however, make many if not most American Jews less Jewish is the lamentable state of Jewish knowledge and Jewish consciousness in our country. As someone points out, only a minority can read the alphabet. As someone else points out, we have abandoned the Jewish language our grandparents spoke. Even more importantly, perhaps, ther is no place for the average young person to get the equivalent of even a middle-school education in the history, literature and art of his people. This is what distinguishes the American Jewish community from a (secular or not) Bengali, Brit or Indonesian. When there is some Jewish education it goes up to about the level of the 5th grade. Then there is a complete stop until college.
In pre-Holocaust Europe there were political clubs, sports clubs, reading groups, religious groups - a vital diversity of Jewish interests shared within a Jewish context. Except for the religious, there is almost none of that here -- all that is left to the American society, so that being Jewish is narrower and narrower and has less and less to offer. Instead of a natural identity it must be belabored and self-conscious. I do not have an alternative to propose. As some one else said, no one particularly gets worked up about the number of Welsh descendants who marry Scandanavian-Americans, or the number of Hispanics who marry Anglos. Why only the Jews?
Shimke - The difference between Scandinavian-Americans (or Welsh-Americans) and the Jews is the issue of core identity. The Jews have wandered the earth since antiquity, always maintaining their distinct identity. Having moved to America should have been essentially no different than having been in Lithuania. The Jews were not Lithuanians - they were Jews living in Lithuania. The Scandinavians don't have such a history. No one sees the continued Scandinavian identity as a matter of importance. There is a memory that one's family came from Scandinavia, but there is no Scandinavian cultural content in one's life in America. However, there is a crisis in Jewish life in America. Having come to America is really quite different than the former Diaspora. The Jews are not "Jews living in America" - they have become Americans living in America. The Jewish world, as you defined it correctly, is "narrower and narrower". This is a break with the Jewish past. This is why intermarriage or continuity is a topic on the Jewish agenda (but not on the Scandinavian-American agenda). The dramatic change in American Jewry is the total collapse of the concept of "exile". When the Jews still spoke Yiddish, they were a nation in exile. Anyone who speaks Yiddish still today can tell you that the word "golus" is very often in use. An English-speaking Jews will never say "exile". The American world has vetoed the Jewish tradition. It's a new phenomenon, outside of the drama of Jewish history.
> I feel very comfortable and very Jewish without having to chant in a > synagogue to prove it.
To shimke, what exactly does this mean? What is this for you without an observance and communal element, how does that "feeling" get passed on? What about that "feeling" will compel future generations to stay Jewish?
Yehuda, you are right that there are differences between being Scandanavian and being Jewish (as between any two human categories, I suppose). There are also other diasporic nations besides Jews, such as gypsies or the Black diaspora, which might have been better analogies. These groups do indeed have some of the same issues discussed in this exchange.
As for "exile" this may originally have been based on a historical fact, but has long been interpreted as a theological state, and more recently the term has been given a political connotation since the birth of modern Zionism. (One would have to trace back the historical examples of the usage of the term to confirm or deny this.) I do not believe, however, that it is accurate to say that all Jews considered themselves in exile in any of these senses until their arrival in America.
I do not recall that Freud or secular Jews of the enlightenment talked of being in exile. That is also true of the European [non-Zionist] Jewish socialists or communists or lehavdl assimilationists.
In addition to secular Jews, with whom I am most familiar, I have read that Reform Judaism was anti-Zionist until the establishment of the state of Israel. Presumably they too did not consider they were living in exile.
To Iari, I expressed a feeling and not a philosophical theory. I would say, however, that it is inexact to equate 'observance' and 'communal' experience. There are all kinds and all levels of Jewish community, which are not bound with religious observance, from the overwhelming communal identification that impels some secular Jews to make Aliya to the simple fact of belonging to the readership of a Jewish periodical such as the Forward.
As regards the last question, the discussion so far has confirmed what my experience as a parent showed me, that one cannot "compel" one's children, much less 'future generations' to do one's will. One can at best hope that one's own life will have the persuasive power of example if one lives it authentically.
Shimke - The Yiddish speaking Jews were a people in exile. I could use new terminology - instead of exile - to explain what has happened to the Yiddish-speaking Jews since coming to America. They were a national minority group. They were not Poles or Russians or Lithuanians. They were Jews who lived in Poland or Russia or Lithuania. Citizenship is not identity - it is a legal status. The descendants of those Yiddish-speaking Jews in America today are not merely citizens of the USA - they are Americans also in the sense of real social identity. Moreover, it is their main identity. They call themselves Americans (a Jew in Poland was not Polish in his own eyes - and surely not in the eyes of the Polish-speakers). Now, I use the traditional Jewish terminology: the Jews are a "nation in exile". In other words, they are a real nation in their own right, but not living on their national soil. They are living on some other people's soil. That understanding of Jewish identity has disappeared in America. The Jews are not in exile - they are not a national minority group in America.
Now, the overwhelming majority of American Jews would probably say: "Wow, what a success! We are Americans just like the other Americans". But actually, this is the crisis. You can't preserve group distinctiveness when you really belong to another group. Religion is somewhat of a tool for distinctiveness, but most Jews in America are very irreligious. The loss of group distinctiveness is the force behind the increasing phenomenon of intermarriage. In essence, it's not really intermarriage, because the other isn't the other. The other speaks the same language, has had the same education, understands the exact same social codes, appreciates the same culture, etc.
There's no solution to the problem. It's quite hopeless. I don't believe that you would be able to undo the 100 years of Americanization - and convince thousands of Jews to promote an educational project that would restore a primary Jewish identity. In other words, there is no motivation to re-establish a Jewish identity that in not American (for example, to create and appreciate culture in Hebrew or in Yiddish - not in the American language).
American Bas to Melech who gave me chai,koach and brought me to Atzilus who ka raw me out of kelippas. The Chessed to Malchus has made me desire the Ha Tzoor and clime Har Sinai, for Truth has let me know chochmah in the Ha Tzoor, were my Melech calls me Bas.
So tragic and meaningless your world view