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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
May 27, 1997
A Time of Affliction
By Dennis Prager
Since antiquity, people have been predicting the demise of the
Jews, some with dread, others with glee. But despite all the
travails and tests faced by Jews over the centuries, it is only
of late that such predictions have seemed plausible, at least
in the U.S., where Jewry is on its way to becoming half its present
number. As Elliott Abrams points out in his important new book, "Faith
or Fear" (Free Press, 237 pages, $25), a majority of U.S.
Jews now marry non-Jews, and only one in four of those homes
raises its children with a primary Jewish identity.
This is not altogether a cause for lament. Mr. Abrams notes that
the freedom of American Jews to assimilate is also a blessing-it
means acceptance instead of hostility or bigotry. He cites Irving
Kristol, who writes that "the danger facing American Jews
today is not to persecute them, but that Christians want to marry
them."
Intermarriage is indeed a mixed curse. As a religious Jew myself
I want Jews to marry Jews for religious, not ethnic, reasons.
But intermarriage also represents great advantages-personal freedom
and physical security. As Rabbi Leo Baeck, the German Jewish
leader, said after World War II: "If every German family
had a Jewish relative, there would not have been a Holocaust."
The cost is a loss of Jewish identity-and, more important, of
Judaism itself. Mr. Abrams argues-persuasively, I believe that
American Jews will either become religious or largely disappear.
Despite the hopes of various Jewish commentators (Alan Dershowitz
comes to mind), there is no secular "Jewish culture" that
can sustain Jews today. Even during the brief time that there
was such a culture for example, during the glory days of Yiddish
literature and theater- no one Stayed Jewish because of it. The
only compelling reason to stay Jewish, Mr. Abrams argues, is
religious.
Unfortunately, many American Jews feel antipathy toward religion:
The people who brought God into the world are disproportionately
active in removing Him from it. Mr. Abrams marshals depressing
data showing that Jews are the least religious group in America.
He also shows how most American Jews, and their non-Orthodox
institutions, have equated Jewish security with removing religion
from American life. The American ship of state may be floundering
morally speaking, but most Jews want to make sure that as it
sinks, no passenger prays publicly.
Why are so many Jews so aggressively secular? Mr. Abrams cites
one major reason-they fear Christianity. This fear emanates from
nearly 2,000 years of Christian-inspired anti-Semitism. Of course,
that was Europe, not America; but most American Jews remain paralyzed
by their memories. Most seem unwilling to acknowledge that, by
and large, Christians today are no longer anti-Semitic. Preoccupation
with Christian anti-Semitism has led Jews to a radical secularism
that helps create an amoral America and a de-Judaized Jewry.
While Mr. Abrams sympathizes with the values of most evangelical
Christians, he describes how theological anti-Judaism continues
among some evangelicals; and he identifies with the resentment
that so many Jews feel toward Christian proselytizing when it
is directed specifically at them. Nevertheless, Mr. Abrams's
answer to the American Jewish dilemma is faith, not fear. He
recommends that American Jews emulate Orthodox Jews, for two
reasons: The Orthodox keep their children Jewish, and they possess
a defining characteristic of religious people -tension with the
dominant culture. From abortion to same-sex marriage, the only
Jewish movement resisting secular liberalism is Orthodoxy.
But as a solution to Jewish identity in America, Orthodoxy has
its own problems; First, there is no reason to assume that most
Jews will ever become Orthodox. Since the day Jews were liberated
from Europe's ghettos, no Jewish majority has ever chosen Orthodoxy.
Second, keeping children in the faith is pretty easy if you are
willing to separate from society-for example, by not eating in
non-Jews 'homes or even in the homes of non-Orthodox Jews. The
Amish also keep their children in their faith, through isolation.
But such withdrawal from a decent society-even in the name of
godliness-is not a Jewish ideal.
Third, with some noble exceptions, Orthodoxy is moving as right
religiously as Reform Judaism and even Conservative Judaism are
moving left socially. While the Reform rabbinate and some leading
Conservative rabbis call for a redefinition of marriage to include
same-sex couples the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations now
checks whether even nonedible products (such as laundry detergent)
are kosher, and some modern Orthodox day schools now prohibit
girls from singing before audiences that include men.
With choices like these, American Jews are indeed in trouble.
If we are ever to find a way-out, "Faith or Fear" must
first be read for its reasoned, balanced and compulsively readable
explication of the American Jewish dilemma. Then, for most Jews
the solution will be clear-leading a life, as the author does,
of non-Orthodox religiosity. |
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