DAVID BELIN
DAVID W. BELIN GUEST COLUMNIST Continuity and survival are current buzzwords in the Jewish community. They are the wrong words. Amother recently brought her newborn daughter into the rabbi's...
...Today it is little more than two percent...
...To what extent will programs targeted to mixed-marriage couples divert valuable resources from other programs tiiat might be desirable in terms of sustaining Jewish identity in building strong and stable Jewish homes....Is it more important to have an outreach program to mixed-married couples or to assure that every young child, every adolescent, spend time in Israel...
...I have five children, all of whom received a Jewish education, all of whom were bar- or bat-mitzvahed, all of whom were confirmed, all of whom spent time in Israel, and some of whom may many individuals who are not initially prepared to convert to Judaism...
...For the mother, it was a joyous occasion...
...And thousands more, though not necessarily agreeing to convert to Judaism, will join their Jewish spouses to have their children raised as Jews...
...As is often the case, the grass roots of American Jews are ahead of their leadership...
...But he has agreed to join with me to live in a Jewish home and provide a Jewish education for our daughter," she said...
...Just to "continue" and "survive" ignores our mission...
...She was the product of a Jewish family steeped in tradition, had gone to Hebrew school, been bat-mitzvahed, spent summers at Jewish camps and a year in Israel...
...Ninety-five percent of Conservative Jews, 74 percent of Orthodox Jews and 96 percent of Reform Jews were in favor of special programs for intermarried couples to "become better acquainted with and attracted to Judaism...
...In a world whose population will double in the next few decades, mere continuity and survival is the path of diminishing significance...
...From a pragmatic standpoint, this is an essential investment because we will be enlarging the base from which we derive all of our resources...
...Continuity and survival are the current buzzwords in the Jewish community...
...If we fail to embrace these people, we will be turning our back on more than 50 percent of our children...
...They have never really been tried...
...The policy of prevention is a noble idea that fails to understand the demographic revolution in American society characterized by massive social interchange between Jews and non-Jews...
...The missionizing tradition of Judaism was so successful 2,000 years ago that there were somewhere between three and five million Jews then...
...The rabbi was adamant...
...Amother recently brought her newborn daughter into the rabbi's study to discuss having her named in a synagogue ceremony...
...We now have a remarkable opportunity to reach out to intei-faith couples by encouraging identification with the Jewish community, Jewish commitment in the home, and Jewish education for their children...
...Although the majority of American Jews are very supportive of outreach programs to the intermarried, the resources being devoted on a national basis are minimal...
...Would the Prophet Isaiah, who spoke of Israel as "a light unto the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the Earth...
...Jews comprised over four percent of the American population 60 years ago...
...The usual rationale by federation leadership for this decision is "priority": because the Jewish community has limited resources, we must give only secondary priority for funds to reach out to intermarried families because we will not have a very high success rate—or as high a success rate as might be achieved by reaching out to marginally committed Jews who have not intermarried...
...I have seen too many young people with this kind of background intermarry...
...The tact is that intermarriage is going to take place, regardless of whether we commit ourselves to outreach...
...The answer is we can, and must, afford both...
...We must effectively reach out to intermarrieds...
...I don't want the Jewish community to turn its back on those of my children who may intermarry...
...We now live in a land of freedom...
...Shortly after turning 35, she fell in love with a non-Jewish man who, for personal reasons, would not convert but agreed to join his wife to live in a Jewish household and raise and educate their children as Jews...
...If we turn our backs on those couples, we will not only be hurting our own children anrl grandchildren, but we will be putting a dagger to the heart of Jewish continuity and growth...
...The American Jewish community should spend annually for ouueach programs to the intermarried a minimum of one dollar for every Jewish woman, man and child—an annual total of $6 million...
...Were it not for the legacy of the Edict of Constantine in the fourth century, which made conversion to Judaism a capital offense, our numbers today might be in the tens of millions...
...Here, for example, is a recent statement of the head of the Communal Affairs Department of the American Jewish Committee: "There are five questions that all advocates of outreach must wresde with...
...Instead, we should be asking how we are going to grow and fulfill the mission of Israel...
...Since 1985, more than 50 percent of marriages involving Jews involved a partner who was not born Jewish...
...In the summer of 1993, the Jewish Outreach Institute conducted a poll concerning attitudes of Jews about intermarriage...
...At nearly 35, however, she had not found a Jewish man to marry...
...Some will argue that by reaching out to the intermarried, we will be encouraginginiermarriage...
...We should no longer fear embracing our missionizing tradition...
...First is the issue of priority...
...Some people argue that the only effective answer to this rising tide of intermarriage is "prevention"—Jewish education .Jewish camps, trips to Israel, a Jewish home life and other activities that encourage Jewish identification...
...Once there is that first kiss, a policy of prevention will have litUe effect on where the kiss leads...
...Would Moses, who married a non-Jew, have agreed with that rabbinic decision...
...David W. Belin is //resident of Hie Jewish Outreach institute, which bridges all branches of Judaism and concentrates on reaching out to interdating and intermarried couples...
...The shackles of official antisemitism have been broken...
...Conservative, less than $10,000...
...Surely, if we can raise that kind of money to build a museum looking to the past, we can raise a small portion of that money each year as we look to the future...
...This is not a huge amount when compared with the hundreds of millions of dollars that have been raised for Holocaust museums...
...Allocations from local federations are in most cases abysmally low...
...We have a wonderful product to sell—Judaism...
...Over 90 percent of Jewish college students interdate...
...At present the total annual national expenditures of the three major movements for outreach to die intermarried are as follows: Reform, $419,000...
...A midwestern Jewish leader who emigrated from Vienna to the United States shortly before World War II put it simply: "Judaism is so unique...so wonderful, I can't understand why die whole world isn'tjewish...
...When she talked to the rabbi about the baby-naming ceremony, the rabbi informed her that her husband would not be allowed to stand on the bimah...
...Moreover, we don't know how effective comprehensive outreach programs to the intermarried would be...
...Orthodox, virtually none...
...She resigned from the synagogue...
...If we are willing to devote the necessary resources to I this task, we will find that thousands of people will make a personal Jewish choice and follow the path of Ruth to conversion...
...Their implications are negative...
...Though obviously important, prevention alone is not enough...
...By the end of this decade, I predict the figure will rise to more than 60 percent, and within the next 20 years it will approach 75 percent...
...When asked whether or not they wanted "to see more resources devoted by the organizedjewish community to programs designed to help intermarried families be a part of the community," 89 percent of Conservative Jews, 42 percent of Orthodox Jews and 96 percent of Reform Jews said "yes...
...Judaism—its universalism, its emphasis on personal freedom, the centrality of the family and the home, the concern for tzedakah and social justice, die tradition of education and study, the concept of peoplehood, the traditional Jewish covenant with God—offers a wonderful framework for welcoming people into the religion...
Vol. 18 • December 1993 • No. 6
