Comments by Dannel Schwartz
COMMENT BY DANNEL SCHWARTZ The most deeply rooted desire of human nature is the craving to be wanted. Yet for the past 400 years, we Jews have purposely and systematically attempted to tell the...
...He is asking for "information centers...
...It is as thoughtful an approach to solving the problem of American Jewish attrition as could be...
...Not once during its existence did the Rabbinate of Israel protest...
...He is assuredly not endorsing a missionary effort of the kind we have seen so frequently and opposed so strenuously...
...They have chosen us and our faith as mature individuals...
...Since when is proselytizing against Jewish rules...
...Those who believe that Jews never actively attempted to convert gentiles should read Judah HaLevi's Kuzari which tells of a rabbi's successful arguments against Christian and Islamic leaders in the very active conversion of an entire tribe of Poles called the Khazars...
...I am reminded of the story of the two Jews facing a Cossack firing squad...
...Israel Ben Zeev, instituted the short-lived World Union for the Propagation of Judaism, organized for the purpose of converting Israeli Arabs to Judaism...
...He is asking for better, more meaningful publicity for synagogue courses on introductions to Judaism...
...So why be afraid...
...But at best, we might improve not only our quantity, but our quality as well...
...Schindler's proposal asks that we attempt to explain Judaism to a world that knows nothing—or only the worst—about us...
...Our children are intermarrying in astronomically high numbers...
...We are in trouble—serious trouble—and we all know it...
...At worst, we will fail...
...Rabbi Schindler asks us to take off our blinders and see the Jewish condition as it is: our backs are to the wall, we are slowly but surely committing mass suicide...
...Jewish organizational participation is at an all time low of 40 percent...
...Are we, perchance, fiddling while Judaism burns...
...His article on rabbis who perform intermarriages appeared in our July-August 1978 issue...
...In fact, Rabbi Schindler's proposal is hardly revolutionary...
...Some critics are concerned because of our traditional hostility to Christian attempts at proselytizing Jews...
...Synagogue membership does not even reach the 50 percent mark...
...In 1955, the Minister of Education for the State of Israel, Dr...
...I have seen too many young people turn away from Judaism because nobody cared enough to invite their marriage partners into that special Jewish family that we talk of with such fondness and warmth...
...But if we really look at and talk with those who convert, we would learn that many of them bring a great deal to Judaism...
...And his critics are telling him and us that Schindler is not playing by the rules...
...Furthermore, it provides encouragement for more of our own to "come back...
...But Schindler is asking for something quite different...
...And when a non-Jew does manage to slip into our ranks, he is often the butt of comments such as, "Well, he's a convert," or "How can you really feel Jewish if you're not born that way...
...He is attempting to convince, not to coerce...
...Yet, when Rabbi Alexander Schindler makes a speech urging the board of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations to begin thinking about an outreach program to unaffiliated non-Jews, the Jewish press, members of the Orthodox community, and some Conservative and Reform leaders cry "Heresy...
...A Conservative rabbi, Robert Gordis, in Time magazine in 1958, proposed an even more radical approach than Schindler's, namely, that "the leaders of the major Jewish organizations get together to consider the founding of a missionary program among the unaffiliated gentile population in the Western Hemisphere and Japan...
...If Rabbi Schindler had recommended proselytizing in the schools, or the use of little league coaching sessions as conversion meetings (as was done in the past by some of our Christian brethren), his proposal would not only be tainted but also unacceptable...
...A healthy number of converts join our congregations and our organizations, and send their children to our schools (more, in fact, than "our own" Jews do...
...Yet for the past 400 years, we Jews have purposely and systematically attempted to tell the non-Jew that he is not only not wanted, he is not even entitled to an explanation of why he is not wanted...
...When one requests a blindfold, the other whispers, "Don't make trouble...
...If Schindler wanted to "sell" Judaism to the non-Jew by the "hype" of mass crusade or spiritual hucksterism his approach would be unworthy of support...
...Our birth rate is so low that some population experts predict that there will be less than one million Jews left in this country by the year 2076...
...How can we endorse Jewish missionary efforts while we oppose those of others...
...Dannel Schwartz is a rabbi at Temple Beth El in Birmingham, Michigan...
...Too many of our children have already been turned off by the "elitism" of rabbis and parents who reject non-Jewish spouses out of hand, often with meanness and contempt...
...Gordis was joined in this effort by Solomon Grayzel, then head of the Jewish Publication Society...
...They have learned about who and what we are without force, without nagging parents, aware that they are leaving the majority (with all its inherent benefits) tojoin us, and often, their commitment is deep, lasting, and serious...
...Biblically and talmudically, those who bring non-Jews into the Jewish peoplehood and faith are performing a mitzvah...
Vol. 4 • March 1979 • No. 4
