Imagining Jewish America’s future (or lack thereof)
Two new opinion pieces predict the demise of Jewish America as we know it within a few decades.
Uzi Silber writes in the Forward that the disappearance of the "secular and religiously liberal" American Jew is inevitable due to intermarriage, low birth rates and assimilation. The fervently Orthodox community of Boro Park and its ilk, he argues, with its fecund birth rates and strong communal affiliation, represent the future of Jewish America.
Meanwhile, at Jewcy, Robin Margolis envisions a takeover of the State of Israel by its fervently Orthodox community in the year 2040, which will precipitate a civil war with Israeli Arabs who feel excluded by the establishment of a Jewish theocracy a la the Islamic Republic of Iran. As for the Jewish American community, by 2040 it has shrunk to "perhaps 30 to 50 percent" of its size in 2009, as "bagel jokes, Israel trips, discussions on intermarriage, arguments over Yiddish proverbs" proves too little to keep it together.
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That is the absolute truth.
...the disappearance of the “secular and religiously liberal” American Jew is inevitable due to intermarriage, low birth rates and assimilation…
Reform Judaism is destroying the Jewish community… and maybe the Jew too. I can understand wanting to live life to your own beat but, without community there is no real identity and without identity one tends to wander aimlessly through life. Are we really ready for this experiment of life to end for us? Outside influence on the gene pool is not only essential but also beneficial, yet letting go of the traditional identity of a people cause that people not to be. There is strength, purpose, and joy in the traditional unity of the Jewish community and that is what must be preserved if we are to remain an entity unto ourselves… The Jews.
Cheryl, if America is not your homeland, then please leave immediately. I’m sure your conscience will not be burdened by the sight of a Palestinian family camping on the street when you are offered their house.
Go for it! Make aliyah! Get the f---- out of my country.
I believe it was Irving Kristol who said something like the biggest threat to American Jewry is that American Christians don’t want to kill us...they want to marry us. My gut tells me that whatever cohesiveness there was among Jews in 20th century America is waning. The future is with Orthodox Jewry. As Kristol intimated, it is the very “safety” of America that leads many Jews to lose their identities and become just an American. What I’ve seen of Orthodox Jews is far more cohesive. The Orthodox Jewish family’s way of living absolutely depends upon the singlemindedness of husband and wife. Maybe not by 2040 but eventually those who describe themselves as Jews in America will be Orthodox. The rest will talk about their Jewishness as cultural, or social, but will cease to be of demographic significance.
David - The violence of your response to Cheryl is obscene, unbecoming and way off the mark.
To say that Eretz Yisroel is a Jew’s home, and that his or her country of residence is not, is fundemental and basic to our theology and history. There are veterans in my family who have served this countrerty from WWII to the present - and I believe that I am a loyal and good citizen of this country - but Eretz Yisroel is still my “home.”
Cheryl dear, you say:
“It is not the organic Judaism which is rooted in the study of Torah and the observance of halachic law. “
I have news for you: Halacha = Law. There is no such thing as rabbinic Jewish law which does not go by the term ‘halacha’ ! An authentic observant Jew - orthodox or non-orthodox- would know this to be the case and formulate it accordingly, since for them it is like the air which they breathe. It is, however, of course, a fine point that Gentiles—even well-meaning Christian Zionists such as you, Cheryl- have diffculty grasping.
(Speaking of “halachic law” is like saying “Jewish rabbi”. I ask you: are there any non-Jewish rabbis? And, Cheryl dear, no,
your Messianic Jewish buddies do not count! )
JTA COMMUNITY: the last person to ‘out’ Cheryl and debunk her make-believe claim to be a bona-fide Jew, was ‘reported’ by her and unfairly bounced from this blog. So if I disappear, you will know why - and, if you believe in truth and fairness, complain about it to the JTA!
the zionists have been trying to destroy world Jewry since the commie/zionists took over israel/ Lets hope the Jewish pres of iran finishes off israel before israel finishes off world jewry..
One thing we learn from history is that long-term extrapolations of short-term trends cannot be relied upon. This phenomenon seems to be particularly true about predictions concerning religion and demographics. We are in the midst of a worldwide return to more fundamentalist religious tendencies that was completely unexpected a generation ago, and is still not very well understood. Those who predict permanent continuities in this domain do so at their own risk.
I do not know what the future holds for Jews and Judaism in Israel or in America. I distrust those who claim certain knowledge. I do know, at first hand, of significant pockets of young Jews, particularly in independent minyanim and havurot, who are Jewishly knowledgeable, committed, and active both in Jewish religious life and in working to improve the world in which they live, without withdrawing from or denying the fruits of the modern secular world. May they live, prosper, and, in their time, reproduce with gusto.
--The Wise Bard
Gee - what kind of place is this? JTA, you seem not to screen comments. This is the last time I’m going to participate on this site - too much uneducated nourishkeit and anger. A git Yom Tov to all.
There is something more than obscene, more than shocking about David’s comments. His comments were terrifying to the point where I’m sure Archie Bunker would be blushing.
Like Yonason, there are veterans in my family and my father died from his military service when I was a little boy.
Like many Jews, The United States of America is my country and Israel is my home!
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Judy Simon
10/09/09 12:14 PM
Judaism has been a dynamic religion for 6,000 years, and it will continue to grow and change. Just as the Ashkenazi orthodox communities of the past had spin-off groups (conservative and reformed Judaism), so will the modern growing orthodox population spawn new spin-offs. They may not look like the conservative and reform movements as we know them, but there will be spin-off groups. The Jewish community never was and never will be homogeneous. There are things that connect all Jews, but not all Jewish communities are the same.