Intermarriage
Kahn’s Garden State of Mind relates the event of two esteemed gentlemen lamenting the disappearance of Jews before a concerned, paying audience. They discussed whether Judaism is about Torah or culture. Personally, I think it is about Torah.
Wherever Jewish communities exist in the world, they all practice the same ceremonies — Shabbat, Passover, Simchat Torah, etc. — around which we have formed family and regional cultures. The Torah has bound us together for millennia.
Today, even if we are accomplished and blessed with flourishing families, as an American-Jewish community we are causing our extinction. How so? Because we have not helped our Jewish marriageables find each other.
Who are our marriageables? The Jewish singles who are ready to make a life-long commitment to marriage. For whatever absurd reasons, our marriageables have been abandoned to unsuccessfully fend for themselves during their precious spouse-finding years.
Who will our children meet and marry? Will our grandchildren be Jewish? Do we care? Besides our religious faith, our national influence and affluence are at stake.
While we still have the resources, I hope our national Jewish community comes to its senses and makes a focused effort to grow a spiritually and physically healthy Jewish population.
Charles Hillel Rosendorf
Hollywood, Fla.
comments