Hakluyt
12-18-2005, 05:30 AM
http://www.opinionjournal.com/forms/printThis.html?id=110007688
The Hard Sell
Jews consider proselytizing to fight assimilation.
BY NAOMI SCHAEFER RILEY
Friday, December 16, 2005 12:01 a.m.
It is one of the most commonly understood notions about Judaism that its adherents do not proselytize. And yet there in the Boston Globe last week was the headline: "Conservative Jews Set a Conversion Campaign." What was going on?
As it happened, Rabbi Jerome M. Epstein, the head of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, had set a somewhat limited campaign. At the group's convention he had urged: "We must begin aggressively to encourage conversions of potential Jews who have chosen a Jewish spouse."
Such a desire has more to do with practical reality than with theology. (Gentiles still do not need to become Jews in order to live according to God's wishes.) With the intermarriage rate at about 47% and less than 8% of children of intermarried couples actually identifying as Jews, it is easy to see why the chosen people are in a state of demographic panic.
Of course they are not the only religious group worried about the effects of assimilation. A recent article in Hinduism Today noted the increasing rate at which Hindus in the West are marrying non-Hindus. "Over decades," the author of the article noted, "this trend could eventually lead to the Hindu community's virtual disappearance into the mainstream of America, Canada, Australia or England." According to the American Religious Identification Survey of 2001, 21% of Muslims and 39% of Buddhists are living in "mixed religion families." Such interfaith marriage poses problems that the organized Jewish community has been wringing its hands over for decades. What can these groups, and others, glean from Jewish attitudes toward interfaith couples?
Just a month ago Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the president of the Union of Reform Judaism, came to the same conclusion as his Conservative counterpart. "It is a mitzvah [a kindness] to help a potential Jew become a Jew-by-choice," he told the union's General Assembly. There is nothing new about such a policy, he noted, but it has been forgotten in recent years. "By making non-Jews feel comfortable and accepted in our congregations," he observed, "we have sent the message that we do not care if they convert."
Rabbi Yoffie's statement goes right to the delicacy of this matter. Many of the Christians, Buddhists and atheists may have agreed to raise their children as Jews with the understanding that no one would try to change their own religious beliefs. They may now feel as if an implicit contract has been broken. Ed Case, the president of Interfaithfamily.com, a Web site for interfaith families exploring Jewish life, worries about this: "We think it's a real mistake for Jewish organizations to convey an attitude toward intermarried couples that conversion is a preferred option."
Mr. Case, whose own wife recently converted to Judaism after 30 years of marriage, believes that families in which only one parent is Jewish are perfectly capable of raising a Jewish child. He points to evidence from surveys he has conducted showing that "children are not confused" by such arrangements. Mr. Case accuses the "intellectual elite of the Jewish community" of becoming hostile to interfaith couples, saying that they put too much stock in "superficial" symbols like Christmas trees that supposedly threaten a household's Jewish identity.
But one has to wonder: Why should Jews worry about giving offense by encouraging conversion? Rabbi Epstein argues for at least giving people a choice. "If I see two products on a shelf, one may not be better than another, but one may meet my needs more or my desires more." He thinks that Jews should at least offer people "the values and beauty of Judaism." As Rabbi Yoffie noted in his speech: "Most non-Jews. . .come from a background where asking for this kind of commitment is natural and normal, and they are more than a little perplexed when we fail to do so."
Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, the academic center of the Conservative movement, has his doubts about these conversion plans. "Religious decisions are deeply personal and internal and not the result of salesmanship." Maybe not, but such a belief did not stop Rabbi Schorsch from proposing his own incentive to stop assimilation--a free Jewish education for every child whose family belongs to a synagogue or Jewish community center.
This "entitlement program," as he calls it, could mean Jewish summer camp, after-school programs or even a full Jewish day school education all the way through 12th grade. Rabbi Schorsch acknowledges the astronomical cost of such a program, but he explains: "We know from all the research that serious Jewish education makes a decided difference in the quality of the identity of the Jewish youngsters." He is willing to go one step further than some Conservative rabbis, suggesting that the children of interfaith marriages--even those in which the mother is not Jewish--should have the right to this education until their bar or bat mitzvahs, when they can decide whether to convert.
Perhaps it only makes sense that in a country where religious groups are free to practice as they please that every religious leader has his own idea about how to drum up business. Religion has a place in the marketplace of ideas, too.
Ms. Riley is The Wall Street Journal's deputy Taste page editor.
Copyright © 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
The Hard Sell
Jews consider proselytizing to fight assimilation.
BY NAOMI SCHAEFER RILEY
Friday, December 16, 2005 12:01 a.m.
It is one of the most commonly understood notions about Judaism that its adherents do not proselytize. And yet there in the Boston Globe last week was the headline: "Conservative Jews Set a Conversion Campaign." What was going on?
As it happened, Rabbi Jerome M. Epstein, the head of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, had set a somewhat limited campaign. At the group's convention he had urged: "We must begin aggressively to encourage conversions of potential Jews who have chosen a Jewish spouse."
Such a desire has more to do with practical reality than with theology. (Gentiles still do not need to become Jews in order to live according to God's wishes.) With the intermarriage rate at about 47% and less than 8% of children of intermarried couples actually identifying as Jews, it is easy to see why the chosen people are in a state of demographic panic.
Of course they are not the only religious group worried about the effects of assimilation. A recent article in Hinduism Today noted the increasing rate at which Hindus in the West are marrying non-Hindus. "Over decades," the author of the article noted, "this trend could eventually lead to the Hindu community's virtual disappearance into the mainstream of America, Canada, Australia or England." According to the American Religious Identification Survey of 2001, 21% of Muslims and 39% of Buddhists are living in "mixed religion families." Such interfaith marriage poses problems that the organized Jewish community has been wringing its hands over for decades. What can these groups, and others, glean from Jewish attitudes toward interfaith couples?
Just a month ago Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the president of the Union of Reform Judaism, came to the same conclusion as his Conservative counterpart. "It is a mitzvah [a kindness] to help a potential Jew become a Jew-by-choice," he told the union's General Assembly. There is nothing new about such a policy, he noted, but it has been forgotten in recent years. "By making non-Jews feel comfortable and accepted in our congregations," he observed, "we have sent the message that we do not care if they convert."
Rabbi Yoffie's statement goes right to the delicacy of this matter. Many of the Christians, Buddhists and atheists may have agreed to raise their children as Jews with the understanding that no one would try to change their own religious beliefs. They may now feel as if an implicit contract has been broken. Ed Case, the president of Interfaithfamily.com, a Web site for interfaith families exploring Jewish life, worries about this: "We think it's a real mistake for Jewish organizations to convey an attitude toward intermarried couples that conversion is a preferred option."
Mr. Case, whose own wife recently converted to Judaism after 30 years of marriage, believes that families in which only one parent is Jewish are perfectly capable of raising a Jewish child. He points to evidence from surveys he has conducted showing that "children are not confused" by such arrangements. Mr. Case accuses the "intellectual elite of the Jewish community" of becoming hostile to interfaith couples, saying that they put too much stock in "superficial" symbols like Christmas trees that supposedly threaten a household's Jewish identity.
But one has to wonder: Why should Jews worry about giving offense by encouraging conversion? Rabbi Epstein argues for at least giving people a choice. "If I see two products on a shelf, one may not be better than another, but one may meet my needs more or my desires more." He thinks that Jews should at least offer people "the values and beauty of Judaism." As Rabbi Yoffie noted in his speech: "Most non-Jews. . .come from a background where asking for this kind of commitment is natural and normal, and they are more than a little perplexed when we fail to do so."
Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, the academic center of the Conservative movement, has his doubts about these conversion plans. "Religious decisions are deeply personal and internal and not the result of salesmanship." Maybe not, but such a belief did not stop Rabbi Schorsch from proposing his own incentive to stop assimilation--a free Jewish education for every child whose family belongs to a synagogue or Jewish community center.
This "entitlement program," as he calls it, could mean Jewish summer camp, after-school programs or even a full Jewish day school education all the way through 12th grade. Rabbi Schorsch acknowledges the astronomical cost of such a program, but he explains: "We know from all the research that serious Jewish education makes a decided difference in the quality of the identity of the Jewish youngsters." He is willing to go one step further than some Conservative rabbis, suggesting that the children of interfaith marriages--even those in which the mother is not Jewish--should have the right to this education until their bar or bat mitzvahs, when they can decide whether to convert.
Perhaps it only makes sense that in a country where religious groups are free to practice as they please that every religious leader has his own idea about how to drum up business. Religion has a place in the marketplace of ideas, too.
Ms. Riley is The Wall Street Journal's deputy Taste page editor.
Copyright © 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.