Leaving the Fold the End of All Flesh Genius in a Generation of Giants
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fHE Leaving the Fold Intermarriage Conversion Can the Tide Be Stemmed? * The End of All Flesh Preparations and Omissions * Genius in a Generation of Giants The Rogatchover Gaon '"YT * Books In Review * Second Looks * Letters to the Editor * A Pesach Story THE JEWISH OBSERVER TttE JEWISH OBSERVER is published in this issue monthly. except July and August, by the Agudath Israel of America, 5 Beekman St., New York, N.Y. 10038. Second class postage paid at New York, N.Y. Subscription: Leaving the Fold, Nisson Wo/pin 3 $7.50 per year; Two years, $13.00; Why Has My Son Joined a Monastery? a Jewish Mother 7 Three years, $18.00; outside of the United States $8.50 per year. The End of All Flesh, Wolf Karfiol 8 Single copy seventy-five cents. Printed in the U.S.A. Flight, a poem by E. Yisraeli 10 A Danger From Within, Joseph Elias 11 RABBI N1ssoN Wotr!N Walkie-Talkie Mania, Pinchas Jung 14 Editor Genius in a Generation of Giants: The Rogatchover Gaon, Yaakov Feitman 16 Editorial Board DR. ERNST l. BODENHEIMER The Eyes That Talked, a story by Go~die Berger 24 Chairman RABBI NATHAN BULMAN Books In Review RABBI JosrrH EuAs From The Wisdom of Mishle' 28 JOSEPH FR!EDENSON RABB! MOSHE SHERER What is the Reason, Vol. 6, Pesach 28 Out of the Iron Furnace 29 Tttr JEWISH OaSERVER does not Second Looks at the Jewish Scene assume responsibility for the Kashrus of any product or service Brussels II and the Branover Surveys 30 advertised in its pages. Conservatism, Israel, and the Chief Rabbi 34 Letters to the Editor 37 MARCH, 1976 VOL. XI, No. 6 Typography by Compu-Scribe at ArtScroll Studios, Ltd. Cover by Esky Cook Nisson Wolpin According to latest estimates, as many as 47% of the Much of the discussion in the English language Jewish marriages now taking place are intermarriages. media centers around demographic tables: Jews seem to have the smallest families among all ethnic and Studies of the religious backgrounds of the followers religious groups ... Jewish population losses of World of the Reverend Moon ("Moonies," as they are pop War II were never replenished ... Children of inter ularly called) reveal that as many as 45% of them are marriages - especially when a Jewish man "marries Jewish! out" - tend to be brought up in their mother's religion ... What does this portend for the Jewish community? How does one assess this loss of Jewish neshamos? Does it have a future? Intermarriage THE TORAH VIEWS the defection of one single Jewish total lack of priority the intermarrying Jew assigns to soul from Judaism as the ultimate tragedy, for is not his Jewishness. Beyond doubt, this is an outgrowth of "one solitary Jewish life an entire world"? And an in meagre experience, if any, with the richness of a Torah termarriage is nothing short of a full-fledged defection life. To be sure, the boundless opportunities for social - jumping fully into an alien life: "And you will marry and economic advancement that American life offers, their daughters ... and worship their gods" (Shemos coupled with the personal mobility and ever-shifting XXVII, 17). The Jew who abandons his life's destiny by ideological fads that are part of the American scene, establishing a non-Jewish household is a world combine to remove any but the most firmly anchored destroyed, and - further - he forever severs his role as individual from the convictions and practices of his a perpetuater of his timeless heritage. When a wife in heritage. Only a Jew steeped in Torah values and com an intermarriage is a non-Jew, the children are non mitted to a Torah way of life will be much less swayed Jews. And when she is Jewish - how can her children by all of these disturbing factors. possibly accept J udiasm as an inviolable way of life that By the same token, if a program for preventing inter demands almost any sacrifice to preserve its integrity, if marriage is to have a primary thrust, it would certainly their mother demonstrated that "love" - not religious be as a massive Torah education campaign, both on the fidelity - is the supreme factor in life's most urgent intellectual and experiential levels, for adults and decisions? children alike. (Simple enough to state, but difficult to The Causes of Defection plan, and almost Quixotic to finance and execute.) IT WOULD SEEM THAT if this terrible tide of defection There are surely as many methods of anchoring the were to be attributed to any single cause it would be the drifting Jew to Judaism as there are facets to the human The Jewish Observer I March, 1976 3 personality; and there are probably an equal number of styles in movements and attempts at bringing Jews Percentage of Jewish Marriages in USA Involv home to their heritage. To fully succeed, however, a ing a Non-Jewish Partner program must be based on Torah study, and ultimately it must aim for fullest acceptance of all mitzvos - even so-called minutiae .... A Sabbath observance that does 1931 3.0% not aim at including the muktza laws of forbidding the 1941-45 6.7% handling of unnecessary objects can ultimately 1946-50 6.7% degenerate into full Sabbath violation (Talmud: Shab 1951-55 6.4% bos 123b); and a kashrus observance that does not 1956-60 5.9% respect the prohibitions of bishul akum (foods prepared 1961-65 17.4% by a non-Jew) can backslide into a total abandonment 1966-72 31.7% of Torah and mitzvos, uninhibited fraternization with non-Jews, ultimately leading to intermarriage (Talmud: Avoda Zora 38a). Thus, there can really be no success "urged the participants to speak directly to the is ful Torah regeneration program, even with the minimal sues raised as to the Jewish community's respon goal of preventing intermarriage, unless its scope is of sibility to converts and to the non-Jewish partners fullest range. of mixed marriages." The AJ Committee Survey Not, mind you, a word about the motivation of the converts, and the nature of their conversions, that HOW IS THE AMERICAN JEWISH ESTABLISHMENT leaves 99% of all converts (surely 100% of those that are responding to the mounting incident of intermarriage? converted by anything less than an Orthodox beis din) For one, the American Jewish Committee is embarking in fact still non-Jews! Not an iota of concern over the on a well-publicized study of intermarriage: its causes, resultant irreparable damage to the integrity of the its implications, and recommendations for reduction of Jewish community and the principles on which it is its incident and impact. founded! As for "the Jewish community's respon It is difficult to imagine an assimilationist group such sibility ... to the non-Jewish partners of mixed mar as the American Jewish Committee, headed by Jews riages" - is Rabbi Routtenberg actually in favor of roll who are themselves married to non-Jews, taking any ing out a Welcome Wagon to these partners in the kind of meaningful position against intermarriage. It is destruction of Jewish continuity? even more difficult to imagine the nominally Jewish Rabbi Routtenberg also contended that: civil-liberties group producing a red-blooded program "the rising high rate of intermarriage accom to combat assimilation at its worst. And it is impossible panied by a decreasing rate of conversion gives to imagine the Committee, which maintains only one the issue communal urgency. It is not a question kitchen at its New York City headquarters - a treife of policy, but of addressing growing numbers of one - even wagging an admonishing finger at kashrus non-Jews who have entered the Jewish kinship violations, let alone recognizing the Talmud's bishul network that has important immediate long-range akum factor! implications for all aspects of Jewish life, for in Nonetheless, the AJ Committee is launching its study dividuals and institutions and all communal agen - which is being ;nstituted on a pilot basis in New York cies both secular and religious." City, two of its suburban counties, Philadelphia, The "urgency," in his view, focuses on those who Cleveland, and San Francisco - and it should at least have "entered the Jewish kinship network," not led to prove interesting its disintegration; and the problem is to address them. The Consultation Session How? - And for what purpose? TO KICK-OFF THIS STUDY the American Jewish Other participants also felt that organized hospitality Committee convened a special "consultation" session programs should be initiated to make converts more about a year ago involving Jewish sociologists, legal ex welcome; and that special departments should be perts, and rabbis of all "denominational shades." created within existing social agencies to encourage non-Jewish partners of mixed marriages to convert to The purpose of this meeting was "to help gather Judiasm. For example: preliminary materials on the subject. The thrust of the Rabbi Seymour Siegel (of the Jewish discussions were deeply disturbing. Rabbi Max Rout Theological Seminary) declared that converts are tenberg of the Jewish Communal Affairs Commission, a good thing for the Jews, in spite of the Talmudic former president of the (Conservative) Rabbinical Al dictum that "converts (Gerim) are hard for the liance, who chaired the session,* community." In an open society, converts are es "" All direct and indirect quotations are taken from the published pecially important to maintain the Jewish com proceedings of the AJC consultation session. munity. 4 The Jewish Observer I March, 1976 How can the American Jewish Establishment lead the fight against inter marriage, if it has led the way to its threshhold by speeding up the assi milation process? Sure enough, in its views, the problems of inter marriage are those that deal with the non-Jewish partner's adjustment, his families' sensitivities, and expediting conversion of their offspring.