Parshas Lech Lecha

Near the beginning of the parsha, the Torah describes that Avraham and Sarah left Charan to travel to Eretz Yisroel. And that they took with them all the possessions they had amassed and the “nefesh asher asu b'Charan,” “the souls they had made in Charan.” Rashi explains that this refers to the people that Avraham and Sarah had converted. Avraham would convert the men, and Sarah would convert the women. They were converting them to monotheism. This is the first example of kiruv that we find in the Torah, so I thought that we would discuss kiruv a little bit.

The most important thing to know about kiruv is that one has to present Judaism in an authentic way for kiruv to be successful. If Yahadus is presented authentically, then kiruv does work. The Torah sells itself. Many times people involved in kiruv know how to package the Torah, and they develop methods of how to get the message across in creative ways[i]. But one has to remember that you do not water-down Judaism in order to spread it.

One of the best examples of successful kiruv is NCSY. Around ten years ago (October 1999), Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblum wrote an editorial for the Jerusalem Post. There he discussed a study which was commissioned by 'The Lily Foundation', which is not an Orthodox Jewish organization. Rabbi Rosenblum describes the following results of this study:

NCSY has traditionally reached out to many from public school backgrounds and non- religious homes. Of this group, an amazing 80% of NCSY alumni continued serious textual studies in college and beyond, 90% belong to synagogues, only 2% intermarry. And even though many of those surveyed are still in their child-bearing years, they average 3.2 children per family; their Jewish continuity is secure.

These are some amazing statistics. Unfortunately, tragically, the intermarriage rate among non-Orthodox Jews is quite high. And yet, the intermarriage rate of non-Orthodox Jews who go through NCSY is only 2%. Wow! Again, when Judaism is presented authentically, kiruv works.

Rabbi Rosenblum continues, The truth is that the American Jewish community knows what it must do to survive. It must once again begin to speak about G-d as a commanding, living force in Jewish lives.

In contrast to the results of the Lily Foundation study, he quotes non-Orthodox Jewish leaders who say that we need “continuity without content.” We need to present Judaism as a religion which “entails no restrictive personal requirements, does not interfere with our social lives and yet on demand can put them in touch with their past.” However, these approaches do not work. Judaism will not survive with these approaches.

But what does work is the approach of NCSY[ii]. As Rabbi Rosenblum explained, we do not have to change or adjust the Torah, chas v'shalom, in order to make it palatable, in order for kiruv to work. The Torah sells itself. The most effective kiruv is accomplished when the Torah is presented in its authentic form.

Good Shabbos, B. Ginsburg [i] This is similar to the Toras Hagalus concept which we discussed last week and which we will b'ezras Hashem discussing more in the future. [ii] Certainly NCSY is not the only kiruv organization which presents Orthodox Judaism effectively. I am discussing NCSY because that is the organization Rabbi Rosenblum discussed, and it is also the only organization for which I have these very detailed statistics. I am confident that the other kiruv organizations in the US and around the world, which present Torah Judaism in its authentic form, have similar success rates to NCSY.