Jewish Survival in a Changing World


GOING
GOING
GONE?
July 4, 1997...

Late night television talk show host Charlie Rose assembles a four-person panel to discuss a hot question that is forcing its way to the top of the American Jewish agenda: "Will the current rate of assimilation ultimately lead to the disappearance of the Jewish people?

The atmosphere is tense and charged with disagreements. The participants: Craig Horowitz, New York magazine journalist; Elliott Abrams, author and former Reagan Administration official; Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, chancellor, Jewish Theological Seminary and Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Law School professor--all offer different solutions to the problem.

According to Schorsch, who is there to represent Conservative Judaism, the Jewish people must survive "because [we've] been here for 3,500 years and are the practitioners of an incredible religious tradition. We have no right to terminate that history...."

Horowitz agrees and adds, "It's very important that Jews survive...precisely because of the contribution that they have made to Western civilization."

Dershowitz cites how Jews have brought compassion and justice to the world and, in a grave voice, suggests that "It is to engage in an unchartered course in human history to conceive of a world without Jews and an America without Jews. It'll be a far poorer place in every way and I hope it never comes to be." Elliott Abrams is the last to speak. "In the end," he says, "there's only one real justification for Jews to insist on survival and that's a religious one, the covenant that began with Abraham."

Dershowitz can't allow it to end without a rejoinder. "Then why do we have to work on it? If God promised us we'll survive, why don't we just leave it to Him?" he taunts.

The diversity of opinion reflected by Abrams and Dershowitz is a microcosm of Jewish thinking today. Jewish survival and assimilation are hard issues, but they are not new. They have been with us since biblical times.

Most of the "do's and don'ts" of how we Jews are to behave were included with our survival kit, the Holy Scriptures. They were designed to keep us separate from the nations for a purpose. Yet time after time, our people took an unholy interest in the customs and idolatrous practices of other nations. Amazingly, Jews have managed to survive long after those neighbors and their customs ceased to exist. But can we continue to survive at our present rate of assimilation?

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What is Assimilation?

Assimilation has been described as both "the absorption of the Jewish people, a minority group, into the masses of the peoples in whose midst they live" and "the adoption by the Jewish people of the language, manners and customs of the environment of which they form a part."1

There is no doubt that adopting language, customs, etc., has occurred throughout Jewish history. But is adoption merely absorption one step removed? When we borrow forms of literature and cultural practices, are we on a slippery slope toward extinction?

starA sermon by the second century Jewish sage, Bar Kappara, warned Jews against any form of assimilation by reminding them that the sons of Jacob did not change their names "...as Reuben and Simeon they went down to Egypt, and as Reuben and Simeon they went up from it." He claimed Abraham kept to the Hebrew language as well.2 blurred starOthers would argue that Judaism exists today precisely because we adapted to meet the challenges of surviving in a non-Jewish world. While the Babylonian and Egyptian religions could only be expressed in their native tongues, the Jewish religion had a far greater impact because Jews were able to bring their faith with them into different lands and languages. "Even in Egypt they [the Israelites] soon acquired fashionable names like Moses, Aaron, Hofni and Phinehas."3 These names, originally Egyptian, were Hebraisized.

fragmented starYet even Aaron and the Israelites did some adapting that was unacceptable. After leaving Egypt, the Israelites reverted to Egyptian culture and religion when they sacrificed to the golden calf. Moses condemned this and God brought judgment on the people which resulted in captivity.4 When the Jewish people returned from exile in Babylon, Ezra condemned those who intermarried with those in the surrounding nations.5

fragmented and twirling starDuring the time when the Greeks ruled over Israel, Jews faced the problem of the "Hellenizers," Jews who adapted Greek culture, religion, language and dress. A hellenized Jew even assumed the office of High Priest in Jerusalem and took on a Greek way of life. Those who wouldn't worship Greek gods were killed, and an altar to Zeus was set up in the Temple. Eventually this problem was solved by the Maccabees as recorded in the story of Hanukkah.



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