Identity Crisis TO THE EDITOR: In "Surrendering to In- termarriage" [March], Jack Wertheimer raises impor- tant issues that Reform Ju- daism has been wrestling with for more than twenty years. Unfortunately, despite his extensive references to studies and published ma- terials, he is apparently un- informed about the reality of what goes on in homes and synagogues all over North America. In fact, Mr.
Wertheimer gets almost everything wrong. Let me suggest some correctives.
Encouraging Jews to marry Jews and welcoming interfaith families are not, as Mr. Wertheimer suggests, mutually exclusive activities.
Both are mitzvot-religious duties-and both are need- ed in today’s complex world.
Prior to the Reform move- ment’s outreach efforts, in- terfaith families were os- tracized from the Jewish community, guaranteeing that the Jewish partner and the children would be lost to us forever. Reform syna- gogues now invite these families to make Jewish choices, which they often do.
Contrary to Mr. Wer- theimer’s assertion, the 1983 resolution on patrilineal de- scent of the Central Con- ference of American Rabbis (CCAR) does not "blur the definition of who Jews are." Neither does it "arbitrari- ly" confer Jewish status.
Rather, it sets a different standard for Jewishness, one that depends on Jewish identification and behavior, not solely on the bloodline of a parent. In that respect, it is far more demanding than the definition accord- ing to Jewish law. Patrilin- eal descent, more appropri- ately called "parental deci- sion," has opened the door into Jewish life for tens of thousands of children from interfaith families.
Reform rabbis across North America report the conversion of increasing numbers of non-Jewish spouses who have created a Jewish home and found a warm community in the synagogue. Indeed, non- Jewish and converting spouses often help their Jewish partners find their way back to Judaism. Out- reach to interfaith families is not about "lowering the bar," as Mr. Wertheimer would have it; it is about forming and strengthening Jewish identity.
Far from being "quixot- ic," as Mr. Wertheimer puts it, opening the door to all sincere seekers, Jewish or not, has been successful. "A Taste of Judaism: Are You Curious?," our free intro- duction to Jewish texts on spirituality, ethics, and com- munity, has attracted 35,000 participants to overflowing classes from Honolulu to Toronto to Miami. Almost half are unaffiliated Jews, and of these, 28 percent subsequently join a syna- gogue. Many others, inter- married or not, are looking for a way into Jewish life, and 14 percent convert. The synergy of non-Jews and Jews exploring Judaism to- gether is what makes this program work.
Loudly and passionately condemning the evils of in- termarriage, as Jack Wer- theimer does, may alleviate some frustration and rage in the short term, but it is likely to be persuasive only to the already convinced.
More effective for the Jew- ish future is engaging daily and directly in a thoughtful, caring, and, yes, passionate way with both Jews and those who are strangers among us.
DRU GREENWOOD Director Commission on Reform Jewish Outreach New York City To THE EDITOR: In venting his hostility to intermarriage and outreach, Jack Wertheimer deliber- ately distorts both my views and the goals of Interfaith- Family.com. Far from "ped- dling" a message favoring multiple allegiances, we en- [3]COMMENTARY JUNE 2001 courage interfaith families to choose Judaism as the re- ligion of their family and to raise their children exclu- sively as Jews. The Guide to Jewish Interfaith Family Life, an anthology of our articles, will be brought out this fall by Jewish Lights Publish- ing. I oppose not conver- sion, but its excessive pro- motion-just as I oppose forbidding non-Jewish par- ents from sharing in syna- gogue honors at the bar or bat mitzvah of their child- because these measures dis- courage engagement in Jew- ish life by interfaith fami- lies. (For my own statement on this question, see www.
interfaithfamily. com/arti- cle/issue32/case.html.) The arguments that Mr.
Wertheimer draws from Torah, social science, and social psychology are intel- lectually dishonest. He as- serts that the Torah pro- hibits intermarriage, but it prohibits intermarriage only with seven specified nations, and indeed many of the Torah’s leading figures were themselves intermarried. He declares the outreach effort a "resounding failure" de- spite the fact that many in- termarried couples are not even aware of it, as report- ed by Bruce A. Phillips, on whose study Mr. Wer- theimer heavily but selec- tively relies. And his decla- ration that "Christmas and Hanukkah are irreconcilably antithetical" demonstrates a complete lack of under- standing of Jewish interfaith families: many, including those in which there has been a conversion, partici- pate in the celebration of their non-Jewish relatives’ holiday without compro- mising the Jewish identity of their own family or chil- dren.
The Dercentage of inter- faith families who raise their children exclusively as Jews is unacceptably low. But we do not know what that per- centage would be if the Jew- ish community were to be- come truly welcoming, making a concerted, well- financed, and well-publi- cized outreach effort. What I see at InterfaithFamily- .com-thousands of month- ly readers seeking content that informs them how they can live Jewishly-strongly suggests the percentage would become much high- er. In a recent online survey, many readers said our web- site was their first experi- ence of acceptance in the Jewish community, and sev- eral said it led them to con- nect with a local synagogue.
But many reported experi- encing rejection byJews and not knowing that any part of the Jewish community welcomed them. Mr. Wer- theimer’s strategy of trying to prevent intermarriage is not only futile, it contributes directly to the rejection and unwelcome that are obsta- cles to affiliation by inter- faith families.
I have been intermarried for 27 years, have raised two Jewish young adults with my wife, am the immediate past president of a major Reform synagogue, and gave up a large law firm partnership in 1997 to do graduate work in Jewish communal service at Bran- deis’s Hornstein program. I know firsthand what is pos- sible with a positive re- sponse to intermarriage, and in my work I do everything I can to help to create, with- in intermarriages, Jewish households that otherwise might not be-and that will not be, if Mr. Wertheimer and his allies have their way.
By responding negatively, writing off prospective Jew- ish families and children, they are the ones who are "surrendering to intermar- riage." EDMUND CASE Publisher InterfaithFamily.com Newton, Massachusetts To THE EDITOR: We at the Jewish Out- reach Institute speak on be- half of the nearly 1 million intermarried families in the United States, representing a full third of American Jew- ry. We speak for the parents, siblings, and other relatives of the intermarried, who understand that marrying a non-Jew is an expression of love, and not necessarily a rejection ofJewish heritage.
These relatives want to cre- ate a more welcoming, in- clusive Judaism, where Jew- ish and non-Jewish family members alike can find meaning and enlightenment without being made to feel like second-class citizens or being told to "convert first, feel welcome later." Many of these families are part of the Conservative movement with which Mr.
Wertheimer is affiliated.
They live Jewish lives, at- tend synagogues, participate in Jewish holiday celebra- tions, and raise Jewish chil- dren. We know these peo- ple because we work with them every day. They are neither strangers nor pari- ahs.
There are simply too many misrepresented facts in Mr. Wertheimer’s article to be answered in a limited space. (We have posted a full refutation on our web- site, at www.joi.org/com- mentary.) What the anti- intermarriage movement boils down to, however, is one idea: that the Jewish community should not waste time or money reach- ing out to the intermarried.
Our own research, the re- sults of which will be re- leased over the coming months, demonstrates that outreach to the intermar- ried does increase Jewish af- filiation and is worth the ef- fort.
Of course, many Jewish families and professionals already know this, and they-like us-know that the future of Judaism lies in inclusiveness. We are just thankful Jack Wertheimer was not around to advise our forbear Abraham as to which side of his tent to keep open and which side to close.
RABBI KERRY M. OLITZKY Executive Director Jewish Outreach Institute New York City To THE EDITOR: I was raised in an obser- vant Jewish family in De- troit, went to Hebrew school through twelfth grade, and led a social life almost ex- clusively within the youth group at our synagogue. I knew what it would mean to marry outside the faith, both to my family and to the Jew- ish community. I felt great pressure to marry a Jewish girl, and I sensed the same pressure in the Jewish girls that I met, such that our re- lationships had a mercenary taste to them.
I rebelled and married a Southern Baptist woman who, after 25 years of mar- riage, remains a Southern Baptist. We have raised three boys, all of whom have been bar-mitzvahed and identify themselves as Jews, but still feel comfortable go- ing to church with their mother. I do not know what religious path my sons will ultimately take, but I hope they come to an under- standing of God and cre- [4] — o– -C J | sCOMMENTARY JUNE 2001 ation that will bring them peace. If they choose not to do this as Jews, I do not be- lieve I will have had a hand in the demise ofJudaism.
DAVID J. MARWIL Lexington, Kentucky To THE EDITOR: My problem with Jack Wertheimer’s approach is that while he deplores the high rate of intermarriage, he criticizes efforts to en- courage the conversion of the non-Jewish partner, im- plying that these efforts only undermine Jewish inmar- riage. But he offers no al- ternatives.
The time to discuss in- termarriage with children is when they approach dating age. By the time they seek out a clergyman to discuss a marriage ceremony, it is too late. In my 50-plus years in the rabbinate, I have nev- er been able to discourage the marriage of any mixed couple that turned to me for premarital counseling. At that point, the primary item on the agenda is conversion.
With a falling birth rate in the Jewish community, the conversion of non-Jewish spouses may be the one re- maining source of needed numbers.
RABBI STANLEY RABINOWITZ Washington, D.C.
To THE EDITOR: Jack Wertheimer is quite right to emphasize the pow- er of intermarriage to break down boundaries needed for Jewish survival. I certainly agree with him that the Jew- ish religious movements ought to be attentive to the challenges of maintaining Judaism’s boundaries even as they concern themselves with various forms of out- reach. Mr. Wertheimer could be more precise, however, in his analysis of how the various movements handle these challenges. Contrary to his portrayal, the Recon- structionist movement de- fines a child who has one non-Jewish parent as Jew- ish only when the child is raised exclusively as a Jew in terms of education and life-cycle events, in the con- text of an active and com- mitted Jewish community.
Furthermore, the Recon- structionist movement takes a clear stance that non-Jews should be welcomed in the synagogue but cannot have the same rights as Jews, par- ticularly in regard to such ritual matters as leading worship or receiving an aliyah (the honor of being called to the Torah).
I am not aware of any ev- idence that the refusal of rabbis to officiate at inter- marriages has actually re- duced the number of these ceremonies. Thus, the ques- tion is not so much whether rabbis should officiate at them (though I do not) as how to create an environ- ment in which conversion continues to be seen as the optimal result when a Jew and a non-Jew form a per- manent relationship. Our outreach and educational ef- forts should continue to em- phasize creating Jewish homes that are not syn- cretistic and encouraging conversion to Judaism where it can be done with a com- mitment of conscience.
RABBI DAVID A. TEUTSCH President Reconstructionist Rabbinical College Wyncote, Pennsylvania To THE EDITOR: I do not remember her name. I only remember her question to the priest and to me. the rabbi: "Mv daddy is Jewish and my mommy is Christian, and they didn’t raise me up to be anything.
Do you know how I could be raised up to be some- thing?" Her pain and con- fusion and rootlessness are the face we need to put on the statistics and surveys so ably summarized by Jack Wertheimer. There are real children out there who are going religiously homeless because their yuppie parents just cannot get it together to help them feel at home in either a church or a syn- agogue.
When we Jews discovered that intermarriage had risen from 10 percent or less in the 1960’s to over 50 percent in the 1990’s, we thought that the casualty rate was evenly divided: three out of ten of the children of inter- marriage were raised as Jews, three out of ten as Chris- tians, and four out of ten as nothing or both. Not so, we now learn. We only get 14 percent, not 3 3 percent, of the kids. The truly chilling statistic, not mentioned in Mr. Wertheimer’s piece, is that less than 5 percent of the grandchildren of inter- marriages are raised as Jews.
In other words, in every in- termarriage there is a virtu- al statistical certainty that Judaism will die in that fam- ily in just one more gener- ation.
Mr. Wertheimer rightly bemoans the response to this demographic holocaust, but there are reasons that go well beyond myopia, cowardice, and ignorance.
Here are some other deci- sive and depressing factors that keep the surrender to intermarriage proceeding apace: The membership boom for Reform Judaism. The Re- form movement has vault- ed past Conservative Ju- daism in numbers of mem- bers and size of congrega- tions, and all of this growth is from the obvious fact that intermarried couples feel more accepted in Reform temples than in any other branch of Judaism. Even Reform rabbis like myself who do not perform inter- marriages have benefited from a huge influx of inter- married couples who have nowhere else to go.
Frighteningly assertive cou- ples. The pariah status of in- termarriage is dead and gone in the Reform move- ment, and with it the shame and the guilt. Most rabbis are just no match for pow- erhouse intermarried cou- ples who do not want to hear nuanced reservations based on Jewish law from someone who drives on the Sabbath and eats shrimp.
The same-sex marriage bind. As the Reform move- ment continues its leftward lunge, rabbis are finding it impossible to sell congre- gants on the idea that it is okay for them to officiate at the marriage of David and Steven but not at the mar- riage of David and Chris- tine. Congregations are not going to listen to some self- serving contrivance about how gay marriage is no threat to Jewish values while intermarriage is.
What can be done? A number of answers, I believe, will in time attract a consensus among the dwindling Jewish popula- tion of America: 1) the cre- ation of academically out- standingJewish day schools serving primarily non-Or- thodox students; 2) the de- velopment of well-endowed Jewish camps rivaling those that now attract the majori- ty of suburban upper-middle- class Jewish children; 3) the drastic reduction, through [6] — L , _) _- – ICOMMENTARYJUNE 200I subsidies, of the cost of mem- bership in synagogues and Jewish community centers; 4) the creation of a broad media presence forJudaism and Jewish life; and, above all else, 5) rabbis, teachers, and leaders who will teach and model Judaism as a faith and a culture that is per- sonally compelling, trans- formative, and ennobling.
Trying to halt intermar- riage by guilt or shame will not work. Trying to con- vince Jews in love with Christians that they need to end their love for the good of the Jewish people will not work. Only a personal faith in Judaism has the power to move an individual to want to share that faith with his or her mate and to make it a priority in their home.
RABBI MARC GELLMAN President New York Board of Rabbis New York City To THE EDITOR: Jack Wertheimer offers a compelling case that the Jewish community’s will to resist mixed marriage is in danger of collapse. In an American culture that so overwhelmingly endorses interfaith marriage, the Jews will stand virtually alone if they are to mount a coun- terargument.
Fortunately, the situation may not be as bleak as Mr.
Wertheimer describes. Of- ficially, all the religious streams within Judaism con- tinue to resist mixed mar- riage. The Conservative movement recently resolved that those employed in "role-model" positions (rab- bis, educators, cantors, etc.) in its institutions ought to have Jewish spouses. Even more surprisingly, the move- ment’s youth organization has urged its officers to re- frain from dating non-Jews.
The Reform movement, too, has formally opposed ad- mitting children raised par- tially in another faith to its educational institutions, and has refused to approve rab- binic officiation at interfaith unions.
To be sure, there are those who counsel commu- nal neutrality, in a well-in- tentioned effort to bring families back into the fold.
The American Jewish Com- mittee, though supportive of reaching out to interfaith couples, believes that we cannot afford such neutral- ity. Rather, we must under- score the contemporary vi- tality of both Judaism and Jewish peoplehood, and communicate that Jewish ideals are best realized through being shared with Jewish spouses and in the raising of Jewish children.
For millennia, Judaism has survived precisely due to its ability to swim against the tide and articulate counter- cultural messages. Jack Wertheimer’s essay elo- quently makes the case that we should continue to do so.
STEVEN BAYME American Jewish Committee New York City To THE EDITOR: No one has laid out both the grim facts and likely consequences of intermar- riage as clearly or as force- fully as Jack Wertheimer. As far as policy is concerned, however, he falls a little short, merely indicating where we are headed if we continue following current trends rather than spelling out what must be done if those trends are to be re- versed.
It is true, as Mr. Wer- theimer points out, that any solution to the problem of intermarriage is bound to be painful. It is so wide- spread that virtually every family is affected by it When the non-Jewish spouse is told that he or she may not par- ticipate in a child’s bar-mitz- vah ceremony, the entire family may drop out. And the concern appears to be legitimate that a rabbi who refuses to officiate at an in- terfaith wedding may alien- ate the young couple alto- gether. What are we to do? I hope I will not appear to be too banal if I cite a re- cent letter to shareholders from the executives of Gen- eral Electric. They refer to a type of manager who "doesn’t share the values" of GE, but "delivers the num- bers." Despite their success, they say, such managers must be removed, and it must be made clear to the entire company that they were asked to leave "not for the usual ‘personal reasons’ or ‘to pursue other oppor- tunities,’ butfor not sharing our values." They go on to say that until an organiza- tion has the courage to do this, people will never be- lieve that these values are real.
Perhaps the American Jewish community can at last bring itself to believe in its values at least as strongly as GE does. I would not sug- gest that we bring back the ugly rituals associated with here (excommunication).
But we should be able to say to members of our commu- nity that we do have stan- dards, that we know what they are, and that we are willing to stick by them; that although we are ready to re- ceive with open arms anyone who sincerely wants to join us, we will not accept insin- cere, half-way measures, and we will most assuredly not grant the privileges that go with membership in the Jew- ish community to those who have not assumed its oblig- ations; and finally, that we do not accept the notion that in refusing to compromise our principles and our val- ues we are "alienating" those who demand that we do so.
On the contrary, those who choose to intermarry have alienated themselves.
BURTON M. LEISER Pace University New York City TO THE EDITOR: Jack Wertheimer makes many good points and ends by calling upon American Jewish leaders to speak out against bland universalism and in favor of Jewish par- ticularity and tradition. But there is a problem with this: the astronomical rate of in- termarriage among Ameri- can non-Orthodox Jews is a reflection of the fact that what is promoted as Ju- daism by much of the Jew- ish establishment in the United States is shallow, empty, and meaningless and has nothing to do with Jew- ish values and traditions.
Much of the Reform and Reconstructionist move- ments, parts of the Con- servative movement, and the various Jewish "defense" organizations have invent- ed a form of pseudo-Ju- daism that is nothing more than political liberalism.
Dressed up in an egregious misrepresentation of the talmudic idea of "tikkun olam"-the proper order- ing of the world-and in- tentional misreadings of the biblical prophets, this ide- ology has replaced Judaism for large segments of the community. Once Judaism has been reduced to the pursuit of this week’s polit- ically correct fad, marrying a liberal Gentile is not in- termarriage at all. Both [8] ,I I A s VULGARIANS AT THE GATE Trash TV and Raunch Radio- Raising the Standards of Popular Culture Steve Allen ‘Just as he so brilliantly made a generation laugh, Steve compellingly shows us why we should all cry for the degradation of our culture and our common values. But true to Steve’s thoughtful way, he does more than just complain about the problem. Through this book he challenges his fellow citizens to assert their First Amendment rights to demand a safer, saner culture for their children and generations to come." -Senator Joe Lieberman "Current controversies on media sex and violence could put this title in the spotlight and word-of-mouth … willfuel sales." -Publishers Weekly Do you know what your kids are watching on TV or hearing on the radio? Every day America’s youth is being exposed to hideously inappropiate speech and behavior by role models in TV, film, radio, and the music industry. In this, his last book, the late Steve Allen describes the work of "The Parents Television Council" and, more importantly, what all concerned citizens can do to improve the quality of the entertainment industry.
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Such places do exist in the form of today’s growing number of co-ed Jewish high schools. Here Jewish youngsters learn to interact with members of the oppo- site sex and to think in terms of love and marriage, but in a setting somewhat apart from contemporary secular sexual mores. The truth is that in our free- flowing society the adoles- cent years are the critical ones. By the time college rolls around, the damage is already done.
RONALD GRUEN Dallas, Texas To THE EDITOR: As one who does battle in the arena, I would add one suggestion to Jack Wertheimer’s essay. When I was a rabbi in Washing- ton, D.C., I created an enormous singles program in my synagogue. Well over a hundred Jewish marriages resulted. I even recall two people, each of them pre- viously intermarried and divorced, who met in my singles program and got married. If you offer an ample number of members of the opposite sex and a program of thoughtful con- tent, even Jewish singles who are seemingly indiffer- ent will come.
It is not enough simply to announce that young Jews should meet each oth- er. Jewish leadership needs to put its money into pro- grams for college students, trips to Israel for young peo- ple, and synagogue events for young professionals. If Judaism is worth preserving, it is worth making exciting and accessible to young people on the threshold of making their life commit- ments.
RABBI STEPHEN LISTFIELD Congregation Beth Shalom Pompton Lakes, New Jersey To THE EDITOR: One of the best ways to lower the incidence ofJew- ish intermarriages may be to publicize their high rate of failure. One-third of all marriages end in divorce within five years, but inter- married couples divorce at almost twice that rate.
S. C. YUTER Briarcliff Manor, New York To THE EDITOR: I read with nodding frus- tration and all-too-familiar recognition the perceptive lament ofJack Wertheimer.
There is scarcely an American rabbi, certainly no Reform or Conservative rabbi, who cannot testify to the validity of Mr. Wer- theimer’s central thesis: the American Jewish resistance to wholesale assimilation is rapidly melting away. All too often, outreach has be- come a euphemism for sur- render, a cover for overt syncretism. We know now (as if we did not before) that fifteen minutes under a wedding canopy does not make a Jewish home, pre- [10] Can’t find Commentary at your favorite newsstand? qair-% ~Dial 1-800-221-3148 S to ask where Commentary is on sale nearyour home or office.COMMENTARY JUNE 200I e-rT T-o-I;ch n-nnlhorn rI encourage the raising of children who will identify themselves as Jews.
RABBI CLIFFORD E.
LIBRACH Temple Sinai Sharon, Massachusetts To THE EDITOR: Hearty and heart-felt congratulations to Jack Wertheimer. As he points out, American Jews have lost the ability to hold indi- viduals accountable for be- having in ways that are physically or spiritually det- rimental to the well-being of the community as a whole, choosing instead to affirm the "right" of people to live their lives as they please.
Those who consider this "right" absolute would do well to remember the story of the two men who owned a boat. One day, in the mid- dle of a lake, one of them began drilling a hole be- neath his seat. His friend started screaming, "What are you doing?" The first man replied indignantly, "What concern is it of yours what I do on my side of the boat?" RABBI CARY KOZBERG Columbus, Ohio To THE EDITOR: We have come to expect reasoned and strong advo- cacy from Jack Wertheimer, and he does not disappoint on the issue of intermar- riage. One can only pray that after we take our loss- es from intermarriage and low Jewish fertility rates, those who remain in a somewhat smaller Jewish community will have a real renaissance, and that this community will go on to write new chapters in its glorious history DONALD FELDSTEIN Teaneck, New Jersey JACK WERTHEIMER writes: The critical responses to my article by Dru Green- wood, Edmund Case, and Kerry M. Olitzky, all of them active members of the outreach establishment, are hardly surprising. Still, I am taken aback by the unqual- ified tone of self-congratu- lation in their claims for the Gramercy Park Hotel Your Private Oasis Just South of Midtown Manhattan Imagine. .. You’re just minutes away from a trip to Europe! Whether you’re dining on one of Chef Robert’s 20 freshly prepared Pastas (from $12.50 – $19.50) or planning a Wedding (packages beginning at $64 per person), you’ll find our hotel to be an Oasis of Olde World Charm.
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I will let the eloquent let- ters of Rabbis Clifford E.
Librach, Cary Kozberg, and, especially, Marc Gell- man–each of them a mem- ber of the Reform rab- binate-serve to refute Dru Greenwood’s assertion that I am "uninformed" and get "almost everything wrong." For my part, I challenge her to "inform" us with more than mere assertion. She avers, for example, that "Re- form rabbis across North America report the conver- sion of increasing numbers of non-Jewish spouses." One would like to see some substantiation of this re- markable statement. Most demographers are persuad- ed that, to the contrary, rates of conversion to Ju- daism have plummeted since the policy on "patri- lineality" was introduced in 1983.
Similarly unqualified is Greenwood’s assertion that 28 percent of those who graduate from her "Taste of Judaism" program have joined synagogues. Does she have any independent data permitting us to judge what actually goes on in the households of intermarried Jews who are affiliated with Reform synagogues? Do they maintain an unam- biguous commitment to Ju- daism? Or are they more like the dual-faith family of David J. Marwil, who pro- fesses not to know or care about the religion his chil- dren will eventually es- pouse? What proportion of such families celebrate Christian holidays, or ex- [12] m 1You deserve afactual look at… 69 "Excessive Force" Are Israelis overreacting to the present upheaval? Once again, the Palestinians have risen in bloody upheaval, in the second "intifada", allegedly provoked by (now) Prime Minis- ter Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount. Many think that Israel is using "excessive force" in attempting to quell this uprising.
What are the factsT How did it come about? First of all, the claim that this uprising came about as a result of Mr. Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount is a silly and flimsy pretext. This uprising, now several months old, was carefully planned and continues to be orchestrated by the Palestin- ian Authority, of which Yasser Arafat is chairman. He pulls all the strings; nothing happens without his approval. So far, hundreds have died and thousands have been wounded in this uprising — most of them Palestinians, including children and even babies. Unbelievable though it may seem to us, Palestinian children who have died or who have been injured were deliber- ately put into the crossfire by their parents. Israeli children who were killed or who were injured were, in every case, victims of sniF geted those innocents for There are two kinds of Isra ambushed in random terror att on the highways or in the cit bombers or by Arabs delibera unsuspecting crowds. And then never-ending war in the street’ rocks thrown by teenagers and and by soldiers with bombs, Mi the background. The weapons u foolishly gave to the Palestinia which, in full violation of the C smuggled into the territory ol It is true that the number substantially larger than tho parity is partly the result of th ans to create martyrs and to their plight and — the ultimat national force, a U.N. continge the territories. The other reason that the number of Pales- tinian casualties is greater is that the Palestinian mobs attack the Israeli military in large numbers; soldiers, hav- ing to defend themselves and avoid being overrun, inevitably cause casualties in protecting themselves.
Just imagine your son or daughter being one of the Israeli soldiers. Howling mobs throwing rocks (yes, they hurt and kill!) attack the soldiers. From the unseen depths of the attacking mob come gunfire, grenades, and flying bottles of flaming gasoline. What, if you were in charge, would you tell the Israeli soldiers to do? Respond, as they do now in most cases, with rubber bullets? Or would this be the time to use live ammunition? You Israel cannot permit this situation to continue know what the answer isa Israel is a civilized and indefinitely. And the way to stop it in an instant democratic country. The is for Mr. Arafat to give the word to do so. reality, because Israel is a civilized and democratic )ers, who deliberately tar- country, is that, rather than use "excessive force", Israel is their bloody purposes. using almost unbelievable restraint, in order to keep casual- teli victims: Those who are ties to a very minimum. There can be no question that if tacks against civilians, either any real force, let alone "excessive force", were used, the ties, by snipers, by suicide number of casualties would be many times greater. ,tely driving their cars into Remember what happened in Somalia? Under similar cir- 1 there are the victims of the cumstances, the helicopters were called in and mercilessly s. It is typically fought with gunned down the insurgents! Within minutes, hundreds I even children in the front, were killed — more casualties than in the many months that lotov cocktails, and guns in the Israeli military has allowed this uprising to continue.
sed are those that the Israelis Israel’s restraint is based on its own valuation of human life, ns for their "police force" or but also on a regard for world opinion, which, in this case, as so )slo Accord, the Palestinians many times before, is ready to label Israelis the aggressors or, f the Palestinian Authority. in the most execrable of tastes, to compare them to the Nazis.
of Palestinian casualties is Even though many have died so far in this intifada, the toll ;e of the Israelis. This dis- would have been much, much greater were it not for the ie decision of the Palestini- restraint and the discipline of Israeli troops and the measured evoke world sympathy for response policy of the Israeli government. In order to avoid :e hope — to have an inter- provoking the Arabs, Israel has on occasion even refrained ent, stationed in Israel or in from bringing in helicopters to evacuate wounded soldiers.
Can you imagine what the response of government troops would be if such an uprising were to occur in any of the Arab countries — say, Syria, Saudi Arabia, or Egypt? Many thousands would die. Ultimately, however, if this violence does not abate, Israel will indeed have to use adequate force (not "excessive force") to quell it, even at the risk of international condemnation. But it is clear that Israel cannot permit this situation to continue indefinitely. It must be stopped. And the way to stop it in an instant is for Mr. Arafat to give the word to do so. He has not done that so far. In fact, and because it serves his purposes, he is the key instigator.
This ad has been published and paid for by FLAME Facts and Logic About the Middle East FO. Box 590359 · San Francisco, CA 94159 Gerardo Joffe, President FLAME is a tax-exempt, non-profit educational 501(c)(3) organization. Its purpose is the research and publication of the facts regarding developments in the Middle East and exposing false propaganda that might harm the inter- ests of the United States and its allies in that area of the world.Your tax-deductible contributions are welcome. They enable us to pursue these goals and to publish these messages in national newspapers and maga- zines. We have virtually no overhead. Almost all of our revenue pays for our educational work, for these clarifying messages, and for related direct mail.
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Which brings me to the so-called "inclusive Ju- daism" of Kerry Olitzky, whose promised online posting of a "full refutation" of my article is still not available as I write at the be- ginning of May. "The anti- intermarriage movement," Rabbi Olitzky states here, "boils down to one idea: that the Jewish community should not waste time or money reaching out to the intermarried." In fact, I nev- er made any such argument.
Rather, I highlighted the abysmal record of outreach efforts, and lamented the many ways in which they distort Judaism in the name of a false inclusiveness.
The latter tendency is ex- emplified nicely by Rabbi Olitzky’s referring to a leg- end about the hospitable nature of the patriarch Abraham even as he will- fully ignores what the Bible itself tells us explicitly in in- troducing the progenitor of the Jewish people-name- ly, that in order to "con- vert" to monotheism and take up his mandate, Abra- ham had to heed God’s command to "go forth from your native land and from your father’s house." Ju- daism is indeed an inclusive faith, and anyone seeking to join it can do so by means of conversion; but conversion requires a rad- ical break with one’s past, a fact that advocates of out- reach systematically obfus- cate when they do not deny it altogether.
On this point, I am afraid that Rabbi Stanley Rabi- nowitz misunderstood me.
He and I are in complete accord on the priority of en- suring the conversion of Gentiles married to Jews. I am deeply skeptical, how- ever, of some schemes pro- moted in recent years to missionize within American society at large and to seek wholesale conversions to Ju- daism. Dru Greenwood’s re- port of a conversion rate of merely 14 percent among attendees of the Reform movement’s outreach pro- gram reinforces my belief that conversion will appeal to only a small minority.
Rabbi David A. Teutsch provides helpful clarifica- tion of the Reconstruc- tionist movement’s official policy. But the question re- mains whether congrega- tions actually enforce the restrictions he enunciates, particularly in the face of the enormous pressure that is brought to bear on rabbis.
Similarly with the checks put in place within the Con- servative and Reform move- ments and reported on by Steven Bayme in his letter; here, too, my fear is that, as communal resistance to in- termarriage erodes, official pronouncements will be in- creasingly ignored "on the ground." See, in this con- nection, Rabbi Marc Gell- man’s trenchant and unvar- nished analysis of congre- gational realities.
I am particularly grateful to those of my correspon- dents-Steven Bayme, Bur- ton Leiser, Steven Plaut, and Rabbi Kozberg-who support my call for a com- munal effort at clarifying where and how Judaism differs. But it is not just a matter of ten-point policy recommendations, which other correspondents re- prove me for not having supplied. S.C. Yuter’s pro- posal, for instance-that the community broadcast the news about the higher rate of divorce among those who intermarry-can be only one small part of a far larg- er educational enterprise.
(Incidentally, Mr. Yuter’s data seem dubious; if near- ly two-thirds of intermar- riages really did come to an end within five years, the entire problem would soon go away on its own.) More than tactical chan- ges, the Jewish community needs to reassess its rela- tionship to the larger culture.
In particular, as noted by Rabbis Gellman and List- field, and also by Ronald Gruen, the community has failed to create embracing in- stitutions for young Jews, including teenagers, colle- gians, graduate students, and single adults. A range of such programs would not only, as Rabbi Listfield writes, help make Judaism "acces- sible to young people on the threshold of making their life commitments" but might also begin to reverse the destructive syndrome that prompts many young people to drop out of Jew- ish life altogether between their bar or bat mitzvah and the birth of their own chil- dren.
Finally, I share the prayer of Donald Feldstein, a wise and experienced communal leader. But as I am sure he would agree, the communi- ty’s losses will continue to mount unless action is tak- en to challenge mistaken as- sumptions and fatal illusions like those informing much of the current discussion of intermarriage.
The GOP To THE EDITOR In his article, "Bush and the Republican Future" [March], Daniel Casse ar- [15] LCOMMENTARY JUNE 2001 gues that "there is no de- nying that the GOP has in- deed become a party in de- cline" and that the Reagan coalition has "fallen apart." The Republican party and the conservative move- ment have heard similar predictions of pending di- vision and collapse since 1980, when outsiders first noticed that Ronald Reagan was nominated and elected by a modern Republican party leading a new Center- Right coalition. In the be- ginning, the Reagan coali- tion operated only at the presidential level. It was not until 1984 that a majority of the Republican caucus in the House was "Reaganite," and not until 1994 that a majority of the Senate Re- publicans looked to Reagan rather than Nixon or Rock- efeller as their model.
For twenty years the Rea- gan coalition has grown and strengthened. Some looked at the Center-Right coalition and saw two or three fac- tions-economic conserva- tives, social conservatives, and foreign-policy conserva- tives-that would inevitably fight among themselves and divide. But the Reagan coali- tion has now won four na- tional congressional elections and defeated a sitting Vice President at a time of peace and prosperity.
Why? Critics of the Rea- gan coalition misunderstand the nature of it. The mod- ern Republican party and Center-Right coalition com- prise individuals who, on the issue that makes them politically active, want one thing from the central gov- ernment: to be left alone.
Think of gun-owners, tax- payers, property-owners, home-schoolers, people of faith who wish to raise their children without the gov- ernment tossing prophylac- tics at them, the self-em- ployed, and the growing in- vestor class. They do not want other people’s time, money, or approbation. It is a low-maintenance coali- tion.
In 2000, PatrickJ. Bu- chanan, Gary Bauer, and John McCain offered to form a different coalition.
They were rejected. These would-be leaders looked at the polls-as Mr. Casse does-and found divisions on the Right. But those "divi- sions" are on secondary and tertiary issues. Many gun- owners, for example, are hos- tile to trade with China, and Buchanan and Bauer tried to attract their support. But gun-owners vote on gun is- sues, while Republicans for whom international trade is the primary "leave me alone" issue are pro-free trade- and so is the party. Intensity trumps mere preference.
All parts of the "leave us alone" coalition are grow- ing. Americans who own more than $5,000 in stock are 18 percent more Re- publican than Democrat, and ownership of shares has grown from 20 percent of Americans in 1980 to more than 50 percent today. Con- versely, there are 25 million Americans over the age of 70 who came of age during the period of Roosevelt statism.
They voted by a margin of 51 to 43 percent for Gore over Bush. Every year, 2.5 million of them pass away- an annual loss to the De- mocrats of 200,000 voters.
Daniel Casse should cheer up.
GROVER NORQUIST President Americans for Tax Reform Washington, D.C.
To THE EDITOR: Daniel Casse’s claim that the GOP has "become a party in decline" is simply false. The Republicans have established themselves as the governing party of the country and have not been in a stronger position since the 1920’s. The GOP not only controls the House, Senate, Presidency, and fed- eral judiciary but also dom- inates at the state level, a very significant fact in light of the state legislatures’ control of congressional reapportionment in re- sponse to the 2000 census.
Consider Florida, where two House seats are to be added. In 1990 Democrats controlled the entire state government, but today Re- publicans hold both houses of the legislature and the office of the governor. Two more House seats are also to be added for Texas.
There too the state govern- ment was controlled by De- mocrats in 1990; now Re- publicans hold one house of the legislature and the gov- ernorship. In other states as well, including New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Mi- chigan, and Oklahoma, Re- publicans have the power to control or to influence reap- portionment. As a result, the GOP is likely to make sig- nificant gains in the next election. Arguably, we are entering a period of lasting Republican control of the House.
SUSAN JORDAN Los Angeles, California DANIEL CASSE writes: I have always admired Grover Norquist’s cheer- fulness about conservative coalition politics, but I do not share his analysis of the challenges that now face the Republican party. As my ar- ticle made clear, I am not a critic of the Reagan coali- tion. I just do not believe that the issues that once held it together are suffi- cient to ensure large Re- publican majorities.
This does not require abandoning the Republican base. So long as President Bush and other Republicans do not become apostates on lower taxes, stronger de- fense, local control, and the other issues that Mr. Nor- quist mentions, "leave us alone" voters will remain firmly in the Republican camp. But merely main- [16] Editorial Position COMMENTARY has an opening on its editorial staff for a highly qualified individual with a grounding in the contemporary world of ideas and the ability to write well and to help shape the writing of others. Experience in magazine production is desirable. Please send a letter and resume to: Department E Commentary 165 East 56 Street New York, NY 10022LETTERS FROM READERS taining the loyalty of your base is not a viable strategy for a party that won the last election by the smallest of margins.
Since 1994, the GOP has been losing seats in the House, has lost an outright majority in the Senate, and has seen no gain in the number of Republican gov- ernors. If Bush is going to reverse this trend (and ex- pand the influence of con- servative ideas), he needs to set the national agenda on health care, education, and Social Security-issues that simply were not part of past conservative coalitions.
For that reason, the gains made by the GOP in state elections that SusanJordan presents do not impress me.
It does not mean much if Republicans control state houses but cannot control the ideas that shape policy.
Partisans To THE EDITOR: Though I largely agree with Jay Lefkowitz’s view that "Jewish voters seem as frozen as ever in their twin predilections for liberal po- sitions and Democratic can- didates" ["Does the Jewish Vote Count?," March], I would like to sound an op- timistic note.
Despite the fact that the Democratic party offered a Jew as a national nominee for the first time, the Gore- Lieberman ticket garnered just 1 percent more of the Jewish vote than the Clin- ton-Gore ticket in 1996.
Put another way, Bush- Cheney got 20 percent of the Jewish vote-and more than that among the Or- thodox-even though most observers thought the Re- publicans would be lucky to break out of the single dig- its, as they barely did among black voters. Moreover, re- cent polls have indicated that an increasing percent- age of Jews under age thir- ty-five identify themselves as Republicans.
These facts suggest that there is a floor of support for Republicans among Jews and that the growth of the Orthodox segment of the community, combined with certain generational trends, might help that base of sup- port expand. Much will de- pend on how the current Republican President and Congress address issues of serious concern to Jews, in- cluding Israel, education policy, and church-state re- lations, as well as whether moderates within the De- mocratic party succeed in keeping the debates over these issues from veering to the extreme Left.
NATHAN DIAMENT Director Institute for Public Affairs Orthodox Union Washington, D.C.
To THE EDITOR: Jay Lefkowitz’s attempt to parse the Jewish presi- dential vote was as enjoyable as any other in the long line of COMMENTARY pieces on this subject over the years.
All the same, I really think that the overwhelmingly De- mocratic tendency of the Jewish vote comes down to the fact that the typical Jew- ish voter is a sixty-year-old irreligious urban or subur- ban female who associates the Republican party with evangelical Christianity. (In- cidentally, I also think this explains why so many Jews were repelled by Jimmy Carter, whose personal man- ner and religion differenti- ated him from other Demo- cratic presidential candidates in recent memory.) Jews may be rich and successful and culturally as- similated, but they still want to feel as though they could socialize with their presi- dential candidate. They are not so much ideological as terminally sentimental in their political preferences.
SETH A. HALPERN Scarsdale, New York A Small Shelf To THE EDITOR: Terry Teachout’s writings on music are of such high quality that it is all too easy to take for granted his skill- ful effort to introduce a note of professionalism into the examination of jazz music and history ["Jazz & Its Ex- plainers," February]. His dissection of the ten-part PBS series by Ken Burns and Geoffrey Ward and of the book based on that pre- sumptive cultural event merits reading by all those who wonder why the useful literature on jazz occupies such a small shelf.
One irritant that Mr.
Teachout might have added about the series and not a few other ostensible hagio- graphic and historical writ- ings on jazz is the fixation on the issue of drugs. Not a few fine artists are men- tioned in passing for their presumed habits with hard- ly a peep about their con- tributions to jazz as such.
Since Mr. Teachout does point to the small shelf of good books on jazz, it might be useful to extend the ac- colades to the even smaller list of publishers and editors with a commitment to and feeling for jazz as an art form with a history of its own. I have in mind Shel- don Meyer, whose work over roughly 40 years at Oxford University Press set a standard of editorial in- tegrity that stands in stark contrast to the commercial chatter that Mr. Teachout criticizes.
IRVING Louis HOROWITZ Rutgers University New Brunswick, New Jersey
