American Jews: Is intermarriage extinction?
Young American Jews are intermarrying at an astonishing rate and no longer practicing Judaism.
American Jews are “losing their religion,” said Daniel Burke in CNN.com. A new Pew Research Center study has found that young American Jews are intermarrying at an astonishing rate and no longer practicing Judaism. While some 90 percent of American Jews born before World War II identify themselves as Jewish by religion, nearly a third of those born after 1980 say they have no religion at all. Almost 60 percent of Jews who’ve wed since 2000 have a non-Jewish spouse, and one third of intermarried Jews say they are not raising their kids as Jewish. “If these trends continue or worsen,” said -Jonathan Tobin in CommentaryMagazine.com,there will be very few Jews left in a generation or two. For too long, the community has promoted “cultural Judaism”—the idea that you can be a Jew if you like Seinfeld and eat bagels, but ignore the practice of Jewish religion. But that concept has proven to be a gateway to “a dismal future.”
As an assimilated Jew, I don’t see it that way, said Gabriel Roth in Slate.com. By marrying a gentile and raising my daughter without religion, some Jews say, I’m doing “what Hitler couldn’t”—-wiping out the Jewish people. But to me, the rise of intermarriage serves as proof that anti-Semitism is waning. Now that the country’s 6.7 million Jews “no longer suffer systemic discrimination,” we can now fall in love and pursue happiness just like other Americans. “For anyone not attached to terrible ideas about racial purity, this is good news.” As we engage with the world, Jewish ideals and values are being woven into the culture, said Douglas Rushkoff in TheJewishWeek.com. Among them are deep respect for constitutional law, tolerance, progressive values, ironic humor, and literacy. “We’re not disappearing. We are everywhere.”
Still, I have guilt, said Jessica Grose in Slate.com. I married a non-Jew, too, and while our baby daughter is Jewish by lineage, “I’m still not sure how Jewish we are going to raise her.” We’ll celebrate Passover along with Christmas, and tell her how her great-grandparents fled the Nazis in 1938. Beyond that, her Jewishness is an open question, and I can’t help but worry that soon Judaism itself will be a museum piece. “But I can’t see myself bringing my daughter every Friday to honor a God I don’t believe in.” So what choice do people like me have?
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Cutting cables: the war being waged under the sea
In the Spotlight Two undersea cables were cut in the Baltic sea, sparking concern for the global network
By The Week UK Published
-
How people-smuggling gangs work
The Explainer The Government has promised to 'smash' the gangs that smuggle migrants across the Channel. Who are they and how do they work?
By The Week UK Published
-
Crossword: December 1, 2024
The Week's daily crossword
By The Week Staff Published