tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3314914268727443114.post4199374032277816517..comments2023-10-31T12:43:06.690-04:00Comments on NishmaBlog: Chafets, Schick and the Intermarriage ProblemNishmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04237299801109329429noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3314914268727443114.post-85138197231750511622007-11-06T14:51:00.000-05:002007-11-06T14:51:00.000-05:00There is a simple way to end intermarriage and tha...There is a simple way to end intermarriage and that is by encouraging Jewish behaviour. People marry other people with compatible lifestyles. A kosher, shomer negiah, somer Shabbos Jew could not marry a non-Jew not because there's anything wrong with the person but because life together would simply not work out.<BR/>The problem is that this is not what non-religious Jewish organizations want to hear. They hold conference after conference, never ever inviting religious Jews to participate, trying to find ways to get people to sever all their connections with real Judaism but still feel some loyalty to the ethnic brand.<BR/>In a culture where anyone from any culture can marry anyeone else and it's seen as a positive, this is doomed to failure. But even the non-religious amongst us are Am K'Shei Oref.Mighty Garnel Ironhearthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09571194550300367249noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3314914268727443114.post-62203435600610321502007-11-03T22:05:00.000-04:002007-11-03T22:05:00.000-04:00In responding to the challenge of intermarriage, w...In responding to the challenge of intermarriage, what must first be determined is how one sees the very nature of the Jewish group - is it religious or ethnic? The pat answer is that we are both bur in reality there is a essential emotional answer that we all possess. The fact is that for most Jews the dominant emotional defining factor of their Jewishness is ethnic. The further fact is that the label of racism is specifically also directed to that emotion. What difference is there, on the ethnic level, between telling a Jew not to marry a non-Jew and telling a white not to marry a black?<BR/><BR/>It is the religious element of Jewishness that gives reason to the prohibition to not marry a non-Jew and any movement from the religous element of Jewishness opens us to all the challenge to intermarriage that are presently being voiced. The religous reason to marry someone who shares the same values and theology cannot really be challenged. But this must be clear. In rejecting Rabbi Yosef's call to accept his convert, the Syrian community is leaving the religious domain of their standard and adopting the ethnic standard as dominant. For the very sake of protecting the standard of the prohibition of intermarriage, the voice of Rabbi Yosef should have been heard. In that way, we remember what it really means to be Jewish as a religous group and gives meaning to why we wish for people to marry those with share values, shared Jewish values.<BR/><BR/>In this general vein, I recently wrote a Commentary on the Nishma website on intermarriage availabe on the home page at www.nishma. org. I also direct your attenetion to an article I wrote on the nature of the Jewish group, entitled "Adjective, Non-Adjective Jew" at http://www.nishma.org/articles/introspection/introspection5761-2-adjective_jew.htm<BR/>where this question of defining the Jewish group is further explored.Rabbi Ben Hechthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13424122479105225620noreply@blogger.com