Scare Tactics

NCSY, the youth movement of the Orthodox Union, may publish a half-decent bencher, but recent allegations have arisen that the organization is subversively promoting Hasidism in public schools under the guise of Jewish Student Unions.

And then this...

Take a glance at NCSY's website and one prominent link is to a page encouraging NCSYers to marry Jewish. Great. Why should they do so, you may ask? Look at the figures:

Based on a "study" by Anthony Gordon and Richard Horowitz, only 5% of the great-granchildren of "Unaffiliated" Jews, 13% of the great--grandchildren of Reform Jews and 24% of the great-grandchildren of Conservative Jews will themselves be Jewish. This compared with a growth of 346% in the fourth-generation family size of the Modern Orthodox and a whopping 2588% increase amongst the plain "Orthodox." Wowsers.

What is this study, shoved so prominently into the heads of teenagers supposed to teach? The non-Orthodox are destroying Judaism - not just by being non-Orthodoxly observant, but, worse, by killing of our ranks. Implicitly, what Hitler could not do, the Liberals will do themselves.

Great message, folks.

Steven Cohen (or Emma Gottlieb) could tell you that the method used to come up with these numbers is a little unscientific and disingenuous (not to mention 17 years-old), but even supposing the results were true, this would still be a heinous abuse of the minds of children.

It is our duty, as much as we may disagree with and be repulsed by the actions of our Jewish brethren, to foster a spirit of klal Yisrael. Delegitimizing all non-Orthodox Judaism in one fell swoop like NCSY seems to do is hurtful and opens the possibility of a future wherein the OU's version of Orthodoxy exists alone on an island by itself.

Do they really want that?

Comments

Wow! I am SO honored! (and it's funny cause as I was reading I was thinking of copy and pasting it to Cohen in an email!)
Those statistics are hysterical. The Hitler statement may be a tad strong though.

[zach]

Who says that they were doing this to delegitimize non-orthodox affiliations?

It's simply a study that outlines the crisis that is taking place among non-orthodox communities.

Instead of whining about the OU supposedly 'shoving so prominently into the heads of their teenagers', maybe we've got to take a little look at ourselves and reform a little.

Look at what we're doing to the Jewish People. Maybe they have a point, just maybe?

So, I guess then the question is: How can we increase our continuity rate of 13% to a rate of multiple gain?

[zach]

And finally, are we going to let Hitler win?

Are we going to be but a filler on some page in a high school kid's history textbook?

It's up to you.

[BZ]

As David alludes to, the 13% number, and all the numbers, are bullshit. In determining the percentage of "Jews", this study uses a definition of Jewishness that differs from the Reform definition (both parents Jewish, or one Jewish parent and Jewish identification), the Orthodox definition (matrilineal descent), and the Law of Return definition (one Jewish grandparent). The study assumes that only the child of two Jewish parents is Jewish, and anyone with one Jewish parent is not Jewish (and all of his/her descendants are not Jewish). Basically, it's a racial definition of Jewishness that treats Jewishness as a recessive gene; it's measuring the percentage of "pure-blood" Jews, which is not a meaningful concept in any stream of Judaism. It also assumes that no one (in four generations!) will switch denominational affiliation.

Furthermore, the assumption that intermarriage is bad for the number of Jews assumes the status quo, in which Judaism and the Jewish community are so uncompelling that people will leave if they have other options. If the Jewish community were more compelling, then a 100% intermarriage rate would double the number of Jews in each generation, and that's without even having any kids!

[Josh]

Maybe I'm missing the point entirely...but so what?! The OU encourages Jews to marry within the faith...is this a problem? And furthermore I've seen some other studies dealing with this issue, and although the numbers change quite a bit the trend doesn't. When Reform, Reconstructionists, and Humanistic Jews begin to believe that Judaism isn't a belief system or become ambivalent to that system and recognize it solely as a "gene" then they have no reason to remain Jewish.
After all has been said and done...maybe the URJ should encourage intrafaith marraige instead of welcoming non-Jewish spouses to say the blessings over our [the Jewish peoples'] Torah (it happens)