I believe, as I wrote in Saving American Jews - What are we trying to save? that in practical terms, in the Gola (Diaspora) Judaism is, or was, neither just a nationality nor just a religion, but rather, a community, and what we are "selling" when we try to convince people to remain Jewish is really a community and identity, not a religion or a nationality.
Continued...
Ami Isseroff on 10.17.08 @ 02:24 PM CST [link]
"Vanishing American Jews" retold the more or less familiar and unhappy story of the slowly vanishing American Jewish Diaspora. Studies have shown that a large and increasing proportion of US Jews are not Jewish, not in the religious sense, they do not consider the Jews to be a nation and they don't belong to any synagogue or Jewish center. These are Jews who do identify as Jewish, but neither they nor the people who designed the studies can tell us what that might mean by "Jewish." We aren't going to save the Jewish Diaspora and recruit people for Judaism until we understand what it is that we are recruiting for. Continued...
Ami Isseroff on 10.17.08 @ 03:04 AM CST [link]
Intermarriage - Judaism is the problem, Jewish Intermarriage and acceptance and Sex and the single Jew dealt with aspects of Jewish intermarriage. But intermarriage, as the title of the first article indicated, is not the problem, Judaism, or lack of interest in it is the problem. Intermarriage is not a concern because Jews are "racists," but because it is indicative of a trend. If the trend continues, the American Jewish community may disappear. Lack of interest in Judaism and a birthrate that is lower than the American average and below replacement levels, make the Judaicus Americanus an endangered species. Continued...
Ami Isseroff on 10.17.08 @ 12:21 AM CST [link]
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