Dr. Wertheimer isn't wrong about the threats posed by intermarriage and "syncretism" to the Jewish identity. But I simply cannot accept his solution.

His solution seems to be a retreat into pre-modern tribalism, a descent in ethnocentrism, and accepting a culture and an identity instead of constructing your own.

I take very seriously my Jewish heritage. The Holocaust and my familial connection to it has deeply impacted my politics and values - first and foremost my rejection of tribalism and ethnocentrism! I also take very seriously the Jewish intellectual tradition of questioning, so much so that I have questioned myself right out of the faith. I take pride in the storied history of Jewish atheist/agnostics: Spinoza, Freud, Marx, Einstein, Karl Popper, Wittgenstein, Elie Weisel, (maybe even Chris Hitchens ;-)).

I do not think we can go backward into a tribal world. I think it is wrong. I don't want to have to choose between my Jewish identity and my deeply held values of tolerance, cosmopolitanism, existentialism, identity-creation, and universalism. But if I had to choose, as much as it pains me to say it, I would have to choose my values over my heritage.

"Jewish life in the United States will be renewed when we build from the core outward, when we support the most committed, then reach out to the moderately engaged, and keep doors open for those of your disengaged peers who want to confront an authentic Judaism, rather than recreate Judaism in their own image."

Really? Conservative Judaism (as well as Reform and Modern Orthodoxy) was the result of groups of 19th century Jews "recreating Judaism in their own image." Sound familiar? Today's Jews are simply doing the same thing. Who said "in the talmudic age, the talmud was right; in my age, I am right?" Geiger? Well, it's more apropos than ever.

Dr. Wertheimer's evocation of "authentic" Judaism is a weak attempt at provocation. It doesn't work. Whatever Jews do is "authentic Judaism."

It's odd that Mr. Wertheimer boasts that "nearly 25,000 are going [on birthright israel trips] this summer alone!" Birthright israel operates by fairly inclusive parameters -- anybody with a single Jewish grandparent, even patrilineally, can participate. The problem is that once they get back from the trip, they are denigrated by the same tribalistic and ethno-obsessed community leaders Mr. Wertheimer apparently believes should be our model.

I would like to know whether Mr. Wertheimer would tell these birthright alumni, so many of whom are children and grandchildren of intermarriage, that "intermarriage is a disaster for the Jewish people." Unless Mr. Wertheimer believes it's a good thing that 25,000 people are going on these trips ONLY if once they come home, they all convert (by Conservative or Orthodox parameters, of course), and then adopt the same ethno-obsessed philosophies that have been so successful for a tiny, self-ghettoized and self-satisfied minority of the Jewish people.

There's nothing necessarily wrong with Mr. Wertheimer's philosophy, although in practice it comes across as creepily offensive to people for whom Judaism is not strictly a religion or a bloodline, and to people who value the multihued diversity of contemporary life. The problem is that a Judaism based on exclusion and inreach is successful only at maintaining a minority of the most religiously devout -- and often the most virulently xenophobic -- members of the community. One reason there are so many unaffiliated Jews is that in every generation, large numbers of formerly Orthodox and Conservative Jews join their ranks. There's a reason they leave the fold.

There is a certain impossibility in the suggestion that the modern young Jew could choose a single identity, could care for a single people, even if we so desired.  No identity is either broad enough to fully encompass us, and no identity is narrow enough to fully define us.  Am I simply a Jew?  Am I an American Jew, raised in a community between coasts, unrepentantly liberal yet fond of the anachronistic trappings of conservative Judaism?  I am not the child of intermarraige, but I still feel the pangs of sycretism, as the two halves of my family brought entirely distinct visions of Judaism to the table.  Perhaps the Jewishness of the past, or one single vision of Judaism, has a vote not a veto.  This is a process that always has occurred, as our people have evolved, and while the intruding influences may have grown broader, it is difficult to tell a single generation "No.  Stop.  This is no longer Judaism."  

The editors of this website, mongrels as they may be, have likely done more thinking about the substance of Judaism - as a religion and as the identity of a people - than 99% of all young Jews.  Their work should be applauded, not seen as the tocsin of our people's demise. 

 I wish my natural parents had been married. My father was a Jewish CEO from  New York and my mother a lady in business in the Bay Area. I was adopted at three months and raised as a Gentile. I have always felt a loss, but you  know that all things work out, and I  have a perspective that others hopefully can gain from  my journey. 

Gary D Anderson

http://bgamall.stumbleupon.com

The good doctor is concerned that American Jews are fleeing institutionally-defined Judaism because he himself has a considerable personal stake in the institution. If my kids (and all their peers) abandon Conservative Judaism, then Dr. Jack and his JTS colleagues are going to have a hell of a time figuring out who's going to pay their pensions. No wonder so many good Jewish scholars are opting for careers in secular universities!

The whole assumption that one needs to have only one identity, and that identity has to be "Jewish" in the way that our self-selected Jewish "leaders" proscribe is ludicrous. Judaism is whatever the Jews do. If God doesn't like it, He'll let us know, but Dr. Jack isn't the voice of God.

The whole business of pick one "identity" and one religion is nonsense. All of us Jews have two identities, one involved with our political loyalty, another involved with our religion, plus lots of sub-identities related to our family, profession, interests, etc. So I'm first of all and American, owing political allegiance to the USA (which I interpret as allowing me to be simultaneously disgusted at the political leaders to whom I owe allegiance), I'm a Jew, but I'm also a member of two families (the one that gave me birth, as well as the one that I have established), but I also identify with my profession, and with the activities that really make my life worth living, among which is the simple act of sitting on my porch on a warm summer's evening and appreciating God's creation without any bullshit intellectualizing. So there you go. Even a good ethnic Conservative Jew (I even keep kosher and Shabbos and I went out of my way to marry a Jewish woman) like me has multiple identities, and if you really got inside my head, my religion would be different from Dr. Jack's.

Dr. Jack has been harping on this sort of stuff for a while, and I've been blogging on it:

http://cj-heretic.blogspot.com/2007/01/clueless-jack-wertheimer-on-jewish.html
http://cj-heretic.blogspot.com/2005/10/rabbi-jack-takes-on-feminazis-and.html

"The problem is that a Judaism based on exclusion and inreach is successful only at maintaining a minority of the most religiously devout -- and often the most virulently xenophobic -- members of the community."

God point Eli. Jews can return to the fanatically ethnocentric, xenophobic, and huddled-in-Jewish-ghettos pre-Haskalah existence of shunning any and all contact with Gentiles and Gentile culture, or they can embrace the universalistic and cosmopolitan culture of the Western world that they have helped to build to a large extent.

I personally feel that the fantastic accomplishments of enlightened secular Jews (in medicine, science, the arts, etc.) FAR outweigh the feats of very religious ones (endless pedantry, very limited roles for women, invoking the hatred of the surrounding Gentile population through extreme ethnocentrism and high ghetto walls, community kept in check through fear of the outside world).

If Jews REALLY want to live a true Jewish life, I suggest that they move to Israel where that way of life is fully possible, where they can be fully immersed in Jewish peoplehood and the Jewish collective. But for Jews to segregate themselves from Gentiles in Gentile-owned and Gentile-built societies is nothing short of anti-Gentilism.

I think you're right and this is something I've struggled with. I have a Jewish mother and had a bar mitzvah but I don't believe in God and think all religion is pretty stupid. Nevertheless, I have decided to officially convert (be baptised) even though I don't believe in that religion any more than I do in Judaism. I just don't want to have to deal with this debate. I don't want to be "Jewish" anymore. Some of you will say I never was. I have no interest in Israel; I am an American. I am not a Zionist; even my mother's grandfather and great-grandfather were anti-Zionist atheist socialists. So what's left? Liking some food or my knowledge of Yiddish? In New York, my African-American Christian friends do that, too. So I resign. It's unfortunate that just saying I'm not Jewish anymore didn't work; I had to accept allegiance to a religion I don't believe in just to stop being a Jew. (And of course, in the Nazi sense, I am still a Jew.) But now I feel a lot freer. So in a way I agree you have to pick one religion. Unfortunately, there's no way of stopping being Jewish unless you proactively become a Christian, Muslim, Hindu or whatever.

even according to the inreaching, 'exclusive' orthodox Jews, Judaism is primarily an identity, not a religion.  The most non-religious or even Buddhist or Wiccan American Jew, if their mother was Jewish or they did a real conversion at some point, is and remains a Jew, regardless of actions or practice.  You're stuck with it.

And more, even by Nuremberg one-grandparent definition, you are welcome at any time to prioritize your Jewish identity and move to Israel and be welcomed, even if you don't become one whit more religious.

IMNSHO, [orthodox] Judaism should go BACK to accepting patrilineality (it did before late second temple times) and should also accept a much less stringent conversion policy.  I say that from within an Orthodox perspective-- I think we need (and should re-establish) a Sanhedrin to make such changes, and I don't think that Conservative or Reform decisions to get lenient and abandon the halachic process are legitimate.  But I do think it should be a process.

I like Mausner's last comment here. So why does he have problems with Josh Strawn blogging for Jewcy elsewhere?

Francois, in that other topic, you totally missed the point.  i just needed clarification.  full disclosure.

  One's identity DOES make a difference to one's perspective, both from within and from without.  Josh not being Jewish puts his comments in a different light.  There are certain things he CAN say as an outsider that jews can neither see nor say; there are things he cannot say or experience because he's not jewish. For example he hasn't and can't experience that moment of deep fear that the whole world can and has turned against you and is coming to kill you, just because you're allegedly jewish, as many jews who study the holocaust or encounter modern anti-semitism experience.  Either way i welcome him to any discussion about judaism (and i hope he welcomes me)

even according to my [orthodox] rabbi, there IS a range of Jewish identity that is NOT covered by halacha.  For one thing, halacha only became as solidified (ossified?) as it has in the wake of the Roman destruction, and even more so in the middle ages, and even more so after the haskala.  Before, it (and jewish/hebrew identity) were far more fluid... the bible speaks of much intermarriage (and far worse) without any real mention of conversion.  There is even specific mention of many people 'judaizing', implying joining the clal without fully converting... kind of like 'americanizing!'

I am tired of being a jewish female after 51 years, would like to cast off my religion and move on to something else. what, that someting else is, i am not sure of. I was raised reform, returned for several years to conservative practice, got fed up with in-laws who saw me as a 'gentile' (although not) and not good enough for their son, left the marriage with much anatagonism from them who were more religious then I was, had a man who refused to give me my GET after 15 years. Frankly, I am done with the constraints of it all. The women are second class citizens I feel in anything more than conservative/reform. I seek a religion which at least equalizes both sexes for starters. Perhaps what I am is a spiritualist after all. while I respect Israel's right to exisit and thrive, I am tired of being persecuted for my religion for one, and then to be subjected to all the infighting that goes along with everything associated with this religion. Since I feel atypical i seek something different that truly has some defination of a peaceful stream to it. Perhaps what i seek isnt around anymore at all. who knows? All i know is that i am not self-lothing, just grown weary of all the fighting and negativeity of many religions....

"Judaism is primarily an identity, not a religion."

Uh, no.

Jewishness, being a Jew, is an identity or (in the context of this discussion)peoplehood. Judaism is and always has been a religion.

One can be a Jew without embracing or even knowing the first thing about Judaism. One can know a lot about Judaism without having any Jewish blood and without having converted. Go into most Reform congregations and I guarantee you many of the most knowledgable people there would be the non-Jewish spouses.

Which is a potent counter to the idea that intermarriage destroys Judaism: in fact, in many cases, it is the opposite. The non-Jewish spouse is the motivating force behind going to synagogue and having a Jewish home, whereas the "fully" Jewish adult often wants to escape his (usually not 'her') unpleasant memories of Jewish childhood.

Should all the Jewish "people" disappear tomorrow, or more to the point perhaps, had the Nazis been completely successful in their desire to rid the entire planet of Jews, Judaism the religion would still exist. Its texts and tenets would still be available to whoever wants to embrace them -- or embrace part of them.

And that very Judaism has always taken, borrowed, appropriated practices and values from the Gentile world surrounding it. The Passover seder was born out of the Roman symposium, for example.

In that sense, there is a connection between religion and peoplehood: if it's good enough for Judaism, it's good enough for the Jews.

Open doors and outreach -- especially the embracing of the intermarried and non-Halakhic -- are the keys to the survival of both the religion and whomever chooses to embrace it.