The Silent Holocaust

Coservative rabbis are drafting a resolution to condemn the revived Latin prayer backed by the Pope which asks for G-d to "lift the veril of blindness" from the eyes of the "perfidous Jews", that they should accept Christianity. The draft could go to a vote as early as Monday, when 400 members of the Rabbinical Assembly, representing Judaism's conservative movement, will be in Washington for their annual meeting.

Rabbis, get real. This new prayer will do nothing. Unlike other Christians, the Catholics are takers and not doers. They are not going to dress up like yeshiva students to go missionize to Jews, as other sects do. The Latin text will convert no Jews and the only result will be Catholics screaming to nothingness in a language that they can't understand. If the Conservative rabbis are really concerned, they could start with condemning the alarming +50% assimilation and intermarriage rate in the United States.

During the Holocaust, 6 million of the world's 18 million Jews were murdered by the wicked Nazi regime and their collaborators. 60 years later, there are barely 13 millions Jews worlwide. With the exception of Israel, there is practically no Jewish population growth. In fact, in the past 10-20 years, the Jewish population of the United States has declined by almost a million Jews! In a certain sense, this is more tragic than the European Holocaust since the Jews had their Judaism (and lives) forcibly taken away and yet today, whereas Jews have given everything never to give up their faith in the past, many Jews are simply opting out of their destiny. An ancient and royal line, starting all the way at Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov Avinu, is being abruptly cut voluntarily, and too many Jews will have no Jewish children or grandchildren to say kaddish over them. What we have on our hand is at Silent Holocaust.

Consider the following statistics*:

Jewish identity is declining sharply.

Of 5.6 million Jews, 2 million American Jews live in households identified as non-Jewish

60% of Jews below 40 years of age live in households identified as non-Jewish

20% of Jews over 60 years of age live in households identified as non-Jewish

Intermarriage rates are increasing dramatically.

Before 1965, 10% of Jews who married, did so outside the faith.

Since 1985, 52% of Jews who married have done so outside the faith.

Children are being raised as non-Jews.

1 million, or 54% of all American Jewish children under the age of 18 are being raised as non-Jews or with no religion.

Fertility Rates are not high enough to replenish the religion.

The average fertility rate of American Jewish women is 1.4 children per household. The replacement level is 2.1 children.

Less emphasis is being placed on a Jewish education.

In 1962, 540,000 Jewish children were attending afternoon weekend schools, and 60,000 were enrolled in day schools. By 1990, fewer than 240,000 Jewish children attended afternoon /weekend schools and 140,000 attended day schools.

NET LOSS -- 220,000 Jewish children.

Traditional Shabbat observance is extremely low.

Only 36% of Jewish households light the Shabbat Candles.

Of the population that consists of people who were born Jewish and are Jewish by choice, only 11% attend synagogue weekly.

* All Statistics taken from Council of Jewish Federations' 1990 National Jewish Population Survey. This is the most comprehensive source of American Jewish data available

Where are the Conservative rabbis on this? Why are they so worried about a Latin prayer that calls for Jews to become Christians, which will affect or convince no one, while they are silent about the greatest danger facing world Jewry: assimilation? Did the Conservative rabbis ever ask themselves why Jews have no desire to be Jewish? Could it be that today's Reformed, Reconstructed and horrible Conserved "Judaism" bears little resemblance to the faith of our grandparents, the faith for which they sacrificed everything, but is simply a pick-and-choose free-for-all held together by High Holiday visits to the "temple", by bubbie and chulent, by afternoon Jewish education which ends at Bar Mitzvah and interfaith talks? This is not Judaism!

Judaism was only able to survive a hostile world simply because it was mandated by G-d Himself from Sinai. A young Jew cannot be expected, after a lifetime of eating like a goy, dressing like a goy and living like a goy, to not marry a goy! This is beyond hypocritical. The poor Jew living in the Pale of Settlement, cramped in the ghettos of Europe or the melachs of Morocco, was happy and complete because he lived according to the ways of the Almighty. This is what today's Jewry is lacking. Judaism is not about ethics, not about Yiddish culture or eating bagles and lox. It comes from a real authentic connection to the Torah, to the Talmud, to the laws of Israel. And this is what the Conservative "rabbis" should be in an uproar about.

Cross-posted to Jewish Vengeance