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Raising Your Children Jewish

Raising a child Jewish is not a problem for Orthodox parents because everything they do and model has Jewish content to it.

But what if you are a secular Jew, and more especially, what if you are a secular Jew married to a non-Jew? How do you establish a feeling of Jewishness in your children?

I. Start with God

What distinguished Judaism in the beginning, what has always distinguished Judaism from other religions, is a belief in a one God, a moral God, Who has made man in His own image, and wants a world full of righteousness and kindness and compassion.

We teach that God is invisible, that He is everywhere, and that He sees all and knows all and is available to us through prayer and conversation. We can talk to God, and sometimes He talks to us. How He talks to us varies from person to person. If you look for Him and listen for Him, you will discover how He talks to you. Read more »

American Muslims Will Outnumber Jews in 20 Years

More Jews Leaving Faith Than Joining Tribe

In 20 years, there will be more Muslims in North America than Jews, according to a new Pew Research Center report. The report, which was released April 2, 2015, also found that more American Jews are leaving Judaism than non-Jews are joining the Jewish people.

According to “The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050,” Muslims will overtake Christians in the last quarter of the 21st century as the globe’s largest religious group. In the United States, Muslims will comprise 2.1 percent of the population in 2050, up from 0.9 percent in 2010. Jews, meanwhile, will fall to 1.4 percent of the U.S. population from 1.8 percent in 2010.

The Pew study also offered a detailed look at the sizes of national Jewish communities around the world, how fast the communities are expected to shrink or grow, and Jewish fertility rates. Read more »

Replacing the Six Million

One of the greatest, if not the greatest, tragedy to befall the Jewish people in a long history of terrible tragedies, was the holocaust during World War II. According to historians, we lost six million of our number, somewhere near half of the entire Jewish population.

This loss has not been replaced, not that you could ever replace the flower of European Jewry who were lost to us, along with their culture, learning, and spirituality. Instead, the number of Jews worldwide has continued to decline. It’s true the number of Orthodox, who comprise maybe 10 to 15% of worldwide Jewry has increased, but only because of their high birth rate. Surveys tell us that there are more people exiting the Orthodox life than entering into it. For the rest of us, between the high rate of intermarriage – almost 80% in the U.S. according to the recent Pew survey – and the low birthrate – about 1.7% worldwide – we are rapidly shrinking in size. Read more »

“Non-Jew” Michael Douglas Gets Israeli Award

Michael Douglas will receive the 2015 Genesis Prize, which carries a $1 million honorarium, in June in Israel. The award recognizes an internationally renowned individual who is a role model in his or her community and whose actions and achievements express a commitment to Jewish values, the Jewish community and Israel, and who can inspire the younger generation of Jews worldwide.

Michael Douglas has a Jewish father, the famous actor Kirk Douglas, but a non-Jewish mother. So he is not considered Jewish in the eyes of Jewish law. Read more »

The Israeli Election

For this Israeli election, indeed for any Israeli election till its accomplished, the most important thing is to take away the power of the Orthodox to determine personal status issues. To determine who is a Jew, how to become a convert, how to get married, and how to get divorced should be a state issue not a Jewish law issue (except for themselves). They have no right to determine these things for those who are not Orthodox, who only comprise a bare 15% of the population. Though they say differently, their interpretation of Jewish law is valid only for themselves. It has no claim on the rest of us, except to the extent we choose it for ourselves. Other issues will take care of themselves no matter who is elected.

Conservative Rabbi Backs Off on Intermarriages

Rabbi Wesley Gardenswartz Backs Off Controversial Plan for Intermarriages

Prominent Cleric Would’ve Been Conservative Trailblazer

(JTA) — Within days of floating a proposal that woud have allowed Conservative rabbis to perform interfaith marriages, Rabbi Wesley Gardenswartz of Temple Emanuel in Newton, Mass., backed away from the controversial plan.

In a recent email, Gardenswartz asked congregants to consider a proposal for a new shul policy that would enable him to officiate at interfaith weddings in cases where the couple commits to a “Covenant to Raise Jewish Children.”

The shift would have made him the first prominent Conservative clergyman to break with the movement’s ironclad rule against rabbis performing intermarriages.

“Conservative clergy cannot officiate at or attend an interfaith wedding,” Gardenswartz wrote. “But I am worrying whether that response has grown stale, and whether a new response would better serve the needs of our families and of our congregation.” Read more »

All Are Welcome to This Synagogue

I spoke earlier today with Rabbi Joshua Davidson of Congregation Emanu-El on the Upper East Side in Manhattan, which is also Manhattan’s largest Reform synagogue, about the relationship of dues and synagogue membership.

Rabbi Davidson wanted to emphasize that no synagogue he knows of turns people away due to inability to pay, and that furthermore, most synagogues take people at their word and do not require any showing of proof. Read more »