Luke Ford

Since antiquity, people have been predicting the demise of the Jews, some with dread, others with glee. But despite all the travails and tests faced by Jews over the centuries, it is only of late that such predictions have seemed plausible, at least in the U.S., where Jewry is on its way to becoming half its present number. As Elliott Abrams points out in his important new book, "Faith or Fear" (Free Press, 237 pages, $25), a majority of U.S. Jews now marry non-Jews, and only one in four of those homes raises its children with a primary Jewish identity.

This is not altogether a cause for lament. Mr. Abrams notes that the freedom of American Jews to assimilate is also a blessing -- it means acceptance instead of hostility or bigotry. He cites Irving Kristol, who writes that "the danger facing American Jews today is not that Christians want to persecute them, but that Christians want to marry them."

Intermarriage is indeed a mixed curse. As a religious Jew myself, I want Jews to marry Jews for religious, not ethnic, reasons. But intermarriage also represents great advantages -- personal freedom and physical security. As Rabbi Leo Baeck, the German Jewish leader, said after World War II: "If every German family had a Jewish relative, there would not have been a Holocaust."

The cost is a loss of Jewish identity -- and, more important, of Judaism itself. Mr. Abrams argues -- persuasively, I believe -- that American Jews will either become religious or largely disappear. Despite the hopes of various Jewish commentators (Alan Dershowitz comes to mind), there is no secular "Jewish culture" that can sustain Jews today. Even during the brief time that there was such a culture -- for example, during the glory days of Yiddish literature and theater -- no one stayed Jewish because of it. The only compelling reason to stay Jewish, Mr. Abrams argues, is religious.

Unfortunately, many American Jews feel antipathy toward religion: The people who brought God into the world are disproportionately active in removing Him from it. Mr. Abrams marshals depressing data showing that Jews are the least religious group in America. He also shows how most American Jews, and their non-Orthodox institutions, have equated Jewish security with removing religion from American public life. The American ship of state may be foundering, morally speaking, but most Jews want to make sure that, as it sinks, no passenger prays publicly.

Why are so many Jews so aggressively secular? Mr. Abrams cites one major reason -- they fear Christianity. This fear emanates from nearly 2,000 years of Christian-inspired anti-Semitism. Of course, that was Europe, not America; but most American Jews remain paralyzed by their memories. Most seem unwilling to acknowledge that, by and large, Christians today are no longer anti-Semitic. Preoccupation with Christian anti-Semitism has led Jews to a radical secularism that helps create an amoral America and a de-Judaized Jewry.

Mr. Prager, who has a daily talk show on KABC Radio in Los Angeles, is the author of "Think a Second Time" (HarperCollins, 1995).

Letters to the Editor:

A Paradox for American Jews

06/20/97

The Wall Street Journal

In his review of Elliott Abrams's book "Faith or Fear: How Jews Can Survive in a Christian America" (Leisure & Arts, May 27), Dennis Prager, apparently paraphrasing Mr. Abrams, writes that "Christian anti-Semitism has led Jews to a radical secularism that helps create an amoral America." This statement is silly on several levels. First, a shift to secularism does not, ipso facto, result in moral decline among the citizenry. There is as much evidence for this facile assumption as there is for the notion, also depressingly prevalent, that a general shift to religion is always and everywhere morally uplifting. I am struck by how, in discussions of this sort, no one seems to distinguish between religion (outward prescribed forms of devotion and conduct) and religiosity (the earnest inward engagement with concepts such as divinity, fate, death, etc.).

The move toward secularism among American Jews in this century, far from being a tactic to defuse Christian anti-Semitism, was a sloughing off of centuries-old institutions and habits of mind that they no longer felt relevant to their needs. The mediaevalist Norman Cantor, in a recent and controversial history of Judaism, observes that the traditional halakic religion was of little service to the newly arrived Jewish immigrants from Europe at the turn of the century. In fact, he shows how it impeded their heroic efforts to adapt to the exigencies of modernism, and to prosper in their dynamic new home. The rabbinate, guardians and communicators of the religion, failed their flock.

Paradoxically, it was the secular Jews in this century -- Trilling, Hook, Howe, Bellow, Bloom and scores of others -- who grappled in a more meaningful and provocative way with religious problems such as social responsibility, human sexuality, temptation, evil (state-sponsored and metaphysical), love, etc. than did institutional Judaism through its pulpits and liturgy. Which leads me to think that a secular education, particularly in the humanities (literature, philosophy, history, social sciences), is very likely a surer antidote to religious intolerance in America, or anywhere for that matter, than is religion. By the way, I'd put Irving Kristol in the line of secular Jewish-American preceptors who picked up where the rabbinate left off.

Michael Goodman

Lexington, Mass.

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Mr. Prager presents a paradox. On one hand, the only group preserving Judaism en masse are the Orthodox Jews; on the other hand, the Orthodox are too right wing and too religious for the great bulk of American Jewry -- even ensuring that laundry products are kosher and forbidding women to sing in front of unrelated men. Thus Mr. Abrams and the reviewer argue that a new sort of religious non-Orthodox Judaism is needed to save American Jewry. However, it must be pointed out that this has been tried -- it is called Conservative Judaism. Yet experience shows that when one believes the laws in the Torah and Talmud can be tampered with, before you know it, little is left. The basic concept of Orthodoxy is the attitude that the laws are God-given and thus beyond our ability to fundamentally change. They are good for our spiritual and physical well-being even if not fully comprehended. If, however, man is in charge, Judaism becomes not a religion but an experience.

One can argue that although Jews in liberal societies in the past have chosen not to be Orthodox, the future can be different. Religion since the 18th century has been on the run from the development of rationalism and the pursuit of political and social freedom that began to take hold in those days. Religious leaders at the time had difficulty countering the lures of equality, socialism, communism and the rule of science.

On top of these issues, Jewish religious leaders had to contend with the pressure of anti-Semitism as well as the lure of Zionism, which initially began as a religious movement but became primarily a nationalistic/socialistic movement with strong antireligious bias. Today, religion is not on the run anymore. All of these "isms" have failed as a life motif. The emptiness of consumerism has remained, leaving people with a strong need to fulfill their spiritual side. Orthodox Judaism can do this for the bulk of Jews in America. What is needed is a vigorous re-education of the Jewish population, reacquainting them with the ancient Jewish texts, the Torah and the Talmud. There is a strong Bal Tshuva, or repentance, movement already in existence in the U.S. and Israel whereby irreligious people are becoming religious. This can grow much larger and, hopefully, will.

Harry Fried

Brooklyn, N.Y.

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One major reason for the high rate of Jewish assimilation that Mr. Prager doesn't cite in his review is the effect of the Holocaust on thinking about God. Mr. Prager doesn't even discuss man's relation to God; he points only to practices. Many Jews, as do non-Jews, search for answers, finding God's absence in the face of such evil theologically confusing. Jewish prayers thanking God for earlier interventions, such as in Egypt, raise unanswered questions for many of us about God's refusing to intervene in other situations or about God determining each person's fate. Many prayers therefore ring hollow to less-observant Jews.

There are numerous other reasons for the lack of observance that Mr. Prager and Mr. Abrams don't cite. Here are a few: Religious services, except in the Reform movement, are far too long and boring; Jewish education for youth and adults teaches tradition and learning how to pray, as it should, but fails to devote efforts to thinking about man's relation to God, the reasons to pray. Another reason for lack of observance is that Jewish religious and education leaders, who are part of the system, understandably do not try to change the system. Yet in any other endeavor that has such a high failure rate, leaders would seek changes. In that respect, Elliott Abrams may be partially right. The effort must center on religion. But religion involves man's relation to God, not just practices and peoplehood. Rabbis must devote more effort to showing secular and less-observant Jews why man's relationship to God makes these very intelligent people more observant. Or must one just believe and not ask questions?

Jerry Steinman

West Nyack, N.Y.