tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7309929059139673041.post7799143028179740690..comments2024-03-29T12:21:24.976+03:00Comments on Daas Torah - Issues of Jewish Identity: Outreach (kiruv) programs & intermarried couples - the realityDaas Torahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07252904288544083215noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7309929059139673041.post-4271741634446197262008-07-18T16:56:00.000+03:002008-07-18T16:56:00.000+03:00Hi, I'm the editor at www.InterfaithFamily.com who...Hi, I'm the editor at www.InterfaithFamily.com who commissioned this article. This story came about because of a comment on our blog, which said in part:<BR/><BR/>"Today, there are literally tens of thousands of people who did not grow up Orthodox who have chosen to become traditional observant Jews as adults. And today, even many intermarried Jews have been swayed by these trends. Today, if you walk into virtually any Chabad house, Aish HaTorah, etc., you will find intermarried Jews or children of intermarried. Today, there are even people who are intermarried who have chosen to become Orthodox...."<BR/><BR/>I thought this was a great point. Since both Orthodox kiruv and interfaith marriage are having a big impact on the Jewish community now, what about the people who are affected by both? I asked this experienced and professional reporter to interview Orthodox kiruv rabbis in her area, and they responded honestly and with compassion. <BR/><BR/>I'm still interested in publishing more about the experiences of children of interfaith marriage who were raised Orthodox or who have become ba'alei tshuvah. <BR/><BR/>Our site is here to encourage people in interfaith families to make Jewish choices. We don't define what that is. A lot of the people on our site are Jewish by patrilineal descent (the Reform movement decision on this was 1983, by the way, and you can read it <A HREF="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/patrilineal1.html" REL="nofollow">here</A>--everything is on the web!) We are interested in all the approaches people take toward making sure that children of interfaith marriage can have access to their Jewish heritage.Ruthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02361235021409159667noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7309929059139673041.post-58210116762928228222008-07-18T12:36:00.000+03:002008-07-18T12:36:00.000+03:00THE END OF KIRUV AS WE KNOW IT!As someone with a l...THE END OF KIRUV AS WE KNOW IT!<BR/><BR/>As someone with a lifetime's devotion to both the art and study of Kiruv Rechokim (also known as Jewish Outreach) and the Baal Teshuva Movement (also known as the Baal Teshuva Revolution) it is very evident that the practice and institution of Kiruv/Outreach has now changed forever.<BR/><BR/>All the real-life drama and confrontation over conversions in the Orthodox world attest to this because until now the main struggle was between the Orthodox and the Reform & Conservative movements. <BR/><BR/>But once the Reform movement openly accepted patrilineal descent 30 years ago (around 1978) it created a de facto schism with Halacha because until then they had a nominal official acceptance of, and paid lip-service to, albeit hypocritical, a public posture that to be Jewish meant to be born of a Jewish mother and to require "some sort of" conversion. But THAT was no longer required once they ruled for themselves that having just a Jewish father was enough to qualify one to be "Jewish"! <BR/><BR/>While the Conservatives have not done this yet, they are headed in the smae direction, they have done all the same preliminary steps that Reform did before they got around to legitimating patrilineal descent, and the biggest signpost along the road to the meltdown is the Conservatives willingness to (a) accept female students into the previously all-male JTS (which a century earlier was actually a very modern Orthodox institition in many ways) and (b) to ordain the women students as rabbis. This radical cave in to feminism resulted in a schism within the Conservative movement and it led to the breakaway Union of Traditional Judaism (UTJ) led by former JTS professor Weiss-Halivni (now at Bar Ilan). <BR/><BR/>Therefore the Reform and Conservatives have self-destructed and done themselves in so that the Orthodox need not battle them, and thus the real wars are among the Orthodox themselves, manifested more than anywhere else in each faction's attititude to geirus/conversion and its sister-ship kiruv/outreach, because as we see in today's world of the 21st century, there is turmoil in both how to mekarev (to do outreach) and how to megayer (to do conversions) and they are inter-related in many ways and on may levels, most of all in the real world of real lives as we see from all the problems and issues facing Orthodox outreach rabbis and outreach workers.<BR/><BR/>When exactly to pinpoint the change of eras from a time when Kiruv meant reaching out to Jews ONLY is not an exact scince, <BR/><BR/>But it has been coming to a head recently because up until about twenty years ago it could be asumed that most Jews in America were the products of both a Halachically correct mother AND father. This formula changed forever once Reform in America snactioned, accpted and practices the validity of patrilineal descent as enough of a criterion for being "Halachically" Jewish.<BR/><BR/>There has also been a rise in the movement of "Jews by choice" of gentiles who decide to "be Jewish" without conversions, and the arrival of the mixed marriages of Jews from the former USSR, the Falashas in Israel and the controversy they have stirred in the Orthodox world as well as never ending claims by so-called Conversos, Anusim, (they are still "conversos" and "anusim" after 550 years?) and all sorts of "10 Lost Tribe/s" claimants to being "Jewish" not to mention Hollywood's fascination with pseudo-Kabbala-Judaism. Soon the whole world will qualify to be "Jewish" if all the arguments are accepted which will then lead to the dangerous logical fallacy that "if everyone is Jewish then noone is Jewish" -- not even truly Halachic Jews -- and that will be, and it is already, a huge challenge to the existence of Jews according to Halacha (and in this I understand and agree with Dr. Eidensohn's [the owner of this blog] deeply-held concerns.)<BR/><BR/>Outreach organizations that are connected to the Orthodox, Haredi and Hasidic world will not be able to dodge the bullets forever. But that they resist facing the music is not a surprise. <BR/><BR/>Kiruv people think that it's odd indeed that the "the kiruv/baal teshuva revolution" is being challenged, something like the French Revolutionaries who were challenged by those who sort to impose more order and stability and respect for the rule of law in Framce (just a rough example).<BR/><BR/>There is a lot at stake for them. Especially big money, jobs, livelihoods, and the very art itself because like all human-based professions there is great pleasure and, yes, undeniably, much power, that is often wielded by the Kiruv workers as they lure and recruit and welcome secular Jews and their less-than-Halachically Jewish-families and loved ones into their spheres of influence. <BR/><BR/>To be continued...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com