Tag: assimilation

If we are going to survive as a Jewish people, we must revise the system.

My own view of things is that there is a tremendous amount of disillusionment in the Orthodox world.

Some 30 years ago a certain well-known rabbi in Manhattan came to Israel and brought much of his congregation with him, to a barren ridge where our forefathers and foremothers traveled to and from Jerusalem and Hebron. The rabbi and his followers left the ravages of assimilation and headed to the unknown. The rabbi swiftly gathered in Jews from all over the world and all over Israel to the cozy town of Efrat.

In my family alone, except for my brother, all of my cousins and second cousins married out of the faith – all of them. Finished. Kaput. The end of the line. After 5000 years of clinging to being Jewish, generation after generation, through times of harsh and often murderous oppression, the candle was snuffed out in the love boat of America.

The Jewish Federations of North America slammed Israeli Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar's criticism of the Israeli government's decision to pay the salaries of some...

Why be a Jew!!! It is an agonizing cry from the souls of tens of thousands of young Jews who assimilate, integrate and disappear into the outer space beyond Judaism. It is THE cry, THE question. It is asked by young men and women who have seen the emptiness and the vapidness of the Judaism they grew up with.

The arrogant peace mongers, the ignorant purveyors of perversity, those that refused to acknowledge they were wrong refused to see that this was a war not peace – they, the disgusting peace pimps – shrouded in shame refused to admit they were wrong.

It is no secret that American Jewry is being decimated by assimilation. The longer the Jewish community remains in America the more the assimilation will grow. So I ask – what’s the point in working to strengthen something that is destined to dwindle out and end? The exile is a curse which is not supposed to continue forever.

Breathe deeply. You’ll need maximum physical and spiritual power to absorb the uplifting lessons in this book. Page 249 explains why some Jews are praised as “fish on dry land,” a phrase that describes Moshe Rabeinu. Am Yisrael began to appreciate his depth of character at kriat Yam Suf, realizing that “he lived in the revealed world as though he were in the concealed world.”

For Jews, assimilating out is easy – but the real challenge is to assimilate in, to process 3,500 years of Jewish history, knowledge, and texts, and to somehow find a way to be modern, creative, and free yet still in line with Jewish tradition.

I wish to apologize in the name of the State of Israel. We have heard that our ad campaign encouraging ex-pat Israelis to come home has offended many of you. That was certainly not the intent, and if it did offend, we are sorry.

JERUSALEM - Israel's Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar took the time last week to speak with The Jewish Press at his home in Jerusalem.