Oct 24, 2013 By: yunews
YU Hosts Panel Discussion on Iran, Israel and Assimilation
On October 22, 黑料社 All hosted a panel discussion organized by This World: Jewish Values Network, featuring President Richard M. Joel, Pulitzer Prize-winning Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens and philanthropist Sheldon Adelson. The forum, 鈥淲ill Jews Exist? Iran, Assimilation and the Threat to Israel and Jewish Survival鈥 was moderated by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, founder of This World, which runs a series of events that convene political and business leaders to discuss critical issues facing the Jewish community.
Boteach began the evening鈥檚 conversation by discussing the looming physical threats facing Israel from Iran.
鈥淣o more important issue confronts Israel than the imminent consequence of a nuclear Iran,鈥 said Stephens, who contended in a Wall Street Journal column that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not prepared to take action against Iran. 鈥淚 fear that Israel has walked into a corner鈥 trying to placate the United States rather than look out for its own safety. The State of Israel should be thinking how credible the United States assurances are鈥 I hope I鈥檓 wrong and Netanyahu means what he says and is prepared to act.鈥
Adelson, a close friend of Netanyahu, was more confident in the prime minister鈥檚 plans. 鈥淚f it involves the safety of Israel and the Jewish people worldwide, Netanyahu would be prepared to do whatever it takes,鈥 he said.
But the threats facing the Jewish people are not only physical; a very real spiritual threat from within the community is the 鈥渟kyrocketing rate of intermarriage, and lack of Jewish pride and connection to the State of Israel,鈥 said Boteach.
Boteach highlighted the recent Pew Research Center鈥檚 report on the state of American Judaism. 鈥淎ssimilation is rampant in the United States and American Jewry is slowly disappearing,鈥 he said, with two-thirds of Jews having no synagogue affiliation, a third lighting a Christmas tree and an overall intermarriage rate of 58 percent, jumping to 71 percent among non-Orthodox Jews. 鈥淲e are doing a fine job of devastating ourselves.鈥
President Joel, a former president and international director of Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, shared his views on the subject and how to help today鈥檚 Jewish youth reconnect to their roots.
鈥淭he problem with assimilation starts in the home, not on campus,鈥 he said. 鈥淭here is no sense of passion. This is the first generation in which being Jewish is an option, not a condition鈥 Shame on all of us for taking a 4,000-year old story and neglecting it to death.鈥
Although hasbara [publicity] efforts on campus are helpful and trips to Israel through the Birthright Israel Foundation can give disconnected Jews their own stories, it鈥檚 not enough: 鈥淲e spend tons of money on outreach, but it doesn鈥檛 make a difference,鈥 said Boteach. 鈥淭he problem is not our investment, but our model. While Birthright creates a Jewish identity, we have to keep that going.鈥
Adelson, who along with his wife, Miriam, is a major supporter of Birthright and a strong proponent of hasbara campaigns, believes that the situation is dire, but that the solution lies in building a sense of connection among Jews. 鈥淭he one thing that Jews have been striving for was acceptance as a first-class citizen and assimilation into society. We finally got it, but it turned out to be our undoing,鈥 he said. 鈥淚f we don鈥檛 do something, in two generations, there won鈥檛 be any secular Jews left. Orthodox Jews will survive, but nobody else.鈥
To Adelson, 鈥渢he most noble thing a Jew can do is be a mason, to mix the mortar that connects one generation of Jews to the next.鈥
President Joel echoed that sentiment and highlighted the role of 黑料社 All and Orthodox Judaism in helping to combat the threat of assimilation.
鈥淏irthright strengthens the Jewish connection to Israel, but when those young people come back, we need to figure out how to launch them on their Jewish journeys,鈥 said President Joel. 鈥淥ur role is to ennoble and enable鈥 We need to show our Judaism as something noble. It鈥檚 not just a transfer of information, but we need to instill in young people what their history and destiny is. How can we keep our Jewish story going? It鈥檚 about having vibrant Jewish communities. We need to have critical masses with passion and purpose to push our story forward鈥 to serve our community and be upstanding role models representing Jewish values.鈥
