1. Increasing secularism among American Jews...
2. Intermariage..
I couldn't agree LESS and I'd really like to know your reasoning behind these statements. I would think that as the Jews become more and more secularized, that they would fear the Christians less and oppose the Islamists more.
OK..I'll try to explain/expand.....vast majority of American Jews are reformed..and increasingly secular..the ones who go to temple twice a year, if at all, on the high holy days, and park their car two blocks from the synagogue, then walk..to appear, "pious", I guess...they join the temple because that's the only way to get tickets on those two days...they enroll their kids in Hebrew school just enough to get them bar/bat mitzvahed...and throw parties that make "bling" among rappers look conservative..they have absolutelyt NO conceptio of what being a Jews means, in a historical and/or religious sense...they'e losing their identity, that spark, that fabric..whatever it is to be called....their Jewishness, if you will..
Interfaith marriages are approaching 50% in some cases..and there's probably some good reasons for this..Jewish guys are viewed as good catches, and shiksa women are forbidden fruit...it goes all the way back to Eve and the 'apple'..(LOL)...and who wants to marry a JAP.. ( been there, done that, ain't NO fun..)so, you have kids who celebrate both Hanukah and Christmas, and gradually, because one parent isn't especially religious..it's easier to raise the kid in some Christian denomination...let me tell you a personal anecdote...my wife and stepdaughters are Episcopalian, and when we were first married, I'd go with them to church for X-mas, Easter..the big family holidays.....there were ELEVEN Jewish guys married to women in that church..we had our own special club...