Intermarriage 'threatens UK Jewry'

BBC News ^ | 20 March, 2005 | Martha Dixon

[dr_who_2]

Be yourself.

[twippo]

'Cause nobody else can do it for you. :)

[hlmencken3]

It has been said that the whole history of religion and philosophy in Western Civilization is an attempt to explain why it's OK for Jews to stop being Jewish.

The demand that non-Jews be considered as Jews is just a variation on the theme.

[The Worthless Miracle]

Isn't "interbreeding" what the Jews try to do?

[twippo]

I think the "inter" prefix means from outside the group, "intra" means within the group.

[Coyoteman]

Success can test one's mettle as surely as the strongest adversary.

Conan the Barbarian, 1982

[twippo]

You have to admit, Jewish guys are attractive to shiksas.

[SauronOfMordor]

To non-practicing Jews, their Jewishness is only an ethnicity. As such, marrying someone of a different ethnicity is like an Italian marrying a Swede -- no big deal

[ikka]

What I don't quite understand is, if your religion is so important to you, how could you come to marry someone who was not a believer?

Isn't the real issue that the sons and daughters of the current generation of Jews, are not being raised as believing Jews?

[twippo]

That's why the reform movement is currently in the minority in Britain. The secular Jews will marry out and only the religious generation will pass on Jewishness.

[dr_who_2]

...at least not as well as you can.

[twippo]

"Love quickens all senses except the common." - Unknown

[Alouette]

Same stats as U.S. Jews.

However, all is not doom, disaster and extinction. The Orthodox and particularly the Hasidim, have very low intermarriage rate, and a high birth rate.

FRmail me to be added or removed from this Judaic/pro-Israel/Russian Jewry ping list.

Warning! This is a high-volume ping list.

[twippo]

Does anyone know the origins of British Jews? Are they Ashkenazic, Sefardic, children of recent immigrants?

[SauronOfMordor]

The secular Jews will marry out and only the religious generation will pass on Jewishness

My point being that secular Jews are Jews in name only. Intermarriage is not causing the disappearance of the Jewish community -- it's only making the prior essential disappearance noticed

[dalight]

Some Jews need to have a bit more faith in God. As long as the doors of the house are truely open for them, the children will come home. Perhaps alot more children than one expects, if the doors are open.

[Alouette]

Does anyone know the origins of British Jews?

Inquiry into the First Settlement of Jews in England

Menassah ben Israel's Plea to Oliver Cromwell to re-admit the Jews to England

[twippo]

Interesting. I've only known a handful of interfaith couples, and none of the children identify with being Jewish. This, despite all the attempts of Liberal/Reform temples to embrace such families.

[RKV]

And they are already getting genetic problems as a result of it.