Intermarriage 'threatens UK Jewry'

Jewish leaders in the UK are warning that British Jewry may die out if more is not done to try to combat intermarriage.

Studies show between 30% and 50% of young British Jews now marry outside the religion.

Britain's Jewish population is in serious decline. The last census for Britain showed that 266,000 people said they were Jewish - 0.5% of the population.

But 50 years ago figures show there were at least double that number, with about 500,000 British Jews.

"Intermarriage and assimilation are the biggest threat to British Jewry right now," says Rabbi Yitchak Schochet, adviser on family issues to the Chief Rabbi.

"In North America there is a great opportunity for social interaction which can put an end to intermarriage because of the millions of Jews who live there.

"In Britain we are considerably smaller, which presents a big problem. Intermarriage rates will continue to escalate and that could put an end to British Jewry full stop."

At an evening get together at the Jewish Learning Exchange in Golders Green in North London, young Jews mingle over coffee and cakes.

Organisers say they hope this evening may produce more than just heightened knowledge about their faith.

This is also about giving young single Jews the opportunity to meet possible future partners.

For some marrying within the religion is a cultural choice - but many also believe that Judaism can only be passed on from mother to child and "marrying in" is therefore vital for the continuation of the faith.

"Matchmaking is in the back of our minds all the time because we know it's so important," says Danya Ross who is sitting in the dining room of a big Jewish family house not far from the Jewish Learning exchange in Golders Green.

Danya is part of an army of modern matchmakers who give hundreds of hours every month to organise dates for young single Jews.

"The good thing about matchmaking is to carry on the Jewish generation - to be able to marry Jewish men with Jewish women.

"Second of all, when you date in a matchmaking style you're very focussed on marriage and you're not focussed on how long you are going to date for, or flirting, or faffing, or anything like that."

Danya and her friend Joanne Dove use modern methods to get people together like texting and mobile phone calls.

They say they are thinking about getting a larger network together of single contacts - perhaps to go overseas.

While we chat a young 21-year-old girl from the neighbourhood comes breezing into the house, very excited about her new boyfriend. The two were introduced to each other through Danya and Joanne.

"Britain is a very tolerant and multicultural society- and that means people from different faiths will work together, live together and fall in love together," says Rabbi Jonathan Romain, a rabbi from the British reform movement.

Britain is a very tolerant and multicultural society- and that means people from different faiths will work together, live together and fall in love together Rabbi Jonathan Romain

Teaching Hebrew to converts at the Maidenhead synagogue, Rabbi Romain explained that he thought Jews needed to accept and embrace Britain's multicultural make-up.

"If we cry foul and say they are betraying their faith then we will make sure they opt out of the community but if we recognise that they still often feel Jewish and want to retain their place in the community then they will stay and we will gain not only them but their non Jewish partners as well. It's all a matter of recognising the new social reality."

The more orthodox mainstream in Britain currently finds these sorts of views extremely controversial. Both groups though are aware that the future of their faith is at stake.

I have a similar background in that there were very few Jews in the town I grew up in. I picked up some slack for it. But there was also some curiosity.

I had two choices. Abandon Judaism or embrace my identity as "The Jew," even if there was no opportunity to be part of a Jewish community, Orthodox or otherwise. I believe God exists. I believe the Torah is, for the most part, accurate. I don't believe in Jesus.

Once I moved to cities where there were more extensive Jewish communities, I admit that I found it hard to fit in. Small town boy in a group of big city/suburban people. Well, it's not like I've ever been that socially ept,anyway. Interestingly enough, it seemed to be Hasidim -- specifically the Lubavitch (Chabad) who most easily accepted me as Jewish. But, I think you have to be either born to that or spiritually driven to be Hasidic. And I've never been terribly uncomfortable with the consertative-to-reform believes I've had.

I had decided that I would marry whoever I fell in love with and was willing to marry me, Jewish, Christian, or other -- and considering the crowd I hung out in, New-Age Pagan was a possibility. I wasn't going to change my religion, though what my children would turn out to be would be anyone's guess. As it turned out I fell in love with a Christian woman who had already considering converting to Judaism.

To get back to the original point, I sympathize with you -- it is not easy for a Jew raised outside the Jewish community to fit in to the Jewish community. So, short of complete, Orthodox immersion, one has to decide what is or isn't going to be part of your identity and beliefs, independent of what does or does not go on in the Jewish community.

Largely Ashkenazi. The oldest communities were Sephardic but they made up very small numbers. Moses Montefiore was elected Sheriff of London in the 1830s and of course Disraeli, a baptized Jew, was Queen Victoria's favorite Prime Minister.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_England

There were large waves of working-class Jewish immigration from Russia and, unlike the U.S., the Netherlands into London's East End in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The wave of refugees from Germany and Austria in the 1930s was proportionally much greater in Britain than in the U.K., as well.

The Jewish communities in Britain are even more highly centralized than they are in the U.S., with most Jews living in London and a smaller community in Manchester, and insignificant communities elsewhere. Provincial Jewry in Britain has declined significantly in the past 100 years as people left the north for the southeast.

Given that British Christians have largely drifted away from churches and have smaller families than Americans, it should come as no surprise that British Jews have experienced the same trends at even higher rates.

Quite common among American Jews. I've had to wrestle with my own feelings of exclusion from the temple I grew up in, because my parents feuded with the power structure and knew quite a lot of the corruption that afflicted one rabbi's administration... but that is not an excuse to not take personal control of and responsibility for my own faith.

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