Messages From A
Lost Israeli #11

I would like to dedicate this week's d'var torah to Elie Schwartz, yehee zeechro baruch. He passed away this week, and while I never met him, I am a friend of his sister from USY. I heard that he delivered the most inspirational divray Torah - that no one his age, a man in his young 20's, wrote so well. May his memory be a blessing.

This week, Jerusalem seemed like a different city. Over 6,000 people attended the United Jewish Communities' (UJC) General Assembly (GA). For the past week or so, delegates from various missions representing all of North America filled streets, taxis, and the hearts of Israelis. Buses were seen everywhere, and it was clear that the tourists here, who care, and support Eretz Moladetaynu, our homeland, stood united, in solidarity on Ben Yehuda Street- not just in Washington, New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto. The slogan for this year's GA could not have been more accurate: "To be with Israel is to be in Israel". And believe me, they were in Israel, and they could not have felt more safe or secure.

One of the central topics during the sessions of the GA was Jewish Identity. We looked at statistics from the recently completed Jewish Population Survey. And while religious observance is, in general, on the rise in all of the movements, affiliation with the denominations and federations is on the decline. The main reason for the decrease in membership to our synagogues and JCC's is intermarriage.

In this week's parsha, Chayyei Sarah, we read one of the first sections of the Tanach discussing this issue. Avraham states to the senior servant of his household in chapter 24, verses 3 and 4, state:

"And I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I dwell, but will go to the land of my birth and get a wife for my son Isaac."

Avraham wishes that his son Isaac will find a wife from his land, and also one of his "kindred" (JPS Torah Commentary). He did not want his beloved son to marry into the immoral and lawless Canaanite society. However, Rabbi Plaut in his Torah commentary remarks: "What is at stake is religion and family tradition, not ethnic or racial 'purity'". Nehama Leibowitz also observes: "Let it not be imagined that Abraham's preference for his own kin sprang from concern for 'ethnic purity'. No idea is more foreign to our Torah and Judaism."

Judaism as a religion cannot be compared to an elite country club, which does not accept members due to their religious, ethnic, or social background. Rather, it is an accepting and welcoming community. The issue of intermarriage is not due to an elitist mentality, but rather lies wholly within the issue of Jewish continuity. It has been statistically proven that intermarried families are less active, and do not involve themselves within the Jewish community. Professor Leibowitz concludes: "...were Isaac to intermarry with the surrounding people, he was bound to assimilate". But, when he marries one of is kin, he is continuing the traditions of his father Abraham.

May this parsha serve as a reminder to us, that our ancestors have lived l'dor vador, from generation to generation, with the hope for the continuation of a people and the dream of the establishment of a state. Now we live in a time when we have a Jewish People, when we have a Jewish State. It is upon us to ensure this reality.