Not all Jews appreciate Israel's new anti-assimilation campaign

Voices such as yours will be the saviour of Israel. I hope you have many children!

To the "Convert", did you have trouble being accepted with an Orthodox conversion?

My Wife is going to begin the conversion process soon. She was going to make a halachic conversion but we have discovered that if she does we cannot join a Conservative temple in Israel without having her conversion invalidated. We would be forced to live in an orthodox community and always pray at orthodox temples... and even then she may have her conversion invalidated. So even though we would study and pray as Jews, a person who was born to a Jewish mother that does not pray or follow halacha would be considered more Jewish than a halachic convert. This is racism and stupidity, and goes against the Torah. If she makes a halachic conversion here in the states then her conversion will not be questioned. What kind of message is being sent by the Rabbis in Israel?

Not with the strength of my arm, but with the strength of my words. Israel treats Palestinians as flies. Golda Meyr could not even recognize them as people. Corruption and power abuse is rampant in Israel. The youth sacrificed in senseless wars. And now, they want to tell ME to go there to be Jewish. Please: my whole family descends from a prominent rabbi lineange. Come to me and I will teach you one or two things about judaism and ethics.

While I think this campaign will do little to address the underlying issue & may create more controversy than offer a solution,it draws attention to a serious issue facing the future of the Jews:will the high & raising intermarriage rate spell the end of much of the Jewish community in the disaspora?In the US about 50% of young Jews marrying today,marry outside the faith.In nearly all cases,the children of that marriage are lost to the faith & either raised with no religion or as Christians & in nearly all of these cases there is NO identity with the Jewish heritage.Certainly the high intermarriage rate indicates how comfortable & assimilated Jews are in the US which is good,but the underlying loss to a group which is so small to start cannot be easily measured.I have watched with saddness as the children of parents I know marry outside the faith & I know that in a single generation an entire family will cease being Jewish,something their ancestors clung to in the face of persecution.

.This obsession with the question who is jewish enough or not is nothing more than a continuation of the prevailing mentality in most of the jews inside or outside Israel,government or not through the ages.The jews can't get rid of the psichological prison of "us against the goyim ".Unfortunately for us we are behaving more racistly against fellow jews than Hitler did.He considered grandchildren of jews to be jews,exactly as is written in the Torah.(Abraham blessed Ytzhak who blessed Yakov).

It boggles my mind that I am a member of such a bigoted group of people. If someone wants to be Jewish, raise their children Jewish, etc. without the benefit of formal conversion, who cares! In multi-cultural 21st century American, those people who want to pass judgement on who is Jewish or not, are blowing in the wind. Most Jewish families have multitudes of relatives from all backgrounds, Jewish and Christian. Those who chose to be Jewish are comfortable in their lives and far be it for me or anyone else to judge if they are REALLY Jewish. Without the support of the American Jewish community in all it's varieties, there is no state of Israel. So drop the bigotry and get a grip.

About 70 or so years ago, there was a very successful campaign to report Jews orchestrated by a government. A duly elected government, at that. The country was Germany. The organization which tried to get people to report on Jews was called the Geheime Staats Polizei. You know it better as the GESTAPO. I'm intermarried, and I'm not lost. I don't need the Jewish Gestapo to find me. For one thing, I'm not hiding.

is not it a shame the Israeli government invites us to DENOUNCE our friends and acquaintances or people we hardly know . My parents went to Auschwitz because they were denounced. Please. do respect the private lives of people wether they are jews or not.

it's really hard to read your articles with all the brightly colored ads in the way and distracting me from what your trying to say. if you want me to know things remove the ads and put them on the side. thanks marilyn

I thought that the ad was excellent and should be returned. It did not mention intermarriage at all. Assimilation can also mean a Jew who has 2 Jewish parents but has nothing to do with anything Jewish. Everyone knows that the number of Jews in the world is decreasing rapidly. People who are proud to be Jews want the continuity of the Jewish People. The others just don't care, it's not important to them.

The bottom line to this issue is a lack of a deep understanding of Jewish historicity, Geris, multiple (perhaps in the millions now) conversions that were flawed and the absolute MISTREATMENT of those who, on their own accord, wish to convert. While we have a tradition to uphold Jewish Purity, the bottom line is: the majority of Jews are decended from mixed marriages and flawed conversions. Today, there are organizations that pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to break up valid marriages, engagements and outright love between Jews and B'nai Noach without the provisions for making conversion a pressing concern and an INSPIRING one. Only the Kohanim have pure Jewish blood. The rest of us are uncertain or definitely mixed. Make valid orthodox conversions a better experience for B'nai Noach and assimilation will virtually halt. Geris are very, very special people: they CHOSE to be Jews and accept the prejudice, anti-semitism and loss of friends and family: the most painful sacrifice.

You wouldn't understand because you're not Jewish. There would have been 200 million Jews today if it weren't for the Holocaust, pogroms,forced conversions and self-hatred. It's a fact Jews are disappearing at an alarming rate due to assimilation and intermarraige. Your children aren't Jewish because you're not Jews so it's obvious that your husband doesn't care about passing on his Jewish heritage. You don't care if Jews become extinct but I do care because it's my heritage. You are just another ignorant fool who knows nothing about Israel or Judaism.

Once you convert you are a Jew. Why wouldn't you be accepted? We have several converts in our community who have Jewish Orthodox grandchildren. Who even remembers that they are converts...they are Jews.

An anti assimilation campaign must inject a Jewish soul in the hearts of the youngsters. To say "come to Israel" is not a great option. Why should they leave their friends, family and country if they are happy there? There is no shortage of Jews marrying Arabs and non Jews in Israel. Israelis like to claim that they are Israelis, not Jews. First take care of things at home, then bring others to your mess.

I agree with you completely about the general treatment of converts by Israeli's. The ignorance, intolerance, and racism directed towards converts is astounding. Israels religious dictatorship (i.e. the Government endorsed Orthodox Rabbinate) has taken it's toll on free Jewish education. Religion in Israel is now largely restricted to clinging to cultural artifacts, land and blood worship, and the isolated Ghetto's of 18th century Poland. If anything in Israel is to improve, the power of the Chief Rabbinate over the lives of all Israeli's- in terms of marriage, death rites, and conversion- will need to be dismantled. But, if it continues to strengthen, as it's doing now, American Jews will need to get ready to accomodate Jews emigrating FROM Israel. American Jews will also need to simply cease monitary support of the State untill the Religious dictatorship is dismantled.

Many Jews don't realize they are more of a threat to our future than Iran. I feel outside of Orthodoxy, Jews are doomed to disappear.

It is not that Jews that marry outside the religion often choose to pull away from Judism, it is that those who think they know push us away. I for one will not be able to participate in either of my neices Bat Mitzvahs (they are being raised conservative and orthodox, even though their parents were very lapse about their own Judism) even though I go to Shul regularly and keep kosher and am in my Heart, my Mind, and my Soul a Jew. Who is a Jew the family that are only Jewish because they happened to have married someone Jewish and had kids but participate in no way in Judism, or someone who tries and live all that is best in Judism, tries to keep the holidays, and keep G-d in his heart and mind?

If Israel is worried about a dwindling population, it should make being a jew or an israeli about culture, not religion or genetics. Then its ranks can increase with those that intermarry instead of decrease. Redefine what it is to be a jew/israeli so that it is not racist, genetic or an exclusive intractable religion but rather a common culture and value system. Also, Israel miiiight want to think about stopping an oppressive occupation which doesn't bode well for attracting people to it. One needs to have pride in their country which is difficult when it is oppressing another nation. FYI I come from a religious Jewish and Israeli background and have left both for the above reasons.

This campaign is racism promoted through a pathetic guilt trip. As a non-Jew who lived in Israel for 7 years, is fluent in Hebrew, and married a wonderful Israeli man, I can say that the whole obsession with 'assimilation' and intermarriage is quite disgusting and makes the Jews look a bit backward in 2009 when a mixed-race person can be elected to be President of the USA. For the MASA people, my husband may be 'lost' but I'm so glad I found him and he is enlightened enough to realise it doesn't matter that I'm not one of the 'chosen' people. To be honest this is one of the main reasons I don't want to live in Israel again - why would I voluntarily choose to live in a country that blatantly discriminates against me and where my children will be discriminated against? People are people are people - get over your racism already!

So the government of Israel is financing a campaign to persuade some Americans not to marry certain other Americans? Can we just imagine how Israel would react if the government of America were to mount a campaign to persaue some Israelis not to marry certain other Israelis? You couldn't make it up, could you?

Laying on a guilt trip will simply backfire. People are leaving Israel because its quality of life is worsening and its social inequities are deepening. There is no consensus on who is a Jew and much of the religous population has , overall, santified crude nationalism as the cardinal commandment for all Jews. It has lost all universal appeal. A change of the moral heart of Israel might do more in winning back those who feel it is no big deal disassociating from the people. Theat problem should be investigated and these cameras should be turned around.

we can not stop assimilation. if we want to keep our sons and daughters we have to change and be more flexible regarding conversion.

Are the Jews of Israel who define themselves as "secular" really "found." They are, in terms of Jewish identity, the most lost of them all!

Well said.

"Only fellow Jews can save our collective identity and no matter how hard one tries the goyim will not welcome you as a Jew." Chaim Ben Kahan And will you, a Jew, welcome the goyim?

#2, Reuven, worries about the loss of Jewish values. Reuven is from Petach Tikvah, some citizens of which have just recently demonstrated new "Jewish Values", which are nothing but racist. IMHO the settlers and the whole of the Israeli right-wing wouldn't know a Jewish value from a hole in the wall. The lack of empathy, of compassion, the blindness of the current right-wing government to the brutal violence of the settlers to Palestinian shepherds, etc. are as far you can conceive from Jewish values. Ruth was a "ger"; we are shown in the Book of Ruth that loyalty is met by loyalty. We shouldn't need the Torah to instruct us what distain and scorn lead to. Ethics, morals, compassion and empathy are supposed to be Jewish values; if they are not practiced by Jews..then who is a Jew?

blah blah blah...it is the job of the jewish agency to promote jewish continuity...what do these nuts want....an ad campaign promoting intermarriage ?

"Unfortunately your children are Gentiles who falsely believe they`re Jewish." I see this as less of an issue than Zionists who worship the State of Israel and think they are following G_d's law.

There's one Being forgotten in all of this, isn't there? Because otherwise how does it differ from Aryanism? Jews cannot "get lost" by assimilation. We live in a digital age. I myself have traced my ancestors back to the 15th century (not Jews) and given birth to a male whose Y-chromosome proclaims him (forever) a Levite. My son and his father share something indelibly Jewish. And my ancestors "came over on the Mayflower". We're like Senator John Kerry in my house (in fact he is my cousin on the WASP side). Given all this information, both digital and chromosomal, it's hard to slough off your identity in this day and age. Those who threaten people who aren't in some kind of circle are just thugs.

It's sad but you like many Jewish men who have married Gentile women are delusional if you think that your children are Jews. How can any Gentile women raise Jewish children? It's impossible! Sorry but your children are Gentiles just like their mother. Only Jewish women can raise Jewish children, end of story. The truth hurts to intermarriaed Jewish men like you and that's the reason you get so angry about this Masa campaign. Unfortunately your children are Gentiles who falsely believe they're Jewish. It will be very sad when they find out the truth.

"Only fellow Jews can save our collective identity and no matter how hard one tries the goyim will not welcome you as a Jew." -Ben Kahan They will very well be right not to do so, if that person oozes with at least half of talmudic xenophobia as you. What is a "goy"? Is it a national category? a social one? Is it a race, specie, a brand? What physical qualities does it have? A little secret that might be quite the biggest discovery in your life, Chaim: if this strange species "goym" exists anywhere, then it's only deep in the Jewish traditional communities, under the fur and silk hats of 17th c. Poland.

Assimilation, duh. When young people fall in love credentials fly out the window. I know Jewish and Arab parents want the best for their children. But stop with the over-control. It's best to live with the one you love, not their whole darn family. Salaam/Shalom

I think we all need to step back, take a deep breath and see how Orly feels about this. Jesse

and I don't need anyone 'reporting' me to a foreign government.

Will Jewish people forever remain a lost race waiting to be found? Under all that identity causing you so much strife is a spring of blood, flesh and bone, made of the same stuff found in the earth's crust; found in planets and stars. I am not Jewish, but I see myself as a mirror image of all humans on our dizzy, war-minded planet lost in the blackness of space, on a merry-go-round ride around an insignificant sun, taking 244 million years to complete its own orbit. Our lives are infinitely less significant than the blink of an eye. What does race matter?

Keep your religion and your way of life to yourself. I like my life the way it is. Stop meddling in other people's life. Your 'lost' is my life. Stop acting like Stalin.

The Israel leadership should look inward as well as to the diaspora. Israeli Jews are rapidly assimilating into Israeli identity and Dark Age Judaism. A large number of secular Israelis have a negative view of Judaism and some Orthodox Jews have adopted the "Talaban" Judaism.

important to say that masa (and the jewish agency) define "jews" by law of return- not by halacha - which is maybe the only positive thing to say about this...

I married a non;Jew;however, she has helped me raise my children as Jes. All three have gone to Hebrew school, had a Bar/Bat Mitzvah. They are now teens and young adults. They question their Jewish identity no more than their friends who were raised with two Jewish parents. Among the things that they question most is Israel's racist policies, ill-planned and ineffective wars, and colonization of lands captured through war. Israel may keep young Jews from being quite so alienated if Israeli leaders behaved more in keeping with the teachings of the Rabbinic Judaism. Their current effort to track down young Jews is as obscene as it is absurd.

You know, for a country that cites the Holocaust at the slightest criticism of its policies, you would think a government agency would be more sensitive to the very real and awful memories evoked by the image and act of calling and reporting names of Jews. I don't care what the purpose is - this campaign is just creepy. MASA should end it at once.

Will we miss Judaism when it is gone that is the question? Only fellow Jews can save our collective identity and no matter how hard one tries the goyim will not welcome you as a Jew.

Such xenophobic Israel's becoming not safe haven, but the burden for the Jewish peoplehood

I'm a "lost" Jew and I don't wanna be found by such schteitel-like approach.

jewish inter marriage are irrevocably growing :why to not accept them and welcome them if,as often, people want to remain member of the jewish community.Instead of that,prominent rabbis considere them as cattle and they are lost for Israel.

The US Jews who would marry a goy don't speak Hebrew. Nor do their Jewish friends who might know of their intent to marry a goy. So what good is an ad campaign in Hebrew? Is this aimed at another audience, perhaps? This doesn't make sense. But perhaps it's like the US campaign to broadcast TV Marti to Cuba. The Cuban gov't jams it very, very effectively, so it's of no use. But it does help satiate the Cuban-American community in Miami. Who are the suspects here?

The new campaign won't stop anyone from marrying someone who isn't Jewish and is likely to push away those who do. #4 is right-if we did half as good a job welcoming converts as we do lamenting intermarriage.....how many times have you been somewhere where people spoke in hushed tones about "she/he converted"....

Or is the truth that converts are not really accepted by any Jews except Reform? That has certainly been my experience. I worked hard for Israel, and as time went on I realized that every single natural born Jew I meet thinks it is his or her duty to dissaude me from Judaism. It is pathetic, especially when I am more observant than 90% of Israelis. I'm just not welcome there, that's all, because of the blood pouring through my veins and because I might be a "undercover Christian". No, skip this foolish nonsense which only makes Israel look silly. And accept converted Jews. The stranglehold the rabbinate has on this issue is and will be the downfall of Israel unless it is changed.

this is the most racist thing i've seen lately. If this was a white person, muslim or a scientologist-we would all be lambasting them now. let personal freedom prevail.

How can anybody have objection for the efforts being made to keep young Jews within the family of Jews? It is a fact that in almost every case assimilation means the end of that particular Jewish lineage. It is a fact. It does not mean that Jews who assimilate are anything but sound and responsible individuals. It means that this is the end of that lineage. The only Jews who might not appreciate this campaign either do not care, or themselves have entered into a mixed marriage. Again I say that mixed marriages can be very happy and productive, but in most cases, even when the wife is Jewish, it means the end of the Jewish line and Jewish values - that's all.

dont let the religion police affect you. dont cooperate with them.