8 Friday, June 6, 1986 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS T OMTHPEARBEESATNYWHGEIVRE ! I IF YOU WANC US A TESTI Cli • coN 111 85 ENTERTAINMENT ADS GET RESULTS Call The Jewish News Advertising Dept. 354-6060 Broasted & Bar-B-Q Chicken Bar-B-Q Ribs Seafood BROASTED, BAR-B-Q AND SEAFOOD, THAT'S WHAT WE DO BEST! CHICKEN & RIBS BY MILES CAN BE FURNISHED IN ANY QUANTITY FOR YOUR SPECIAL OCCASION 544- 121 1 TCOU PONT 1 5% OFF TOTAL BILL! DINE IN & CARRY-OUT! With Coupon • Anyhour 7 Days • EXPIRES 6-12-86 Open Sun. tarn Thurs. 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. I CARRY-OUTS IN ANY QUANTITY FOR ALL OCCASIONS 1118 S. WOODWARD, Just N. of 10 Mile Next To The Zoo • STEAKS • SALADS • SANDWICHES 544-1211 DISCOVER A UNIQUE APPROACH TO CHUCK MUER DINING Thaw, P( ( an soi t At Meriwether's you can enjoy Chuck Muer's best - the freshest seafood available. ifut we've also created a menu that . will satisfy the most hard to please palate. Try our delicious PRIME RIB, mouth watering LOBSTER TAILS, savory ORIENTAL STIR FRYS, and hot TEACUP BREAD, served with honey cinnamon butter. Of course this is just a sampling of our fare. And it's not all you'll enjoy. Our old English style charm, and reasonable prices win praise too. So stop by for LUNCH or DINNER and discover us for yourself? (nukes Mepiwether's Telegraph Road north of 10 Mile, Southfield For reservations 358-4950 95 rid Luncheon 11am-3pm Hors d'oeuvres 4pm-7pm Dinner 5pm-11pm Friday & Saturday'til midnight Cocktails'til 2am Reservations accepted at 642-2430 30100 Telegraph (north of 12 mile, next to Jacques restaurant) FOCUS Intermarriage And The Case For Israel BY ZE'EV CHAFETS Special to The Jewish News Jerusalem — Last week, the Israeli Cabinet met to discuss a shocking report. According to Professor Roberto Bracchi, head of the Hebrew University's Department of Statistics, there are 9.5 million Jews living out- side Israel today. According to Professor Bacchi, if present trends continue, there will be 8 million in the year 2000. Or, to put it another way, 1.5 million Jews will disappear (at least as Jews) within the next 15 years. The reasons for this mass defection are no secret. Jews abroad have a low birthrate and, increasingly, they marry non- Jews. Professor Bracchi told the Cabinet that intermarriage in the Diaspora averages 40 per- cent, and In some countries has reached 50 percent. Some of these couples raise their children as Jews, but most do not. Some Jewish activists in the United States have challenged Professor Bracchi's findings. They produce all sorts of argu- ments about the vitality of the Diaspora, the number of con- verts to Judaism and so forth. These arguments are pure sophistry. Jews in America are disappearing at an alarming rate. If you don't believe it, just look around. Why have so many American Jews decided to break their millenia-old chain and abandon the Jewish people? Like all good mysteries, the answer - lies in motive and opportunity. The Jewish baby boom gen- eration is the first to be raised — in the post-Holocaust period. Consciously or not," they are aware that in recent history much of Europe considered be- ing Jewish a crime punishable by death. They know that their own country preferred to send Jews to a certain death in Europe rather than grant them asylum in America. Not even the most assimilated American Jew has escaped the message that the Jews have been a persecuted and despised people. This realization has inevitably affected the contemporary Jewish self-image. We all remember the experiment in Psychology 101, in which little black girls are offered a choice of black and white dolls to play with — and invariably choose the white ones. American Jews, so superficially secure and well adjusted, have a great deal in common with those little girls, A generation of American Jewish writers turned their mothers into ugly stereotypes. American Jewish screenwriters have given the public a dozen variations on the theme of the Jew as nerd. And JAP jokes, told mostly by Jewish men, are an unmistakable statement of disrespect and dislike of their own women. The American Jewish com- munity has failed to counteract the trauma of the Holocaust by providing Jews with positive reasons for remaining Jewish. Instead, it has trivialized the Jewish experience by portraying Judaism as simply another American religion. At the same The American Jewish community has failed to counteract the trauma of the Holocaust by providing Jews with positive reasons for remaining Jewish. time, an obsession with Israel has drained Jewish resources and cast American Jews in the role of spectators. Indeed, fund- raising for Israel has become, for many Jews, a substitute for Jewish life. Worst of all, the • hyper-or- ganized Jewish community has failed to provide its children with any real Jewish education. Since Jews in America take education very seriously, the message of this failure is clear: Judaism is irrelevant and unim- portant. Better you should study for your college boards. So much for motive. The op- portunity is obvious. America has been wonderful for indi- vidual Jews — and a disaster for the Jewish people. Jews have become so thoroughly accepted that they can simply blend in, live where they choose, work in virtually every profession — and marry whom they wish. After all, if Judaism is simply a Prot- estant religion without Jesus, why should young Jews restrict themselves to a Jewish partner or a Jewish lifestyle? Increasing- ly American Jewish parents, educators and leaders have no answer for that question. The plain truth is that Amer- ican Jewish life has become a holding operation. A minority has sought refuge from Amer- icanization in Orthodoxy, but the majority is simply marking time. Not even the most pious rabbi, zealous Zionist or active ample member can be certain that his or her grandchildren will be Jews. Only in Israel is there a near certainty that future genera- tions will be Jewish. Europe's Jews paid a terrible price for re- jecting Zionism as the answer to anti-Semitism; American Jewry is now paying a similar (if more benign) price for rejecting it as the salvation from philo-Sem- itism and assimilation. Most Jewish leaders of our generation — both in America