13740 W. 9 Mile Next to Oak Park Post Office FOCUS Intermarriage And The Case For Israel ZE'EV CHAFETS Special to The Jewish News n 11 Bunions Corns Callouses Ingrown Nails Warts Pediatric Foot Care Diabetic Foot Care Heel Pain El Sports Medicine Medicare and most insurance plans accepted as payment in full. DANIEL S. LAZAR D.P.M. BE A WINNER, PLAY 548-6633 Call The Jewish News Today THE CLASSIFIEDS 354-6060 Always the right gift... 11 ; ef\VC3Dd u 108 Tel-Twelve Mall • .12 Mile & Telegraph, Southfield • Daily 10-9, Sun 12-5 • 354-9060 FOR FINE FURNITURE & ACCESSORIES ALWAYS 20% OFF COMPLIMENTARY GIFT WRAPPING 26 Friday, July 4, 1986 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS J erusalem — Last week, the Israeli Cabinet met to dis- cuss a shocking report. Ac- cording to Professor Roberto Bracchi, head of the Hebrew Uni- versity's Department of Statis- tics, there are 9.5 million Jews liv- ing outside Israel today. Accord- ing 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 de- fection are no secret. Jews abroad have a low birthrate and, increas- ingly, they marry non-Jews. Pro- fessor Bracchi told the Cabinet that inter-marriage in the Dias .- pora averages 40 percent, 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 Prof. Bracchi's findings. They produce all sorts of arguments about the vitality of the Dias- pora, the number of converts to Judaism and so forth. These arguments are pure sophistry. Jews in America are disappear- ing 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 lis in mo- tive and opportunity. The Jewish baby boom genera- tion is the first to be raised — in the post-Holocaust period. Con- sciously or not, they are aware that in recent history much of Europe considered being Jewish a crime punishable by death. They know that their own coun- try preferred to send Jews to a certain death in Europe 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 of- fered a choice of black and white dolls to play with — and invari- ably 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 state- ment of disrespect and dislike of their own women. Ze'ev Chafets, a regular contributor from Jerusalem, is former director of the Israel Governmeqt Press Office, and author of a new book about life in Israel, 'Heroes, Hustlers, Hardhats and Holymen." The American Jewish commu- nity has failed to counteract the trauma of the Holocaust by pro- viding Jews with positive reasons for remaining Jewish. Instead, it has trivialized the Jewish experi- ence by portraying Judaism as simply another American reli- gion. At the same time, an obses- sion with Israel has drained Jewish resources and cast Ameri- can Jews in the role of spectators. Indeed, fundraising for Israel has become, for many Jews, a substi- tute for Jewish life. Worst of all, the hyper- organized Jewish community has failed to provide its children with The American Jewish community has failed to counteract the trauma of the Holocaust by providing Jews with positive reasons for remaining Jewish. any real Jewish education. Since Jews in America take education very seriously, the message of this failure is clear: Judaism is irrelevant and unimportant. Bet- ter you should study for your col- lege boards. So much for motive. The oppor- tunity is obvious. America has been wonderful for individual 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 Protestant religion without Jesus, why should young Jews restrict them- selves to a Jewish partner or a Jewish lifestyle? Increasingly American Jewish parents, educators and leaders have no answer for that question. The plain truth is that Ameri- can Jewish life has become a holding operation. A minority has sought refuge from Americanization in Orthodoxy, but the majority is simply mark- ing time. Not even the most pious rabbi, zealous Zionist or active Temple member can be certain that his or her grandchildren will be Jews. Only in Israel is there a near certainty that future generations will be Jewish. Europe's Jews paid a terrible price for rejecting Zionism as the answer to anti- Semitism; American Jewry is now paying a similar (if more be- nign) price for rejecting it as the salvation from philo-Semitism and assimilation. Most Jewish leaders of our generation — both in America and Israel — pay lip service to the ideal of aliyah, but do nothing to bring it about. They have allowed the wealth and content- ment of American Jews to over- whelm their sense of responsibil- ity to the Jewish people and col-