MSU Students Debate
Intermarriage, Identity

MICHELLE COHEN

Special to The Jewish News

M

ichigan State Uni-
versity students who
attended a campus
program on interfaith mar-
riage last week said they were
concerned with the problem.
"Intermarriage is destroy-
ing the Jewish community,"
said Jennifer Epstein, a
religious studies junior, in
response to a talk by Rabbi
Avraham Jacobovitz of the
Machon ETorah education
center in Oak Park.
"It is true that children who
come- from intermarriages
have severe difficulties," the
rabbi said. "They have split
personalities."
Sophomore Amy Widen-
baum said she agrees with
Rabbi Jacobovitz. "Kids need
cohesiveness in their lives,"
Widenbaum said. "The kids
just get confused and then
they grow up and what if
their kids intermarry? Pretty
soon the Jewish population
will just die out."
Epstein said Jews owe it to
3,000 years of tradition and
the six million Jews who died
in the Holocaust to preserve
their religion.
"Being Jewish is a little bit
more than the United Jewish
Appeal,- candles on Chanukah
and bagel and lox on Sun-
days," Epstein said.
She said individuals should
'learn more about Jewish
tradition before "turning
their backs on it."
Beth Davidow, a business
sophomore, said if a person
marries outside his religion,
he takes the chance of losing
part of his identity as a Jew.
Although several students
agreed with the rabbi, many
others questioned his views.
"I think each person has to
make a personal choice as a
Jew whether or not they
would like to marry someone
who is Jewish or non-Jewish,"
said Adam Oxer, a business
senior.
Senior Deborah Hecker
agreed. "If you let your fami-
ly rule your life, you'll build
up resentment," Hecker said.
Rabbi Jacobovitz said before
a person marries, he should
know what makes love. "Love
begins with giving. You enjoy
another person's pleasure .. .
Even though you may be
discomforted."
If a person understands
what marriage is then he can
understand interfaith mar-
riage, he said.
"You can't create a unit
with two opposing parts

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which are not matching
spiritually, intellectually. (If
you intermarry) you're
destroying what our
forefathers gave up their lives
for."
The students said the
discussion reaffirmed their
feelings of identifying as a
Jew. "I feel it's important for
me to retain my identity and
this (the event) reaffirmed it,"
said Lori Wolok, an accoun-
ting sophomore.

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