Jewish Life In My 20s Readers and writers talk about our responsibility toward intermarriage. Sparkling elegantly, woman called The Jewish News last week, irate about this contemporary classic was created especially for you. For the best in craftsmanship and unique creations, experience the quality of M.B. 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Check Happenings in The Scene for more dates & information! 'Scene' It, Se:9ot Te, And Send It Back - Just because it happens, doesn't mean we have to like it. But be- some articles that ran in cause it happens, we have to rec- the July 11 issue of The ognize it, and Jewish newspapers Scene. Specifically, she objected must write about it. Mirror the to articles that detailed interreli- community. gious relationships. The caller said she has two "Why must you write about it?" sons "of marriageable age. What she asked. "If it's a Jew- are they supposed to ish newspaper, shouldn't think when they read it be about very Jewish articles like that? That activities?" it's OK to go find a non- On the one hand, yes. Jewish girl and marry On the other hand, no. her?" The idea that all If the Jewish youth of things Jewish are those today are that impres- things which are ex- sionable, that easily pressly religiously Jew- swayed by an article or ish is one way to look at two, I told her, then the it. But it's an awfully lim- LYNNE M EREDITH parents and the syna- iting perspective, and for CO HN gogues are not doing their many assimilated Jews, STAFF WRITER jobs. untrue. Silence on the line. As editor of The Scene, I must And I told the caller that those admit that I hesitated about run- articles which she finds distaste- ning articles that seemed to cele- ful could be used as a perfect brate intermarriage. I, too, jumping off point for discussion thought that the job of a Jewish between herself and her sons. newspaper is not to applaud mar- Boy, my mother taught me rying out, but rather to encourage well. marrying in. There were a few things I for- I was wrong. got to tell her. Like the fact that Colleagues oh-so-emphatically more Jews than ever are seeking pointed out that the job of a news- out religious learning among our paper, any newspaper, is to reflect Orthodox communities today. And what is happening among its that patterns are just that: pat- readership. To be a mirror, so to terns, cycles that swing one way speak, to the community. and inevitably swing back in an- And that is exactly right. other direction. Newspapers like the Washing- "Intermarriage does not re- ton Post and the Detroit Free Press lentlessly increase in the dimen- are heavy on coverage of black in- sion of time in a smooth, dividuals, communities and con- unbroken pattern ... No mystical cerns. Appropriately so, as both force pushes any aspect of inter- newspapers cater to cities with group relations in a single pat- largely black populations. (The tern," wrote Ruby Jo Kennedy in city of Washington claims among her essay titled, Single or Triple its resident population 75 percent Melting Pot? Intermarriage who are African-American.) Trends in New Haven, 1870- Thus, a Jewish newspaper, by 1940. definition, should cover the Jew- Three decades ago, writes Rab- ish community. Every part of it — bi Silverstein, "no one would have from the strictly secular to the predicted the remarkable resur- haredim (fervently Orthodox). gence of Orthodox Judaism with- I told the caller that "covering" in American life and its growth in the community is not the same as America's affluent suburbs. offering guidance to it. It is not the "Nor would anyone have responsibility of a newspaper to guessed that Jewish day-school judge its readership. enrollment would grow from triv- One out of every two single ial numbers three decades ago to American Jews today marries a its current enrollment of more gentile, according to Rabbi Alan than 30 percent of all Jewish chil- Silverstein's 1995 book, It All Be- dren in the United States receiv- gins With A Date: Jewish Con- ing some type of Jewish cerns about Intermarriage. education." That 50 percent figure should I understand where that be broken down into two groups. woman was coming from. With- First, adult children from mixed- out being presumptuous, I can religion households intermarry imagine that one of her worst close to 90 percent of the time. fears would be to have grandchil- That leaves us with the adult dren who don't know the beauty children of two Jewish parents, of being Jewish. who have remained consistent at It is happening, and we must the same marrying-out rates of 10 write about it. From every angle and 15 years ago. — good, bad and otherwise. ❑