Marc Mezvinsky and Chelsea Clinton exit their wedding ceremony. "help their spouses along their spiritual journeys." Rabbi Shmuley Hecht, who is Orthodox and the rabbinical adviser at Yale University's Eliezer Jewish Society, said intermarriage can work only if the non-Jewish spouse converts to Judaism through an Orthodox conversion and genuinely changes religions. Otherwise, he said, the marriage is doomed to fail because down the road, any self-aware Jew, "however defined, will feel the call of their people and have the fullness of their being disrupted by intermarriage?' Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, also Orthodox and president of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, said that when marriages break down, it usually has little to do with religion. All religions should stop worrying about intermarriage and start worrying about how to help couples make their relationships work, he wrote. Ed Case, the executive director of Interfaithfamily.com, said the Clinton wed- ding certainly had stirred interest in inter- marriage, noting that traffic to his website was up 35 percent in July compared to the same month last year. Case said that accepting this marriage and welcoming this intermarried family into the Jewish fold could help pave the way for the Jewish community to be more accepting of others. Golin said he is skeptical that the Clinton-Mezvinsky wedding does any- thing more than revive existing battle lines in the Jewish debate over inter- marriage. "The horse is so far out of the barn on this one Golin said, noting that as an intermarried person himself, he is turned off by much of the debate over intermar- riage as a problem. "The folks who are fearful that my kind of Judaism is going to destroy Judaism are still going to be fearful. The folks who are fully embrac- ing of interfaith families are going to be embracing. I don't see a whole lot of movement:' The Orthodox Union declined to com- ment on the wedding. Separately, the head of its kashruth division, Rabbi Menachem Genack, a longtime Clinton friend and political supporter, declined to comment. The Mezvinsky-Clinton wedding is affirmation both of the success of the Jewish community and that American Jewry must learn how to deal with inter- married families and figure out how to bring them into the Jewish fold, the Reform movement's Yoffie said. "The price of our reaffirmation in American society is a high rate of inter- marriage he said. "We can't be embraced and not expect that our young people won't be marrying with their young peo- ple. Unless we are prepared to withdraw into a ghetto, there is no solution. "I look at the couple and my response is, 'I hope they will make a choice to raise their children in a single religion and tradition and second, as a Jew and rabbi, I hope it will be Judaism: I don't know if they have had that conversation:' ❑ spend some of the summer unleashing your inner artist workshops & art camps for all ages. to sign up or for more details: BBArtCenter.org 248.644.0866 drawin fashion illustration weaving jewelry metalsmithing mosaics BIRMINGHAM BLOOMFIELD * A t a fa 163 I Ea 1516 S. Cranbrook Road Birmingham 48009 Turn your old GOLD into CASH! We will buy ALL of your precious metals, diamonds & watches. Come see us Today. At 14 Mile Rd. in the Broadway Plaza (248) 855-1730 Farmington Hills. Michigan WWW. greis.com painting paper arts photography portfolio prep printmaking sculpture 1536450 Au gust 12 e 2010 27