10 | NOVEMBER 18 • 2021 

essay

Encouraging Jews to Connect 
to Their Judaism
T

he Pew Research 
Center study on “Jewish 
Americans in 2020,” 
which was released in May this 
year, shows that Reform and 
Conservative 
Judaism is plum-
meting, while 
the number of 
“unaffiliated” is 
increasing. The 
same goes for the 
Orthodox, the 
vast majority of 
whom don’t intermarry and 
have many more children than 
their non-Orthodox counter-
parts.
According to the poll, six in 
10 Jews intermarried during 
the last 10 years, as compared 
with 45 percent in the previous 
decade. In contrast, only 18 
percent of Jews who married 
before 1980 have a non-Jewish 
spouse.
These statistics, which 
reflect a rapidly changing 
Jewish world, should be cause 
for pause, contemplation and 
action.
Outreach efforts to stem 
assimilation have not made 
significant inroads, howev-
er. Clearly, then, the current 
strategy to bring Jews back 
to Judaism needs altering. 
The key may lie in an ancient 
text — Chapter 3/12 of Pirkei 
Avot/“Ethics of the Fathers”— 
in which Rabbi Chanina Ben 
Dosa says: “Those whose wis-
dom exceeds their deeds, their 
wisdom will not endure; but 
those whose deeds exceed their 
wisdom, their wisdom will 
endure.”
In other words, the focus 

needs to be on persuading 
Jews to perform mitzvot, God’s 
commandments, many of 
which will have an impact on 
the person observing even a 
few of them. Lighting candles 
before sunset on the eve of 
Shabbat, for example — even 
if one is not yet keeping the 
Sabbath — is a beautiful step 

in the right direction.
And it only takes a couple of 
minutes. Former famed Israeli 
actor Uri Zohar started with 
this mitzvah, eventually lead-
ing to his switching of careers 
and becoming a renowned 
rabbi. Literally and figuratively, 
the impact of the deed on the 
actor — the one who acts — 
cannot be overstated.
Unfortunately, rather than 
getting Jews excited about 
mitzvot, some outreach organi-
zations emphasize the wisdom 
of Judaism. But without the 
mitzvot, the wisdom learned 
doesn’t endure.
Others teach young Jews to 
serve as an example to others. 
Yet, this was the approach 

that Noah took during his 120 
years of building the ark, and 
not a single person followed 
his example.
Instead, it was Abraham 
and Sarah who became the 
first Jews, hosting meals for 
strangers and speaking to 
them about God. The Torah 
says that they taught those 

with them to act with “charity 
and justice.” Good behavior 
inspired by wisdom, in turn, 
created inspiration among 
their followers.

WHAT WE CAN LEARN 
FROM THE ORTHODOX
Furthermore, Jews need to 
be encouraged to experi-
ence Judaism, not simply by 
visiting Israel or learning 
about the Holocaust. Much can 
be learned from the Orthodox 
about what works and what 
doesn’t.
Orthodox Jews, for instance, 
take a break from using cell 
phones and responding to 
emails one day a week. It’s a 
great process of rejuvenation. 

Shabbat meals, too, are uplift-
ing, as they provide uninter-
rupted time for parents and 
kids to speak and be together, 
without everyone staring at a 
screen. It’s an essential compo-
nent of family bonding.
In addition, because they 
don’t drive on Shabbat, 
Orthodox Jews tend to live 
within walking distance from 
one another and form a com-
munity.
It’s common to invite guests 
or receive invitations to oth-
ers’ homes for Shabbat meals. 
Many lifelong friendships and 
even marriages have come 
about from such gatherings.
When I told a friend who 
used to drive to our synagogue 
that though we enjoyed seeing 
him on Shabbat morning, it 
would be better to see him 
all day, and suggested that he 
move to the neighborhood, 
I was glad that he took my 
advice. He later said that it 
was the best decision he’d ever 
made. If I hadn’t suggested it, 
it might not have occurred to 
him.
A similar thing happened 
when I witnessed a friend in 
his 70s laying tefillin (putting 
on phylacteries) at his grand-
son’s bar mitzvah for the first 
time since his own bar mitz-
vah.
“
Abe, laying tefillin takes five 
minutes,” I said to him. “Could 
you do this every day?”
He responded with great 
enthusiasm and engaged in the 
practice from that day forward. 
Had I not given him the idea, 
it’s not likely that he would 
have done it.

Farley Weiss
JNS.org

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