The Decline of American Judaism

The Jewish community of North America is increasingly dissolving. Because the majority is marrying non-Jews, religiousness is dwindling; only the Orthodox Jews are holding on. They have many children but remain poor.

In 2013, it is not easy to be a Jew in Europe. Anti-Semitism, whether open or not, has re-appeared within society. For a long time now, extremists have not been alone in accusing Israel of being an international troublemaker; others have also conveyed such concern. The Jewish community has even been receiving anti-Semitic letters signed by academics. There is a long list of problems in Europe: the prohibition on kosher slaughter in Poland; a Council of Europe resolution against circumcisions; and gangs of young Muslims, who beat up rabbis in France and Germany. Times are hard indeed.

The U.S. has the opposite problem since it is far too easy to be Jewish there. The Pew Research Center, which is a renowned research institute in Washington, published statistics at the beginning of December that, among other things, have surprised the Jewish community of North America. The statistics show what happens to Jews in a society that has long since torn down the walls that used to shield them from perceived outsiders. Gone are the days when entry restrictions kept the sons of Israel away from elite American universities, and a Christian girl who brings home her Jewish boyfriend is no longer viewed with suspicion, even in the Midwest.

The result? Fifty-eight percent of American Jews enter mixed marriages with non-Jews; one-fifth of American Jews acknowledge that they do not feel tied to any religious aspect of their faith, and the birth rate lies below the national average, with 1.9 children per woman born within the Jewish Community. Hence, it is very unlikely that many of these children will ever benefit from a Jewish upbringing.

Conservatives Are Shrinking

The drama that revolves around American Jews cannot be studied without referring to its conservative movement. Conservative Judaism is an old American institution that had its roots in Germany, where it acted as a mediator between Orthodox Judaism in Germany and Reform Judaism in the United States. Orthodox Judaism took on the Jewish rules and practices — which include rules on eating habits, marriage and following the Sabbath — in their entirety, whereas Reform Jews adopted the old texts more superficially.

Conservative Judaism followed the rituals in a more moderate manner and was an important spiritual force. To this day, it still maintains its own university, the venerable Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan, and develops intellectual giants such as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, the Jewish counterpart to Martin Luther King, Jr. However, these days Conservative Judaism is disintegrating right in front of us. According to the Pew Research Center, in 1971, 41 percent of Jewish-Americans said they were part of this movement, but the numbers gradually fell. Only 26 percent belonged to the movement in 2000, and, today, only 18 percent do, most of them of the older generation.

Edward Feinstein, a leading Conservative rabbi, appeared to be very outspoken as he said:

“Our house is on fire.

” … we have maybe 10 years left. In the next 10 years you will see a rapid collapse of synagogues and the national organizations that support them.”

The extent to which the world has changed can be seen as following two trends.

Synagogues Can Be Rented Out

First, an increasing number of Reform Jews are renting out their places of worship — to the benefit of Orthodox Jews — as they themselves cannot fill up their synagogues. Second, it was customary in the past for Jewish parents to treat a child who had entered a mixed marriage as if he had died since this was considered shameful and something to be hidden from the public eye. Nowadays, Conservative and Reform Jews have started to welcome non-Jews into their communities, even without requiring them to convert to Judaism. Is this a sign of tolerance? No, it is a sign of decline that was born out of necessity.

Another sign of decline is that many American Jews can only define their affiliation to Judaism in a vague and ambiguous manner. An example of this comes from Gabriel Roth, a journalist for the online magazine Slate, who wrote, “Here are some of the things I cherish about Jewishness: unsnobbish intellectualism, sympathy for the disadvantaged, psychoanalytic insight, rueful comedy, smoked fish.”

Such a list would undoubtedly offend any Catholic, Protestant or Muslim, who also cherish the virtues of charity, intellectualism, comedy, sensitivity — and would probably also enjoy smoked fish on a bagel. In other words, nothing in Gabriel Roth’s list is specifically Jewish. He is simply enumerating the sensitivities of the upper-middle class.

No More Woody Allen

The bitter truth is that the non-Orthodox movements of American Judaism are dissolving into the American mainstream, like an Efferdent tablet in water. The only ones who can assert themselves, despite being embraced by non-Jews, are the Orthodox Jews. They continue to have an average of 4.1 children per couple and can tell their kids what it means to be Jewish during Passover: Unlike other people, the Jews were slaves in Egypt, whom God personally liberated, and, on Mount Sinai, Moses wrote down the Jewish laws.

What effect will all this have on the future? The American Jewish community will become much smaller, more pious and poorer. Many Orthodox Jews in America live on state benefits. Jews, such as Sarah Silverman, Woody Allen or Jerry Seinfeld — comedians, actors and intellectuals alike for whom Judaism is a joke — belong to a species in the U.S. that is heading toward extinction.

Their spiritual grandchildren will turn up in Tel Aviv, if anywhere, and speak Hebrew. There are perhaps 5.3 million Jews in America today; maybe, only 2 million will be left over the course of a generation. This is a fact. In its own way, this fact is as worrying as the increasing anti-Semitism that still lingers in Europe, 70 years after the horrors of Auschwitz.