We Survived in Spite of Intermarriage
Regarding the recent Torah portion, I think it’s high time that someone speaks out about the travesty that is being brought to bear on the most sacred centerpiece of our religion, i.e., the Torah (“Intermarriage Can Enrich Our Community,” June 30).
The rabbi writing this article is not only attempting to permit the forbidden, but urges us to actively support his version of how he thinks Judaism should be practiced.
He wants to not only permit intermarriage and assimilation, but to encourage it.
The examples of how “beneficial” it is are not only intellectually dishonest, but blasphemous. All of his examples are upside down from what really occurred if one views them from a Torah-based perspective. The truth is that we, as a people, survived not because of intermarriage and assimilation, but in spite of it. And, while it may be true that we adopted certain influences throughout our history, those influences were not necessarily a good thing. We did not, as he would have us believe, become better. We became even more hated and despised by every single nation in which we dwelled, and all along the way, only the best of us kept our faith alive.
Our ancestors did not perish in the numerous massacres, pogroms and the Holocaust in order to have us actively support intermarriage and become a part of the surrounding cultures. Know this: Our Torah expressly forbids the kind of society and culture that this rabbi seeks to embrace.
Mike Caplan
Baltimore
Intermarriage Not Needed
The examples cited by Rabbi David Levin (“Intermarriage Can Enrich Our Community,” June 30) demonstrate that over the millennia, the Jewish people have been able to successfully integrate relevant culture from their environments into Jewish observance without the need for intermarriage. On the contrary (to his position), history demonstrates that intermarriage weakens Jewish lineage, faith and community. It’s disappointing for a rabbi to think otherwise.
Sonny Taragin
Baltimore
