Intermarriage among diaspora Jews – particularly those in North America – is “like a second Holocaust,” Israeli Education Minister Rafi Peretz declared in a cabinet meeting, uniting much of that diaspora in shocked offense.
The Jewish community “lost 6 million people” over the last 70 years because of intermarriage and assimilation, Peretz told a cabinet meeting on trends in Jewish communities around the world, particularly in the US. His spokesman confirmed the statement to Israeli Channel 13.
Also on rt.com ‘Whirlwind of politics not for women’: Prominent Israeli rabbi reacts to talk of female party leaderAmerican Jews, unsurprisingly, were outraged. Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt called the remarks “inconceivable” in a tweet, adding that “This kind of baseless comparison does little other than inflame and offend.” The ADL tweeted an additional response in Hebrew, blaming Peretz’s statement for “add[ing] to the already existing tension between Israel and US Jewry” and pleading with him to “engage in respectful dialogue.”
“Israel’s government has a moral responsibility to maintain and improve the country’s relationship with diaspora Jews in general, and with the American Jewish community in particular,” Jay Ruderman, president of the Ruderman Family Foundation, a Jewish organization that advocates for people with disabilities.
And Peretz’s fellow ministers – some of them, anyway – took a dim view of the comment. “First we need to stop disregarding and looking down on Jews in America that see themselves as Jews not only religiously but even more culturally and historically,” argued Minister of Energy Yuval Steinitz.
But PM Benjamin Netanyahu shared Peretz’s alarm over demographic trends, claiming US Jews are abandoning Jewish traditions in a trend that is not easily reversed.
Also on rt.com Israeli minister’s diaries reveal Mossad involvement in anti-BDS push abroadSupport for Israel among American Jews has been declining for years, and Peretz’s comments – far from the first to compare assimilation to the Holocaust – are unlikely to heal the rift. Support for Israel among US Jewish college students dropped 27 percentage points from 2010 to 2016, largely because of perceived “lack of shared values,” according to Brand Israel Group. With Netanyahu openly embracing polarizing figures on the Right – both in the US, where he has essentially become a policymaker for President Donald Trump, and in Europe, where he has courted nationalist leaders like Hungary’s Viktor Orban – young Jewish Americans are continuing to distance themselves from the Jewish state: less than half of Modern Orthodox Jews between ages 18 and 34 support Israel, according to a 2017 survey in New York Jewish Week.
A US State Department report released last month found US Jews are also concerned about religious freedom in Israel, which has handed exclusive religious authority to the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate, leaving other Jewish denominations without control over ceremonies like marriage and burials.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
Source : RT - Daily news
Jewish assimilation in US is ‘like a second Holocaust,’ Israeli minister claims
Jewish assimilation in US is ‘like a second Holocaust,’ Israeli minister claims
