Does assimilation mean disappearance?
Outside of modest growth by Mormons, Adventists and some Pentecostals, most U.S. religious denominations are losing members. And, surprisingly, among the leaders is Judaism.
After surviving multiple conquests, diasporas, the Spanish Inquisition, the Russian pogroms and the Nazi Holocaust, traditional Jewish life is now in danger of waning, partly due to its own success.
Acceptance, assimilation, a decreasing birth rate, a trend among young Jews toward a more secular existence and increasing marriage outside the faith are all causing concern among today’s traditional Jews.
As Jewish scholar Alan Dershowitz recently put it, “the very success of Jews as individuals has contributed to their vulnerability as a people.”
Historically Judaism has experienced some of its most dynamic growth during periods of extreme persecution. Mistreatment has actually helped unify the faith.
Dershowitz continues, “As the result of skyrocketing rates of intermarriage and assimilation, not to mention the lowest birth rate of any ethnic or religious community in the United States, the era of enormous Jewish influence on American life may be coming to an end. Along with their outstanding academic achievements, influence and accomplishments, Jews have made enormous contributions to American life in science, medicine, the law, the arts and especially in philanthropy. But our numbers may be reduced to the point to where our impact on American life may become marginalized.”
During World War II Jews comprised 3.3% of the U.S. population but made up 4.3% of the U.S. armed forces. Of American Nobel Prize winners, 37%, or eighteen times their percentage of the population, have been Jewish Americans. And in business, the arts and the professions Jews have contributed far out of proportion to their actual population numbers
As many as half of young Jews today refer to themselves as ethnic but not necessarily religious Jews. And fully half of them marry outside their faith, which greatly disturbs the more traditional Jews. Jews have long feared assimilation almost as much as annihilation as a threat to their continued existence as a distinct people. The reasons for this are several. Judaism’s troubled past of discrimination and persecution has acted as a unifying force for the preservation of the faith and traditions. And although anti-semitism hardly exists today in its former fury, ethnic hatred and violence continue to crop up here, in Europe and in the Muslim Middle East as witnessed by recent news.
Whereas the first waves of Jewish immigrants tended to huddle together in America’s larger northeastern cities, today many Jews have moved to the interior of the country and to the suburbs, becoming more dispersed and mainstreamed. Today many Jewish groups are also emphasizing the cultural as opposed to the racial and religious aspects of their Jewishness as way of distinguishing themselves in a society that is fast absorbing and neutralizing their historical uniqueness.
Is there a historical explanation for the record of Jewish excellence, or are they simply smarter than the rest of us? Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jews tend to have slightly higher IQS than the world average while Sephardic (Spanish and Middle Eastern) Jews are about average.
But throughout most of history Jewish communities have traditionally educated all their children (males, that is, until relatively recently), not just the children of the wealthy. I feel this has been the largest contributor to the Jewish record of excellence. Isn’t there a lesson here for the rest of us?