American Jews and their views

Regarding Adam Epstein’s article “Response to Joel C Rosenberg by an American Jew” ( November 22), I would mention three matters:

1. 80% of American Jews are marrying out ( Recent Pew reports).

2. 75% of American Jews voted for the Democratic Party in the recent 2020 USA Election ( press reports).

3. Approximately 4,000 years ago, when Moses led the Jewish People out of Egypt ( the Exodus), 80% of the Jewish people remained in Egypt ( Rabbinical commentators).

It is tragic that the assimilation that lost 80% of the Jewish People 4,000 years ago, is well on the way to repeating itself in the USA today. How many halachically Jewish grandchildren will there be in two or three generations in the USA?

I will not stoop to comment on Epstein’s article, which made his views quite obvious, but I beg him to learn a little about our people’s history and teachings before it is too late for him and his family. We desperately don’t want to lose them forever.

PS: Regarding Len Bennett’s November 23 letter “Show 2334 the door,” a gentle and respectful nudge, San Remo was 1920 not 2019 ( these wretched typos) and the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine ( 1922), was actually given to His Britannic Majesty.

DAVID MARRIOTT

Netanya

According to Haley Cohen (“The Orthodox monopoly and the Biden administration,” November 20 ) American Reform leaders are hoping that the Biden administration will advocate for religious pluralism in Israel, in particular with respect to conversion and prayer at the Kotel. As she also quotes the Pew index that only 5% of Israelis identifying with Conservative and Reform Judaism combined, they are asking for the tail to wag the dog.

It is unconscionable for Reform Rabbi Joshua Stanton to speak about their members being “disenfranchised from spiritual practice in the own homeland.” He knows full well that they can practice their form of religion freely in their own temples, they can pray at the Kotel like anyone else and, providing they are halachically Jewish, will be treated by the chief rabbinate equally with any other Jew. What they cannot do is to strip Judaism of its basic tenets and practices and then dictate that Orthodox Jews should bend to their will and pay for their institutions.

It is laughable to claim that both Biden and Harris will be disheartened by their “Jewish family members” being denied equal religious rights. Can their sons and daughtersin- law feel more excluded than they made themselves by marrying out? For example, Biden’s daughter married a Jewish doctor who was baptized in order to marry and had an interfaith wedding officiated by a Catholic priest and a Reform “rabbi,” which was touted as being partly Jewish because it started with baruch haba, included a ketubah and a glass was broken!

These Americans who are presiding over the greatestever loss of Jewish identity within their own communities should leave Israel alone.

ALAN HALIBARD Beit Shemesh