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Rabbi: assimilation is 'biggest threat' to Jewish people
300
rabbis from across Europe and Israel gathered this week in Paris
PARIS
(EJP) --- Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, former chief rabbi of Israel and
currently chairman of Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, said assimilation "is today
the biggest threat to the Jewish people."
Speaking
during a gathering in Paris of around 300 rabbis from across Europe and
Israel earlier this week, Lau said assimilation is a “bigger threat” than
anti-Semitism and terrorism for the future of Jews.
Lau
mentioned statistics from the United States showing that out of 100
Jews from the first generation only 3 are left as Jews in the fourth
generation.
This
was received as a shock by the rabbis who attended the annual
conference organized by the Rabbinical Center of Europe (RCE) in the
French capital.
“We
knew that the problem is more acute in the US. Unfortunately for Europe
we don’t have exact statistics, “ Asher Gold, the RCE’s spokesman,
told EJP.
But
in Britain, for example, Rabbi Yisroel Yaakov Lichtenstein, head of the
Jewish court in the UK, spoke of around 50 % assimilation among Jews
in this country.
“Young
people are not interested in religion, they have no connection with
Judaism,” said Asher Gold who regretted the disappearance of Jewish
values and Jewish identity. ...
Many
rabbis confirmed to the RCE that there is large scale of assimilation
amongst parts of European Jewry and that many communities are
"disappearing" as a result.
According
to Rabbi Lau, “there is no quick solution for this problem”.
But he stressed that rabbis are the key to the solution because today
they are the "real" Jewish leaders in each community. “We must
invest in spreading more Torah and more Jewish education," he said.
Other
topics discussed during the two-day conference were the resurgence of
anti-Semitism in Europe, bio-ethics, family, couple therapy and
relations with the Catholic Church in the light of the controversy with
the Vatican around Holocaust-denying British bishop Richard Williamson.
On
Wednesday, a delegation of rabbis met with French Interior Minister
Michèle Alliot-Marie who hailed the values of Judaism of respect
for human dignity.
Based
in Brussels, Belgium, the RCE is an organization dedicated to assisting
more than 600 rabbis as well as Jewish communities across Europe in
their daily activities.
SOURCE:
www.ejpress.org/article/35149
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