Comments on: An End to Jewish Life in the Diaspora?…asks Isi Leibler

By: Liat Nagar

Liat Nagar — Tue, 12 Nov 2013 07:38:54 +0000

I endorse both what Otto and Halina have had to say. Isi, it’s important to look behind statistics to see real people and real lives – in doing so you find context and specificity, not assumptions through numerical averages. One does not have to be brought up in a traditional, or Orthodox, Jewish home to find their Jewishness and ultimately embrace it; I am an example of that. Intermarriage of itself does not mean the end of, or diminishing of, one’s Jewishness. Allowing oneself to be known as a Jew to others who are not Jewish can be a productive and worthwhile thing.
Halina, I love your story, and the tonality of it, the latter being both warm and wise.

By: Halina

Halina — Thu, 07 Nov 2013 06:02:26 +0000

An octogenarian, who survived as a child,as the sole survivor of the large family exterminated during WWII, I am very optimistic. Have married two non Jewish men, have 6 grandchildren all very aware of their partly Jewish roots. My youngest granddaughter met a truly Jewish boy and decided to have an Orthodox marriage in the well known synagogue. The way she keeps the home and generally the whole way of their life makes me certain that she will bring up a generation of young Jews. They will be different to my Orthodox ancestors, but not less Jewish. There is a lot of truth in the statement in the above article that anti-Semitism and persecutions kept Jews the way they were at the time. Now one wants to be a Jew of the free will. Practicing Tikkun Olam is a beautiful way of Jewish behaviour. I love the way I have developed in years, and don’t think that there is a danger for further existence of Jewishness. There are many different ways of being a Jew and Israel is the most important force in keeping it grow.

By: Otto Waldmann

Otto Waldmann — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 11:48:58 +0000

One of the very few messy musings by Isi.
True, quite a few statistics listed here may suport – apparently – Isi’s conclusions, but some of the comments lack logical corelation.
For instance, it is negligent to state that antisemitism would not play a role in the distancing of certain Jews from Judaism.
A wrong comment regarding Arthur Koestler. Koestler did not just say that Jews should go to Israel. In one of his appaling coments during an interview he took Ben Gorion, Koestler – the idiot – stated that the Jews of Europe were not true Jews, only those living in Israel could be regarded as genuine Jews. I wont even go into the pathetic, dangerous, why not cretinistic, thesis developed by Koestler in his “The Thirteenth Tribe”. Isi should not dignify any of Koestler comments on the matter.
About the Simon Rawidowic comments regarding the “generational” breaking of Jewish links of the identity chain, again, it is a fallacy of the first order.
Here Isi seems to be dealing with “voluntary” departures under cultural pressures – in fact an aculturalisation by assimilation into a more comfortable comprehensive alternative, – whereas most of the past “chain link ” breaches were in most cases caused by forceful intervention, targeted persecution of the most acute antisemitic type. A completely distinct situation to what we see in the USA and also some other democratic societies, Western Europe, Argentina etc.
It is worth repeating that I have seen better stuff from Isi’s pen.