Not everyone can get away with this kind of public ethnic solidarity; to express similar concerns. — Ed.
RabbiIsrael Meir Lau, former chief rabbi of Israel and currently chairman ofYad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, said assimilation “is today the biggestthreat to the Jewish people.”
Speakingduring a gathering in Paris of around 300 rabbis from across Europe andIsrael earlier this week, Lau said assimilation is a “bigger threat”than anti-Semitism and terrorism for the future of Jews. Lau mentionedstatistics from the United States showing that out of 100 Jews from thefirst generation only 3 are left as Jews in the fourth generation. This was received asa shock by the rabbis who attended the annual conference organized bythe Rabbinical Center of Europe (RCE) in the French capital. “We knew that theproblem is more acute in the US. Unfortunately for Europe we don’t haveexact 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 notinterested in religion, they have no connection with Judaism,” saidAsher Gold who regretted the disappearance of Jewish values and Jewishidentity.
But this is also true among the Christians, he said. Many rabbis confirmedto the RCE that there is large scale of assimilation amongst parts ofEuropean Jewry and that many communities are “disappearing” as a result. According to RabbiLau, “there is no quick solution for this problem”. But he stressedthat rabbis are the key to the solution because today they are the”real” Jewish leaders in each community. “We must invest in spreadingmore Torah and more Jewish education,” he said. Other topicsdiscussed during the two-day conference were the resurgence ofanti-Semitism in Europe, bio-ethics, family, couple therapy andrelations with the Catholic Church in the light of the controversy withthe Vatican around Holocaust-denying British bishop Richard Williamson. On Wednesday,a delegation of rabbis met with French Interior Minister MichèleAlliot-Marie who hailed the values of Judaism of respect for humandignity. Based in Brussels,Belgium, the RCE is an organization dedicated to assisting more than600 rabbis as well as Jewish communities across Europe in their dailyactivities.