Just who and what promotes assimilation of Jews

Assimilation of the Jews is not promoted by those who try to comprehend the concepts of the Torah for the Jews’ life in the Most High’s wide world by an intellectual interpretation of the Torah.

Mostly, the adherents of the traditional interpretation of the Torah, who attempt to hold the Jews in spiritual isolation from all the Most High’s wide world, promote assimilation of Jews, sticking labels on all who leave spiritual isolation for the Most High’s wide world of the type, “he is a missionary,” “he is a Christian,” “he dared to have an opinion that contradicts the opinion by all the esteemed rabbis,” and the like.

Let us begin with the statistics.

Europe’s population from 1840 to 1940 increased from 260 million to 580 million. The European population in this 100-year period increased by 580/260=2.3 times despite all the wars and epidemics that killed many tens of millions people.

There were 4.5 million Jews in the whole world in 1840. In 1940, nearly 16.6 million Jews were counted in the world In this century the number of Jews increased by 16.6/4.5=3.7 despite all the wars and pogroms. The Jewish people increased in size much more than the Europeans, in what the Torah urges – “go forth and multiply.”

After the Second World War and the Holocaust the Jewish people continued to grow quantitatively, but the rates of their growth equaled the rates of growth of Gentile peoples. In the period from 1950 to 2000, Europe’s population increased from 594 to 729 million – that is, by 1.2 times. Just as the numbers of Jews in the whole world increased by 1.2 times – from 11.3 to 13.2 million.

As is seen from these statistics, everything is fine with the Jews’ quantitative growth – it is like all the rest. But the Jews have begun to change spiritually, and to change very essentially.

If in 1840—1850 practically all the Jews lived according to the traditional interpretation of the Torah (in Israeli terminology – the “dati” interpretation), then now not more than 15% of Jews (in the U.S. a bit less, in Israel a bit more) follow such an interpretation of the Torah.  And this means the quantity of Jews living according to the traditional interpretation of the Torah for 150 years decreased at least by half, from 4-4.5 to 2 million.

The overwhelming majority of Jews in America, Europe and Israel do not live life according to the traditional interpretation of the Torah – nearly two million live that way, but 11-12 million have left such a life.

Where did they go and isn’t such an offset the start of assimilation and an assimilation much more substantial than assimilation by conversion to Christianity?

Let us return again to the statistics. There are no precise statistics for Christian assimilation of Jews, but many researchers assume that over the last 150 years nearly a hundred thousand Jews converted to Christianity. That is approximately 700-800 per year.

Thus, less than a thousand Jews are assimilated annually by conversion to Christianity, and more than ten million have left the traditional interpretation of the Torah and are on their way to secular/atheistic assimilation. It seems we must fear not imaginary Christian assimilation, but real atheistic-secular assimilation.

What are the reasons for real atheistic-secular assimilation? These reasons are not difficult to discern, recalling those spiritual and social changes that occurred in Europe in the middle of the 19^th century.

Until the 1840-1860s, the Jews of Europe were confined by the laws of the European countries in politics and economics, that forced the Jews to live in conditions of spiritual isolation – in their own ghetto in their own community. It was enough to live according to the Torah in the conditions of such an isolated life of the traditional interpretation of the Torah (as provided by the rabbis).

In the 1840-1860s, the majority of Europe’s countries granted Jews practically full citizenship rights, and the Jews fully used these rights.  The Jews got involved in active work in practically all spheres of cultural, economic and political life in the countries of their residence. There is nothing strange in that – that was the way it is supposed to be. It is supposed to be that way too according to the mission of the Jews as the Chosen People – chosen for continuation of the Most High’s creative work, started by Him in the Six Days of the World’s Creation – chosen for the involvement of all, Jews and Gentiles, for the creation according to the Most High’s Design in all spheres of human activity.

For the Jews who finally left for the Most High’s wide world, there had to be spiritual instructions of how to live according to the Torah in the completely new conditions. And the rabbis turned out to be unprepared for it.

Part of the rabbis tried to stop time and freeze everything as it had been forever – it is those rabbis whom they now call the Orthodox Haredim.

Another part of the rabbis began to call for the practically complete spiritual merging with the peoples of the countries of residence – these are the majority of the present Reformist rabbis.

And only a small part of the rabbis, such as, for example, Rabbi Cook from Palestinian Israel, Rabbi Solveichik from America and Rabbi Sacks from Great Britain, met the challenge of the Torah and began to interpret the Torah intellectually in order to help the Jews who had left spiritual isolation for the Most High’s wide world and to live there according to the Torah.

But the majority of Jews were left in the lurch.  And they began to search for themselves spiritually in this new wide world.

And they began to be assimilate in this world into different earthly ideologies which verbally sounded the way the Torah could sound – they advanced social justice. But in reality, these ideologies had nothing in common with the Torah – they were earthly ideologies with earthly deities leading them. It is a Marxist-Communistic ideology led by the earthly deities of Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Mao and related to it the liberal leftist ideology led by many ideologues and leaders, starting with John Locke and the many after him.

Both Marxism and Liberalism refute the principles of justice from the One God denoted in the Torah (Bible), and they advance their own principles of such justice. Marxism defined such social justice as the violent redistribution of riches from the rich to the poor. Liberalism maintains that some kind of natural universal laws of social justice exist, the essence of which the Liberals determine for all others.

Thus, the majority of Jews who began to leave for the Most High’s wide world in the middle of the 19^th century, ended up among the ideologies that refute God and the Torah, and without the necessary spiritual support of the rabbis. And that began to lead to actual spiritual secular assimilation – not to Christian assimilation. And if one compares secular and Christian assimilation, then Christian assimilation is much better than secular from the point of view of the Most High: with Christian assimilation the Jews are left in the Kingdom of the One God; with secular assimilation the Jews leave for the kingdom of the heathen deities.

And the evidence of this spiritual assimilation – even yet again – will be this year’s presidential elections when many spiritually assimilated Jews vote for the Marxist Liberal with the Moslem face Obama, and not for the adherent of the Torah/Bible and the One God. And no fewer than six hundred rabbis will vote for Obama with them – these are the “Rabbis for Obama,” who themselves have ceased living according to the Torah.

Rabbis and wise Jews are needed who will look truth in the eye: the main Jewish assimilation is heathen secular assimilation, and it will occur until the intellectual interpretation of the Torah begins to explain to Jews how to live according to the Torah in the Most High’s wide Gentile world. The rabbis themselves must learn to live according to the Torah in the Most High’s wide Gentile world, and then begin to teach all the rest.

The danger of heathen secular assimilation exists not only in American and other countries of the Western World. Such danger exists also in Israel itself, where too many Jews become those assimilated in spirit and leave for Easy Street with a demand for heathen secular social justice instead of Justice according to the Torah.