Tel Aviv Shliach: Israeli Jews Are Assimilating

In an address to hundreds of senior officials at the Education Ministry in Jerusalem, including Education Minister Shai Piron and the Director General of the Ministry, Rabbi Yoseph Gerlitzky, the head Shliach to Tel Aviv-Yaffo and Chief Rabbi of Central Tel Aviv, bemoaned the education system in Israel, saying that “the existence of the State of Israel alone is not the solution to assimilation. Only an authentic Jewish education instilled with Jewish pride can stem the tide of assimilation.”

The Rabbi’s words caught the crowd by surprise but he said he had no choice but to voice the truth. “Is anybody actually surprised these days when a graduate of the Israeli educational system travels abroad and forms a relationship with someone outside of the Jewish faith? This is exactly what our kindergartens, lower schools, high schools and universities are aspiring to! We are teaching our children to integrate with other nationalities and to hold equality above all other ideals, since we are all human beings.

“In the hardest of times, every Jewish child knew to recite Shema Yisroel and knew that he was part of the Chosen People and had a special affinity for Eretz Israel. Therefore, in line with the words of the Director General that we need to educate our children not only for achievement but also for values, I want to convey a painful thought.

“I say this with a heavy heart, and it was publicized in many newspapers, both English and Hebrew, that assimilation is beginning to occur here in Israel. Statistics have shown that if assimilation in the United States or Canada has reached 50% or 52%, among Israeli expatriates, the number has reached 58% (5% more!). This is a shocking figure! It represents young men and women who completed twelve years of schooling in Israel, three years of military service, and several years of college, for some of them, yet upon arriving in a foreign land, choose to intermarry without thinking twice.

“Therefore, it seems to me, that we should do some serious soul-searching. I thus turn to the members of the Ministry of Education, to Rabbi Shai Piron, the Minister of Education, and to the entire administration, and suggest that we have to work toward a situation in which not even a single Jew agrees to assimilate. A person who is familiar with Jewish history knows that we should be sitting shiva over the present situation and tearing our clothing in mourning.

“Israel should not be ashamed to teach Jewish children about Shabbat, kashrut and the words of the Shema Yisrael prayer,” said Gerlitzky.

At that point the rabbi related of a shocking episode that occurred at his synagogue in Tel Aviv a few months ago. “A teacher from one of the public schools brought her students to the synagogue to acquaint them with Jewish tradition. They were told about the giving of the Torah and the role of a Jewish child to behave in a Jewish manner and to observe Mitzvot. They were also shown what Tefilin is and importance of donning them daily.”

“The children were vividly moved and excited. The teacher noticed their great enthusiasm about Judaism and one of the students asked the rabbi to put Tefilin on him. This seemed to bother her and she quickly stood up and said “OK children, time to move on to the next religion at the church in Yaffo and I hope you will display the same enthusiasm there as you did in the synagogue.”

“This broke my heart,” said Rabbi Gerlitzky.

“If the State of Israel is truly interested in curbing assimilation, the only real solution is making a change at the root of how Israel teaches its youth. The Israeli government needs to finally understand that after decades of failing to offer its youth a serious Jewish education, these children are growing up and leaving their homeland and their faith. This could lead God forbid to the destruction of the entire Jewish people.”

Following his talk, many officials – including the Minister – approached the rabbi and suggested to form a special state committee to deal with this tragic situation.

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8 Comments

  • MaidofCH

    Unfortunately liberalism has produced mass alienism & hostility toward traditional society. A frei friend of mine dismissed Judaism as “a racist, homophobic religion.” Sadder than that is someone who doesn’t relate to his/her heritage at all.

  • RABBI MEIR KAHANE, HY"D

    Is famous for saying the following about the non-orthodox “alternatives”: “They reformed it, conserved it, and reconstructed it to death!”

  • Why I stayed in Chabad

    Back in the 70’s, when assimilation was at a much lower, but, still, alarming level, ALL Jewish organizations (frum and not) were concerned. The joke, as Meir pointed out was,”it’s kind of ironic that you have these meetings to address assimilation; it is you liberal Jews who are RESPONSIBLE for it!…”

    Now as for me, when I finally saw the truth (credit goes primarily to R. Avigdor Miller, ZT”L, when I read his book,”Rejoice o Youth,” while in Lubavitch yeshiva), the question I had was, “Okay, the Frum way is the truth, and all Jews have an obligation to do likewise.
    But why Chabad, there are so many other Frum derachim? The answer was simple, if you are concerned about preventing our demise, CH”V, because of assimilation, who was making the most vigorous effort to combat it? This needed no research, the obvious answer was Chabad.

  • Jewish kids doesn't know the Jewish law and not the Jewish history at all

    Check any religious and secular Jewish youth few simple question: when Jews came to land of Israel ? When was the first temple built and what year ? Who was the ruler ? Who are Jewish kings, how long was their cadency ? How many wars were in land of Israel ?….. Who are the main Jewish heroes and why ? …..
    Etc etc etc …..Who is the World Creator ? ……the Jewish history , Jewish law , traditions starts from the first day of creation …..
    We need to know our roots and to be proud of being Jewish . We need to invest in the hinuh

  • Great Dane

    On Sukkos I met a non-religious Israeli who told me that he had purchased a mehudar lulav and esrog set. My father was not present for this conversation. Later, my father asked him if he wanted to bentch on the lulav and esrog we had, and he was delighted to. He then told my father that although he had bought one himself, he had no idea what he was supposed to do with it other than keep it in his house for decoration on Sukkos. This in my mind represents a sad reality of the Israeli secular education system: here was a Jew whose traditions meant enough to him that he bought the set. He simply had never been taught what to do with them…

  • Sane Person

    For people who don’t believe in the religion, it’s a waste of time to teach

  • It's true, we are racist

    I’ll prove it, so simple. According to the concept of a Jew having a G-dly soul, that means that a black Jew is better than a white goy. That’s not racist?