As studies continue to report on the growing phenomenon of intermarriage and the decline of the Jewish population, a new Spanish translation of a book chronicling one rabbi's correspondence with a soon-to-be intermarried Catholic is causing a stir in South America.
Intermarriage Book Offers Glimpse Into One Man’s Struggle
As studies continue to report on the growing phenomenon of intermarriage and the decline of the Jewish population, a new Spanish translation of a book chronicling one rabbi’s correspondence with a soon-to-be intermarried Catholic is causing a stir in South America.
Those who read the book’s English edition, which hit stores last year, hailed Dear Rabbi, Why Can’t I Marry Her? as an invaluable tool in conveying the dangers of intermarriage. It was that response that prompted the book’s author, Rabbi Eliezer Shemtov, to commission the new translation.
“I didn’t really set out to write a book on intermarriage,” said Shemtov, co-director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Uruguay. “The book is a result of correspondence that was generated in answer to an e-mail I received from a Catholic boy who wondered why the parents of his Jewish girlfriend rejected him just because he wasn’t Jewish.”
Shemtov, who hails from Brooklyn, N.Y., but has served Uruguay’s Jewish community since 1985, first posted the edited e-mail exchanges on the Chabad.org Web site. Hundreds of people posted comments on his back-and-forth with the young man, leading Shemtov to repackage them in dialogue form.
Ploni
Now that’s Chabad!
(Not the strong-arm, corporate, goonism that we seen here in ________.)
reader
gret book! keep it up rabbi shemtov!
confused
how is there a “decline of the Jewish population” because of intermarriage? either way the children born to jewish women are jewish. are they any more jewish if their fathers are jewish?
Confused alright
To confused:
Firstly, that would only account for Jewish women who intermarried, not for Jewish men who’s offspring would not be considered Jewish.
Rabbi Shemtov makes the point that the children of a Jewish mother/non-Jewish father would be less likely to be observant, or even marry Jews themselves, thus the eventual dwindling over time of Jewish population.
Check out the book, ask a Rabbi, take a biology class
confused indeed
Did you think before you asked your question confused? clearly you don’t understand how assimilation works
students
Wow. indeed this is a great book! it should be made available to young Jews everywhere.