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Shocking Assimilation in Israel
by Yisrael Rosner
Data from the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Population Authority of the Interior Ministry reveal, for the first time, the scope of a disquieting phenomenon: over 100,000 couples in Israel are intermarried - that is, one of the two is a non-Jew. In most cases a man is married to a non-Jewess, in which case, their children are not Jewish.
The daily Israel Today has exposed these facts for the first time, laying the blame for this upon the botei din which are lax in dealing with the conversion of minors, while it is clear that such conversion in minors of families not observing Torah and mitzvos is not valid to begin with. In this expose, self-interested groups are attempting to highlight the problem in order to force the wicked government to speed up the reform in conversion which will lower the criteria for conversion according to Halochoh to a state of what they consider "friendly, satisfactory conversion."
As noted, in most cases, the Population Authority, per request of Dr. Netanel Fisher, head of the Academic Center of Science and Law, reveals that it is the woman who is non-Jewish. In Israel today there are a total of 1.3 million couples of which 1.260 million are both Jews according to the definitions of the Interior Ministry, while 85,000 couples are mixed, that is, intermarried.
By analysis, this tragedy is intensified since in most cases it is the woman who is not Jewish, so that, according to Halochoh, the children are not Jewish either. The dismaying statistics show that 52,000 Jewish men are married to gentiles, with 32,000 Jewish women married to gentiles.
It should be noted that according to the report in Israel Today, the statistics of the Bureau are optimistic in presenting the bald facts, as opposed to the updated data of the Interior Ministry which report some 111,000 mixed marriages of Jews married to Israeli gentiles.
Another conclusion drawn from the Bureau's data is that of the great majority of Jewish men and women married to gentiles, 87 percent define themselves are "without religion." Most of the non-Jewish spouses are from the former Soviet Union.
MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni
MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni responded to the blatantly political attempt to advance the program of those who want to water down the conversion requirements in Israel. "This is exactly an example of someone doing an awful thing and they asking for mercy and consideration. This evil government initiates dangerous policies that are supposed to solve problems but in reality make things much worse. According to experience, these policies cause even more assimilation, not less. If this agenda is advanced we may have to set up our own population registry, subject to the decision of gedolei Yisrael."
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