It seems to me that as a people who have been persecuted for 5,000 years, we Jews would have a more enlightened and less secular attitude toward those we choose as life partners.
Amy Odell’s recent article, “Shalom, Be Alone,” touches on the subject of inter-marriage. Many of her readers had a strong reaction to her opinion that many of us are limiting ourselves by only choosing Jewish mates. I understand that many feel that Judaism is not just a religion or a culture/ethnicity, but something akin to the master race (and who could argue with that?). Talking recently to a non-Jew friend of mine, she said that she refused to date anyone that is not at least a little bit Italian. It dawned on me once again, that while I belong to and associate with a community that has survived over 5,000 years by sticking together and abiding by their laws, we are living in a world where remaining ethnically pure is no longer viable. We fight for peace and equal rights and then turn around with the prejudice that marrying outside our ethnic/religious group is the way of the fallen. If it is still 1850, I would like to know why women aren’t completely covered and wearing corsets. Anyone?
Perhaps it’s true, as we’ve recently heard, that Jews possess some genetic advantages. Maybe avoiding inter-relationships really will make you more to likely birth another doctor, lawyer, or banker. But if your reasons are to preserve the Jewish genes that have been around for the past 5,000 years, allow me to refer you to Meryl Yourish’s post about James Watson and his double helix. Genes, by the way, are not fixed, they oscillate, so who we associate with could actually change our genetic structure. Beware, my superior friends.
I expect Lubavitch Jews not to inter-marry, as I expect Hasidic Jews not to intermarry; but these sects are isolated from society and many carry unrealistic views about how we heathens live our lives. Not to mention, they are usually not fair-haired and blue-eyed, which as we all know is absolutely and undeniably horrendous. No matter where you are from or whom you marry you can raise your children ethnically and religiously in any combination you desire. I, as a half French/half Greek Jew can choose to raise my kids as Mexican-Korean Hindus if it suits my fancy. We have choices about how we identify ourselves and our children and I am asking the Jewish community, one which knows more about closed-mindedness than any other group, to think a outside the box. It’s ludicrous that we as Jews have a problem intermarrying (which we should leave to the Greeks and Italians) but absolutely no problem driving a huge Mercedes, or Volkswagen, the chosen car of the Nazis. Maybe it is time for us all to interbreed. One race under G-d, indivisible… that way we have no reason to doubt or hate anyone else or their race/religion or what have you. The moral of my story: Interbreed now, the world depends on it.
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