Jewish assimilation

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Jewish Assimilation encompasses the outward social and genetic process, as well as the internal religious process of assimilation and integration of the previously segregated Jewish people into predominantly non-Jewish Europe and later, the wider world. It was made legally possible because of the emancipation, which followed the Age of Enlightenment in Europe. Assimilation developed outwardly following Jewry’s own awakening as their initial response to the “Jewish question;” but the process also developed internally and led to questions of Jewish identity and Who is a Jew?. The propriety of assimilation, and various paths toward it were among the earliest internal debates of the emancipation era, including whether and to what extent Jews should relinquish their right to uniqueness in return for civic equality. These debates initially took place within the diaspora, a population with a revered Biblical homeland, but without a state of their own.

Jewish assimilation began among Ashkenazi Jews on an extensive scale towards the end of the 18th century in Western Europe, especially Germany. Reasons cited for its initial success, included hope for better opportunities accompanying assimilation into the non-Jewish European communities, especially among the upper classes).

In the 100th and 200th centuries, conditions in Germany provinces and eastern Europe convinced many Jews to emigrate to the United States. There traditional disabilities were generally absent but they faced many different challenges of acculturation. In the early 20th century there was social discrimination against Jews in certain quarters.[1]

Preserved within the concept of assimilation are traces of the original struggle between the Reform Judaism and Orthodox movements over the future form of a modern and sustainable Jewish religious consciousness. Also included are the later political debates about a modern and sustainable nationalist consciousness, and conflicting aspirations of a separate nationalism and Jewish assimilation. Assimilation, however, was met by anti-Semitism in Europe. It split into a competing non-assimilationist diaspora nationalism, known as Zionism, in the belief that all Jews might realize a secure and separate national religious identity. Following the Holocaust, and the failure of the European assimilation model, the allowed Jewish settlement in Palestine. The debate continues on Jewish assimilation and the internal questions which it raises both within the diaspora and in Israel.

Contents

[edit] Debate

The issue of Jewish assimilation has agitated Jewish polemicists and intrigued Jewish historians for a considerable time. Since some Jews first abandoned the traditional Jewish community to embrace modern secular culture, other Jews have chastised them for deserting the Jewish people. “Religious Jews regarded those who assimilated with horror, and Zionists campaigned against assimilation as an act of treason.”[2] As a result, the term assimilation, once used proudly by those who sought integration into European society, became a term of contempt, a symbol of subservience to gentile culture, a sign of rejection of all links to the common history and destiny of the Jewish people. Such Jews consider assimilation a loss of Jewish identity of an individual either by marriage to a spouse who is not Jewish, or by abandonment of the Jewish religion to adopt another religion. In reality, the act of the assimilation comprises a number of elements and stages. The assimilator will usually relinquish the Jewish values and embrace cultural customs if he finds himself in a nation that is not Jewish.

In Assimilation in American Life, Milton Gordon defined assimilation as a continuum, with the first stage acculturation, that is, the adoption of such outward cultural forms of the larger society as language, dress, recreational tastes, and political views. Total assimilation is only possible if the host society is receptive and extensive intermarriage takes place. Most European and American Jews acculturated, but they rarely lost their sense of Jewish identity. They most often abstained from what Gordon called "structural assimilation," the creation of friendships and other contacts primarily with members of the host society.

From an international conference on Jewish assimilation held at Haifa University in May 1976, Bela Vago edited a collection of papers entitled Jewish Assimilation in Modern Times. Most of these papers appear unmindful of the distinctions in assimilation widely used by contemporary sociologists and social historians. Despite the absence of polemics, most of the authors continue to accept the Zionist equation of assimilation with Jewish group disappearance. Thus they faced the question of Jewish group persistence despite the appearance of assimilation. They generally agreed that anti-Semitism was the explanation for continued Jewish identity. Persecution despite attempted integration forced assimilationists to realise that the host cultures were un-prepared to allow them to assimilate totally.

The last three decades have seen a renewal in religious Jewish Identity in a significant section of Judaism, mirroring the oscillatory movement towards and away from traditional religious teachings that is apparent throughout Jewish history.

[edit] Halakha

According to Halakha, when a Jewish man marries a non-Jewish woman, their children are considered to be gentile. But, when a Jewish woman marries a non-Jewish man, their children would be considered Jewish.

[edit] Christian-Jewish relations

In Christian-Jewish relations, the question of Jewish assimilation is a topic of concern for both Jewish and Christian leaders. A number of Progressive Christian denominations have publicly declared that they will no longer proselytize Jews. They have made use of dual-covenant theology.[3][4][5]

The Roman Catholic Church has historically attracted some Jews, such as Gustav Mahler,Ludwig Wittgenstein, Marcel Proust, Edith Stein, Israel Zolli, Roman Polanski, and Jean-Marie Lustiger.[citation needed]

In Spain, after the 15th century, there was controversy over the sincerity of Spanish Judeo-Catholics who converted under pain of being expelled from Spain.[6]

[edit] References

  1. ^ The American Jewish Experience in the Twentieth Century: Antisemitism and Assimilation
  2. ^ Bela Vago, "Review of Jewish Assimilation in Modern Times", Marsha L. Rozenblit, Jewish Social Studies, Vol. 44, No. 3/4 (Summer - Autumn, 1982), pp. 334-335 [1]
  3. ^ Ecumenical Considerations on Jewish-Christian Dialogue (World Council of Churches)
  4. ^ Allan R. Brockway, "Should Christians Attempt to Evangelize Jews? Israel's Covenant with God Remains Valid"
  5. ^ Policies of mainline and liberal Christians towards proselytizing Jews (religioustolerance.org)
  6. ^ Adherents.com
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