By Erica ChernofskyBBC Information, Jerusalem

Intermarriage – when Jews wed non-Jews – was called a danger to your future success of this Jewish country. What exactly occurred whenever there were reports that the Israeli prime minister’s son ended up being dating A norwegian non-jew?

The Norwegian daily Dagen a week ago reported that Norwegian Sandra Leikanger and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son Yair really are a few, to that your office of Mr Netanyahu has answered – in accordance with Israeli news – by insisting they truly are only university classmates. But the damage was already done.

Leikanger is not Jewish, an undeniable fact who has sparked outrage in Israel, a country that is jewish since its inception has fought to possess its Jewish character recognised around the world. While Judaism just isn’t a religion that is proselytising Leikanger, like most non-Jew, does have the option of converting should she wish to become Jewish.

Intermarriage and assimilation are quintessential Jewish fears and also have been called a risk to the future success of this reasonably small Jewish country. In accordance with Jewish legislation, the religion is passed down through mom, so if a Jewish man marries a non-Jewish girl, their children would not be considered Jews.

The chance that children of a blended couple would keep or pass on any Jewish traditions to future generations is radically diminished. As today’s price of intermarriage among Diaspora Jews appears above 50%, many are worried that the nation that survived persecution, pogroms therefore the Holocaust could die out of eventually its very own undoing.

The anxiety had been expressed within an open page to Yair Netanyahu by the Israeli organisation Lehava, which works to stop assimilation, in a post on its Facebook web page, which warned him that their grand-parents “are switching over within their graves they failed to dream that their grandchildren would not be Jews”.

The issue of intermarriage has mainly been one for Diaspora Jews – the Jews whom reside outside Israel. Inside Israel, Jews (75% of the population) and Arabs (21%) seldom marry, however with an influx of foreign workers and globalisation for the Israeli community, in recent years the occurrence has emerged.

“God forbid, if it’s true, woe is me personally,” states Aryeh Deri, frontrunner for the Ultra-Orthodox Shas party, up to a local radio section, lamenting the headlines that the prime minister’s son was dating a non-Jew. ” I do not like referring to personal problems but whether it’s real God forbid, then it’s no longer your own matter – it’s the symbol associated with the Jewish people.”

The popular Israeli satirical television show, aired a parody showcasing infamous historical oppressors of the Jews including the biblical Pharaoh and the Spanish inquisitor over the weekend, Eretz Nehederet. The show culminated with Yair african dating apps for iphone Netanyahu’s non-Jewish girlfriend, whom they called the “newest existential threat”. She sang in regards to a shikse, a non-Jewish woman, sarcastically crooning that she actually is “worse than Hitler”.

But jokes apart, even the prime minister’s brother-in-law, Hagai Ben-Artzi, spoke away highly on the event, warning their nephew that when he doesn’t end their relationship with Leikanger, it is as though he could be spitting in the graves of his grand-parents.

“From my standpoint, if he does any such thing, i know won’t enable him to have near their graves,” he told an Ultra-Orthodox web site. ” This is the many awful thing that is threatening and had been a threat throughout the history of the Jewish individuals. More awful than leaving Israel is marriage by having a gentile. Should this happen, Jesus forbid, We’ll bury myself I do not understand where. I’ll walk within the roads and tear my hair off – and here this is occurring.”

Anybody who’s watched Fiddler on the Roof, where Tevye says his daughter is dead to him for marrying a non-Jew, knows the matter happens to be an one that is sensitive Jews.

But Dr Daniel Gordis, an author and specialist commentator on Israel and Judaism, says that has changed in the previous few decades, specially in the Diaspora Jewish community.

Whereas once it had been significantly frowned upon for a Jew of any flow to marry a non-Jew, today, among unaffiliated (no synagogue), non-denominational (people who don’t recognize with any movement), conservative or reform Jews, it is really not the taboo it used to be. The intermarriage prices of non-denominational Jews approach 80%, he says.

But among Orthodox Jews plus in Israel, it is still more controversial.

“It’s not just a racial problem, it is not a superiority problem, it is not a xenophobia issue,” he states, explaining there are two known reasons for the opposition to intermarriage, certainly one of which is that it’s simply forbidden in Halacha, or law that is jewish.

“The other thing is that Jews came to observe that truly the only way that is real transmit powerful Jewish identity for their kids is for them to be raised by two Jewish moms and dads. Young ones raised by one Jewish parent and one non-Jewish moms and dad do have more tepid, more fragile, thinner Jewish identities than their Jewish moms and dads did.

“they truly are statistically more likely to marry non-Jews. There isn’t any guarantee, but statistically it is extremely difficult to produce a son or daughter because of the sense that is same of passion that the older generation has if he’s raised by an individual who does not share that tale.”

The end result, he adds, is in the usa, ” there exists a sense that is rapidly eroding of commitment, an entire collapsing of Jewish literacy, and a thinning of Jewish identity”.

Therefore Israelis are petrified, claims Rabbi Dr Donniel Hartman, mind for the Shalom Hartman Institute of Jewish studies, because since intermarriage is really so uncommon there, when an Israeli marries a non-Jew they see it just as if he’s making Judaism.

” When you are a little individuals and you lose your constituents it makes you quite nervous. We have been 14 million Jews within the world, that’s it,” he explains. ” What’s changed in modern life that is jewish of Israel is the fact that a Jew marrying a non-Jew doesn’t necessarily mean making Jewish life anymore.”

This may be a phenomenon that is new Judaism, and Hartman claims Jews must increase to your challenge.

“The battle against intermarriage is a battle that is lost. We are a folks who are intermarried – the issue is maybe not how to stop it, but how exactly to contact spouses that are non-Jewish welcome them into our community,” he claims.

“Our outreach has to be better, our institutions have to be better, our experiences that are jewish to be more compelling, we must begin working much harder.

” staying in the contemporary world requires one to be nimble. Things are changing, I do not understand if it is for the worse or otherwise not, which will depend on which we do. Nevertheless the global world is evolving, and we have to evolve along with it.”