Recently the Israeli media proclaimed to the horror of some that Yair Netanyahu, the 23 year old son of the Prime Minister has a beautiful Norwegian girlfriend who is studying in Israel. The religious and right wing press had a field day. His uncle and leading rabbis denounced him telling that “if he marries that “shiksha” that he is dead to them”.
Excuse me, but this falls under the category of “none of our business” who Yair is “shtupping”. Intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews in America is at an all time high of 58% according to the Pew Institute. My family has also experienced a high intermarriage rate with the joke being one day our Passover dinner will one day become an Easter Sunday dinner.
Intermarriage is here to stay. It’s not going to go away by wishing it away. Even Israelis that move to America are experiencing a very high rate of intermarriage. Love is love.
Moreover, being Israeli and living in the Jewish State, also does not deter intermarriage as Israelis are marrying non- Jews and non-halachic Jews ( Russian immigrants) as never before in the “Jewish ghetto”.
So what can we do? My solution is simple. If we have a strong Jewish identity we can convince the non-Jew to convert to Judaism. We will call this “Operation Take One and Convert One”.
The Jewish people are less than 14 million Souls. If all the Jewish boys and girls would go out and marry a non-Jew and convert them, our numbers would grow dramatically. Not only would our numbers grow but think of all the beautiful children we would have by altering our gene pool. Children like Scarlett Johansson, Drake, Rashida Jones, Chris Pine and Lenny Kravitz.
Lenny Kravitz is a case in point. Raised originally Jewish by his Black mother and Jewish father, he was teased mercifully in Hebrew school until he left and he eventually became Christian. Can we blame him?
Acceptance is the key. Natalie Portman’s husband, Benjamin Millepied, has recently decided to convert to Judaism. Rather than “be hating on these people” because hate isn’t gonna stop the marriage, win the couple over with love. Because love conquers all and we should accept the new couple with open arms.
“Baruch Haba” welcome to these people who in time will learn to be part of the Jewish people. They will learn to whine, complain, kvetch and return their food in a restaurant just like the rest of us. They will learn to look for a bargain and excel at debating and accounting, just like we do.
Consider it like a face lift for the Jewish people, a nip and a tuck if you will. Think of all the beauty we can add to our people. Think of all the money we can save on nose jobs when our teenage girls turn 16.
But seriously, each one of the new non Jews we accept will probably not only be more religious than their Jewish spouses but will be great ambassadors for us, to the rest of the world. And this will be a blessing.
