The future of our nation

Submitted by Y.Eliashiv (Israel), Jan 26, 2005 at 11:49

The future of Judaism is a very important problem.
The problem is not Judaism. The problem is the Jews as a nation and as a consequence-the faith of the Jewish state Israel.
As a little Jew, I mean as an 1:13,000,000 part of the Jewish nation, I am not able to solve this problem, but I want only to speak about some aspects of this problem, as I see them.
I'll introduce myself.
i am born soon after World War I in the new established sovereign State Latvia.
My father was a Zionist, my mother a Bundist ( it was the Jewish branch of the Social Democratic party).
They lived in full harmony together.
My mother spoke with me in Yiddish, my father in Hebrew.
There lived about 100,000 Jews in Latvia and enjoyed a fully cultural autonomy.
There were 13 Jewish public (6 year) schools in Riga, part of them Yiddish, the rest Hebrew.
I entered the Hebrew school.
(By the way all the public schools were fully subsidized- they were free of charge.)
In these schools all disciplines were teached in Yiddish or accordingly,in Hebrew.
After I finished the public school, i entered the Hebrew gymnasium (high school) also in Hebrew.
in 1937 i finished the high school and in the same year in autumn, after passing the entering test in Latvian, i began my studies in the University of Latvia in Riga, where all disciplines were in Latvian.
i emphasize these facts, because I heard from many Jews in USA and Canada the excuse that the ONLY reason that hey prefer an English school is the difficulty to continue the studies in the university in English for those who learn in non English, respectively in Hebrew public and high schools.
all this long preamble I need to tel you short and clear:
ONLY JEWISH EDUCATION WILL PRESERVE OUR NATION FROM DISAPPEARING.
The orthodox movement with this ideology will not prevent the marriages with non-Jews and the phenomena of assimilation.
Don't forget we are living in the 21st century!
and i'll finish my "tractate" with a "joke": there is no reason to worry-
our sinful world wil finish this being soon (after 235 years)

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".