by dan pine
staff writer
Here’s something you don’t see every day: a rabbi who actually encourages interfaith marriage.
In his new book, “The New American Judaism,” Rabbi Arthur Blecher contends that intermarriage will save Judaism. If that’s not enough heresy for you, Blecher also blasts the overarching authority of rabbis and the entire denominational structure of contemporary Judaism.
Blecher knows full well he holds a minority opinion. But the Washington, D.C.-based rabbi says he thoroughly researched his book — and believes he makes an airtight case. “If I’m going to upset people,” says Blecher, “I want to get the facts straight.”
According to Blecher’s thesis, Judaism as practiced in America is a recent invention founded on several myths. Those myths include the notion that Judaism is a religion of reason, that the Jewish people face extinction through assimilation, that rabbis are Judaism’s official practitioners and that intermarriage is a grave threat.
Phooey, he says.
“If you look at Jewish population, the numbers have increased steadily,” he notes. “If you look at intermarriage, it doesn’t have a deleterious effect. There’s intermarriage in the biblical period. There just wasn’t this hand-wringing. We’ve been doing this only 100 years. New generations of Jews are saying they don’t want to be museum-keepers, and are looking for other ways to engage.”
In his book, Blecher also attacks the myth that Judaism rejects the concepts of heaven, hell and Satan. Go back to the sources, he says, and you’ll find them there.
“It’s throughout the literature. The entire Talmud is available online, and if you search ‘Satan,’ you get tons of stuff. I discovered reams of material: detailed descriptions of hell, of heaven as paradise.”
A new American Judaism emerged out of the European immigration wave of the late 1800s. The insularity of shtetl and ghetto Judaism collapsed in the new freedom of America.
“You have, for the first time, the opportunity to not be Jewish. The was totally frightening for immigrant Jews. This [fear] became entrenched with the leadership as the denominations were founded and it got perpetuated.”
Ordained in the Conservative movement, Blecher now leads a small, independent, humanist congregation in Washington. He is also a practicing psychotherapist.
What’s his prescription for the intermarriage dilemma?
“The best thing is to do nothing. Jews will intermarry. Let’s not treat it as a pathology. Let’s spend our energy making Judaism a happy, welcoming place. That will maximize the chances that kids will embrace Judaism.”
Arthur Blecher will appear 10 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 6 at the CCJCC. Tickets: $7. Info: (510) 839-2900 ext. 256.
“The New American Judaism” by Rabbi Arthur Blecher (244 pages, Palgrave/Macmillan, $24.95)
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California