Benzi’s latest “Behind the Flames” column in the Shabbat weekly “Matzav HaRuach”:
Assimilation – An existential threat to the Jewish People – in Israel, too!
Last week, we got a note from the coordinator of the program “Zehut Yehudit” (Jewish Identity) from one of the cities, that raised the serious problem that exists in state education. The problem exists in the whole country, and especially in the mixed cities. So this is what she wrote to my wife:
“Anat, I’m sending you my deep frustration: I am the central coordinator of “Zehut Yehudit”. Among other things, I’m sending you our programs for kindergarten children in the city. The reality is very painful; in my estimation, about half the children in the center and north of the city are not Jewish. Of the gentiles, some are Eritreans, some Russians. Today in the kindergarten I saw an Arab mother with the whole outfit on, together with her son. Someone should open this question: Why should Jewish children study with gentiles in the same framework?
“Every week I meet more than 700 children. In my estimation, a quarter of the children are from mixed marriages, another quarter are gentiles in every respect. Today I was in the kindergarten, where only 4 Jewish children are Hebrew speakers. Perhaps among the Russians there are one or two Jews according to Jewish law. Assimilation is already here! In the next generation, there will be 50% assimilation. If you have any ideas how to bring this topic to public discussion, this seems very important to me. I have no idea what the percentage of assimilation with Arabs is, but I’m sure that assimilation in the mixed neighborhoods is several times worse.”
This is not the first or only call on this subject. For years we’ve been hearing complaints from parents of children in state schools in the mixed cities, that their children are studying together with male and female gentiles in the same school, and that every utterance about separating them is utterly rejected and labeled “racism”. We advise all of them to send their children to religious frameworks, where the problem hardly exists, but not all of them are interested, and not always is this doable. And our purpose is to take care of all of Am Israel, because after all, we came to establish a Jewish state in Eretz Israel for the entire Jewish people, not just for the specific community of someone.
Years ago, when we made a demonstration at the wedding of Mahmoud and Morale, Mahmoud was interviewed by a newspaper and said – “We were in the same class together, we played together during recess, so why not get married together?” This is a societal time bomb that will blow up in years to come and raise the demand for civil marriage, which will increase assimilation and force the Jews to make genealogical pedigree lists, in the State of Israel.
The same woman who called us initiated a letter to the public, to parents of the children in the state community about Jewish identity and the danger of assimilation, but this isn’t enough. I’m sure that there are readers here who are also aware of this grave situation, and I’m sure that together we’ll be able to think of solutions to the phenomenon. The government of Israel and the Jewish Agency invest a fortune abroad to save the Jewish People from the claws of assimilation, but for some reason, this activity is not considered “racism”. We welcome such activity, but we must not shut our eyes from what’s going on in Israel.
I would be happy to hear from “Matzav HaRuach” readers, ideas for solving the problem. Please write to us, the Lehava organization, at o.leava@gmail.com.
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