Will We Have Jewish Grandchildren?

Overview

In his first book since becoming Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks issues an inspiring summons to collective action to counteract the prevailing trend and hand on the age-old faith and traditions to a new generation.

Will We Have Jewish Grandchildren? is a powerful study of Jewish continuity: why it matters, how it was achieved in the past, and how it can be created in the future. It suggests an answer to the question that will increasingly dominate the agenda of contemporary Jewry.

Index

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A

• Abraham, 4, 13, 14, 15, 20, 34, 36, 37, 95, 112-13, 116
  • and the next generation, 106-10
  • why chosen, 35
• Adler, Hermann, 65
• Adler, Nathan Marcus, 65, 77, 79
• Adorno, Theodor, 11
• Akiva, Rabbi, 36
• Aliyah, 18, 87, 92
  • and religious commitment, 98
  • new forms of, 97
• Alkalai, Yehudah, 88
• American Jewry, 14, 15, 17-19, 21-4, 34, 46, 50, 51, 57, 61, 66-9, 74, 91, 92, 95, 99, 107
• Anglo-Jewry, 2, 3, 15,18-20, 22, 23, 49, 55-8, 61, 68, 69, 71, 72, 90, 93, 94, 96, 103, 104, 107,109-10, 119, 122, 123
  • demographic losses, 2, 25
• Anti-Zionism, 67, 87, 92, 119
• antisemitism, 3, 27, 33, 34, 38, 50, 61, 65-8, 73, 74, 76-81, 88-93, 101, 117, 119
  • and Jewish survival, 32-4
• Aristotle, 107
• Arnold, Matthew, 82
• assimilation, 3, 5, 15, 31, 33, 34, 40, 42, 59, 66, 75, 76, 89, 94, 96
• Association of Jewish Sixth Formers, 56
• Auschwitz, 45, 46, 80

B

• bagel, the assimilating, 22
• Bar Kochba rebellion, 15, 39, 43
• Barth, Karl,10
• Bayme, Dr Steven,74
• Bellah, Robert, 80
• Ben Gurion, 45
• Benjamin of Tudela, 53
• Berdyayev, Nicolas, 9
• Berlin, Irving, 95
• Berlin, Isaiah, 11
• bet midrash, 53
• birthrate, Jewish, 20
• Board of Deputies, 18, 68, 90
• Borochov, Ber, 96
• Brodetsky, Selig, 90

C

• Canetti, Elias, 11
• census, 28
• Chagall, 11
• Chajes, Zvi Hirsch, 19
• charity aims of, 51
• Chmielnicki massacres, 33, 54
• Chomsky, Noam, 11
• citizenship, duties of, 52
• cognitive dissonance, 108
• Cohen, Steven, 66, 97
• conversion
  • to Christianity,14
  • to Judaism, 24
• Council of Jewish Federations, 17
• crusades, 12, 33
• Cuddihy, John Murray, 64
• Cyrus, 41

D

• Damascus Blood Libel, 88, 114
• David, King, 28, 29, 47
  • as a symbol of the Jewish people, 39-40
• Dayan, Eli, 59
• Dead Sea Scrolls, 44
• demography
  • Torah’s perspective on, 28
• Dershowitz, Alan, 4
• Descartes, 35
• Deuteronomy,37
• diaspora, 1-3, 14, 15, 18-20, 23, 25, 28, 30, 38, 42, 45-8, 58, 59, 61, 66, 68, 69, 73, 86-100, 102, 104, 106, 110, 116, 119, 121, 122
  • and Israel, 86-100
  • Jewish identity in, 38, 98
  • negation of, see Shelilat ha-golah
  • survival of, 86-7
• Disraeli, Benjamin, 65
• divine providence, 32
• divorce
  • rates of Jewish, 23
• Dreyfus affair, 87, 89
• Dubnow, Simon, 96

E

• education, 35, 39, 41-4, 45-8, 52-8, 65, 71-2, 98, 101, 103, 104, 106-7, 108-10, 118, 120-3
  • see also Jewish education
• Einstein, Albert, 11
• Eisen, Arnold, 91
• Elazar, Daniel, 19, 40
• Eliot, George,78
• Esau, 20
• Essenes, 44, 46
• Esther, book of, 26
• Ethiopian Jewry, 50, 68, 71
• Exodus, 2, 28, 37, 70
• Ezekiel, 34, 63 Ezra, 20, 41-2, 45, 76
  • the teacher as hero, 43

F

• Fackenheim, Emil, 14
• Fein, Leonard, 66
• Finestein, Israel, 65
• Fishman, Sylvia Barack, 47
• four sons in the Haggadah, 60
• fourth generation, 21, 59-62, 103
  • ‘fourth-generation phenomenon’, 60
• freewill, 33
• Freud, Sigmund,11
• Frost, Robert, 92

G

• Genesis, 2, 28, 37
• Ger, Rebbe of, 60
• Goethe, Johann von, 78
• Golden Calf, 49, 105
• Goldscheider, Calvin, 69
• Goldstein, Alice, 47
• Gordon, A.D., 96
• Graetz, Heinrich, 32

H

• Hagar, 112
• Haman, 16, 26, 114
• Hanukkah, 40
• Harman, David, 99
• Hebrew
  • language of prayer, 11
  • rebirth of, 15
  • and Israel, 98
• Heilman, Samuel, 75, 81, 84
• Heine, Heinrich, 14, 24, 33, 81
• Hellenisation, 40, 76
• Henoch of Alexander, Rabbi, 18
• Herzl, Theodor, 73, 89, 90, 92
• Herzog, Chaim, 59
• Herzog, Elizabeth, 36
• Herzog, Yaakov, 76
• Hess, Moses, 88, 89
• Hildesheimer, Azriel, 77
• Hillel, 36, 51
• Himmelfarb, Milton, 13, 29
• Hirsch, Samson Raphael, 77, 78, 79
• Hitler, 14, 45, 68, 114
• Holocaust, 3, 7, 10, 14, 16, 25, 27,44-7, 50, 51, 66, 67, 69, 70, 72, 74, 79-82, 87, 90, 93, 97, 101, 105, 111
  • responses to, 45
  • and the imperative of Jewish survival, 15, 25

I

• identity
  • as reality internalised, 36
• integration, 3, 64, 66
  • and the challenge of emancipation, 64
  • and the crisis of identity, 64
  • from integration to survival, 66
• in Britain, 65
• intermarriage, 2, 17, 20, 75
  • in America,21
  • in Anglo-Jewry, 18, 22
  • in Denver, 21
  • in Los Angeles, 21
  • in Phoenix, 21
  • stigma attached to, 21
  • the only effective argument against, 102-3
• Isaac, 20, 113
• Isaiah, 8, 36, 98
• Ishmael, 112
• Israel and the diaspora, 86-100
  • from conflict to convergence, 95-8
• Israel, people of see Jewish people
• Israel, State of, 3, 7, 29, 44, 50, 59, 67-9, 73-4, 90-2
  • and continuity, 86-7, 98-100
  • and Jewish survival, 87-8
  • and the renewal of diaspora life, 91, 99
• Israeli attitudes towards diaspora, 96

J

• Jacob and Jewish identity, 3
• Jakobovits, Lord, 57
• Jeremiah, 8, 32, 38, 52, 63, 77
• Jerusalem, 15, 36, 38, 39, 41, 99
• Jerusalem Report, 17
• Jewish continuity, 3-5, 14, 15, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 30, 34, 39, 40, 41, 47, 49, 50, 59-61, 72, 73-4, 86, 87, 98, 101-11, 116, 117-23
  • and education, 31-48, 106-7
  • crisis of, 3, 14, 23, 59, 64
  • different from integration and survival, 73
  • era of, 71, 73
  • in the diaspora, 87
  • lack of strategy for, 50
  • mystery of, 114
  • secret of, 39
• Jewish Continuity, 4, 101-11, 117-23
  • mission statement, 106-7
  • objectives of, 119-23
  • organisational style, 109
• Jewish creativity, 11, 12
• Jewish Darwinism, 104
• Jewish education
  • and doing, 106
  • and continuity, I07
  • and reinforcement,108
  • coverage, 108
  • first century BCE, 52
  • first century CE, 52
  • in the days of Ezra, 42
  • in Victorian England, 65
  • in the second century BCE, 42
  • in the age of integration, 71
  • in medieval Europe, 53
  • in fifteenth-century Spain, 53
  • in the shtetl, 36
  • Judaism’s culture of study, 36
  • lack of strategy, 104, 108
  • priority over other causes, 52
  • research on impact of, 47
• Jewish Educational Development Trust, 55, 57
• Jewish expulsions, 11
• Jewish identity, 75
  • and a sense of history, 62
  • and future-orientation, 37
  • and inner-directedness, 37
  • and love of freedom, 116
  • and patrilineal descent, 69
  • and renewal of memory, 37
  • and surrounding cultures, 36
  • and survivalism, 72
  • and the love of children, 116
  • as a religious vocation, 37
  • as an ethnic group, 68
  • confusion of, 23
  • in Israel, 38
  • in the diaspora, 38, 39, 122
  • Israel and diaspora compared, 23, 99
  • living between two worlds, 95
  • now needs to be created, 106
  • persistence of for three generations, 61
  • religious or national?, 90
  • transmission of, 14
• Jewish people, 1-3,7-18, 20, 22-50, 52, 53, 57-60, 63-85, 101-11, 115, 116, 121-3
  • a nation of educators, 35
  • distinctiveness maintained, 13
  • losing its will to survive, 2
  • united in crisis, 2
• Jewish population history of, 29
• Jews’ Free School, 71
• Johanan ben Zakkai, 43-5
• Johnson, Paul, 2, 9, 12, 27, 36
• Josephus, 43, 52
• Joshua ben Gamla, Rabbi, 52
• Joshua, Rabbi, 34
• Jubilee, 63
• Judaism, 1, 2, 4, 10, 12, 23-6, 33-5, 37, 43-6, 51, 52, 60, 63, 64, 73, 84, 97, 98, 99,103, 115, 119
  • a collective faith, 3
  • a religion of continuity, 34
  • and counting time, 63
  • and Greek civilisation, 13
  • and the sanctity of life, 115
  • ethical message of, 12, 13

K

• Kafka, Franz, 11
• Kagan, Israel Meir, 80
• Kalischer, Rabbi Zvi Hirsch, 88
• Kamenetzky, Jacob, 45
• Katznelson, Berl, 96
• Klatzkin, Jacob, 89
• Koestler, Arthur, 81, 92
• Kook, Rabbi Abraham, 89, 105
• Kook, Rabbi Zvi Yehuda, 90
• Kosmin, Barry,18, 20, 23
• Kotler, Rabbi Aaron, 45

L

• Lazarus, Emma, 95
• Lenski, Gerhard, 67
• Levi-Strauss, Claude, 11
• Luther, Martin, 27

M

• Maccabees, 40
• Mahler, Gustav, 11, 81
• Maimonides, Rabbi Moses, 11, 36, 51, 52
• Marseilles, 53
• Marx, Karl, 11
• Mendlowitz, Rabbi Shragai, 45
• Merneptah, 6, 114
• Mesha, 6, 114
• Messiah, 43
• Mishneh Torah, 52
• Modigliani, Amedeo, 11
• monotheism, 12
• Montefiore, Sir Moses, 65, 79
• Moses, 7, 8, 20, 28, 34-6, 63, 99, 105

N

• Nachman, Rabbi, 81
• Napoleon, 38
• National Jewish Population Survey (1990), 17, 18, 21, 23, 47
• Nehemiah, 20, 41, 76
• Neusner, Jacob, 119
• Nietzsche, Friedrich, 10, 27, 78
• Nordau, Max, 33, 89
• North American Jewish Data Bank, 18

O

• Omer, counting of, 63
• One People?, 1, 105
• Operation Exodus, 74
• Operation Moses, 74

P

• Pascal, Blaise, 9, 27
• Peres, Shimon, 1
• Pharaoh, 114
• Pharisees, 44, 46
• philanthropy, Jewish, 50
  • in Anglo-Jewry, 55
  • low priority to education, 56
  • priority of domestic causes, 51
• Pinsker, Yehuda Leib, 89
• Pissarro, Camille, 11
• Pittsburgh Platform of 1885, 66
• Plato, 107
• Posquières, 53
• prophecy
  • and prediction, 32
  • and the sense of history, 63
• Proust, Marcel, 11

Q

• Qumran sect, 44

R

• Rabbi as teacher, 35
• Rachel, 34
• Rashi, 11, 36
• Rava, 35, 53
• Rebekah, 20
• Redbridge Report, 18, 20
• Reform Judaism, in America, 24
• Reines, Rabbi Isaac, 96
• Resh Lakish, 33-4
• responsibility, personal and collective, 52
• Rotenstreich, Natan, 90
• Reisman, David, 37

S

• Sadducees, 44, 46
• Sanctuary, 49
• Sandberg, Neil, 21
• Sarah, 4, 14, 112-13
• Schiff, Alvin, 123
• Schneersohn, Rabbi Menachem Mendel, 45, 105
• Schoenberg, Arnold, 11
• Scholem, Gershom, 90
• Schweid, Eliezer, 90
• Securing Our Future (1992), 57
• Shelilat ha-golah (negation of the diaspora), 88-91
• Shimon ben Shetach, 52
• Shindler, Julian, 23
• Shokeid, Moshe, 96
• Silberman, Charles, 24, 69
• Six Day War, 50, 66, 90
• Soloveitchik, Rabbi Joseph, 45, 78, 105
• Soutine, Chaim, 11
• Soviet Union, 8
• Spanish expulsion, 26, 29
• Spinoza, Benedict, 11, 32, 33
• Steinsaltz, Adin, 80
• Sunday Times, 18
• survival, Jewish, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 20, 26, 31, 33, 35, 41, 43, 45, 51, 66-8, 72-4, 87-8, 94, 96, 105, 116
  • collective or selective, 105
  • effects of survivalism, 68
  • shortcomings of as identity, 69
  • story of Jewish, 7-16
  • the new survivalism, 66
• synagogue marriages fall in number of, 18
• Syrkin, Nahman, 96

T

• Tam, Rabbenu, 53
• Temple
  • destruction of the first, 41
  • destruction of the second, 42
• Titus, 42
• Tolstoy, Leo, 78
• Torah
  • and eternal life, 9
  • the portable homeland of the Jew, 36
• Toynbee, Arnold, 10
• transformationist sociology, Jewish, 69
• Twain, Mark, 31, 34
• Twersky, Isidore, 73
• Tzedaka, 51

U

• United Jewish Appeal, 17
• United Synagogue, 56, 57, 68
• university chaplaincy, 48, 118

V

• Valladolid synod, 53
• Vespasian, 42, 43
• Vital, David, 97

W

• Warsaw Ghetto uprising, 39, 66
• Weizman, Ezer, 86, 88
• Wells, H.G., 52
• ‘Who is a Jew?’, 1
• Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 11
• Woocher, Jonathan, 117, 120

Y

• Yavneh, 43
• Yehoshua, A.8., 98
• Yerida (emigration from Israel), 92, 96
• Yerushalmi, Yosef Hayim, 63
• Yeshiva, 53

Z

• Zborowski, Mark, 36
• Zionism, 73, 87, 88-90, 96, 97
• Zionist Congress, first, 90
• Zionist Federation Educational Trust, 56