Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky once said at an Agudah convention that but for the birth of the State of Israel most nonreligious Jews would have fallen into such despair after the Holocaust that their connection with the Jewish People would have been severed forever. My own life and that of many of those closest to me attests to the truth of Reb Yaakov’s statement. Yet I wonder if many of those fortunate enough to have been born into observant homes understand how central Israel has been to the baal teshuvah movement or why.
One of those who did fully understand this point was Rabbi Noach Weinberg the seminal figure in the modern baal teshuvah movement. One of his important insights was that a crucial first step in kiruv for many young nonreligious Jews is to get them thinking about themselves Jewishly i.e. as members of the Jewish People and to make that identity primary. If their idealism can be channeled into “fighting for the Jewish People” they will likely come to ask themselves other questions.
One of the first questions he often asked the newcomers whom Rabbi Meir Schuster managed to drag from the Kosel into Aish HaTorah was: “Would you be willing to die for the Jewish People?” If they answered affirmatively the likely follow-up was: “Well let us show you how to live for the Jewish People.”
Dying for the Jewish People or even fighting for the Jewish People is of course the furthest thing from the minds of most young American Jews. One of the reasons that over 50 percent intermarry and often quite casually is that the Jewish part of their identity is so minor — far behind their political identification or even their taste in films.
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