T he daughter of President Bill Clinton married a Jew. The daughter of President John F. Kennedy married a Jew. Governor Cuomo of New York has two sisters who married Jews. Is this as they say good for the Jews?
Some Jews are quite pleased by this. They see it as a sign of the acceptance of Jews into the American mainstream. We are part of normal society and we can mingle freely with non-Jews can join their exclusive country clubs move into their restricted enclaves. Do I hear an echo of what Hamor the Hivvite said to Yaakov’s sons in Bereishis 34:9–10 after the abduction of their sister Dinah? “Make marriages with us; give your daughters to us and take our daughters to you. You shall dwell among us settle and trade in the land before you….”
The sons of Yaakov forcefully rejected this seductive offer but 2 500 years later some modern sons of Yaakov having abandoned Jewish learning and practice consider any acceptance by the non-Jewish society to be the ultimate joy the consummation devoutly to be wished. That the essence of Judaism is to be unique and different from the world around us is foreign to such Jews. They never learned that what preserved the character of the Jews enslaved in Egypt according to the Sages was that they did not change their distinctive dress or their distinctive language.
Other Jews in a garbled idealism go even farther than this. To them acceptance by non-Jews is a welcome step toward the ultimate goal of the universalization of mankind. No more shall humankind be divided into separate nations and races. Judaism for them has served its purpose in history and must now give way to the next step — universalism in which all mankind is united as one.
