Other prominent non-Jewish families have welcomed Jews in recent years like the Trumps and Sarkozy's. With Sarkozy, there are a few differences. First, Sarkozy himself has a partially Jewish background and two that it's his son who has married a Jew, unlike the others.
When I was growing up, it was rare for Jews to marry out. The first time one of my cousins did, it was scandalous. Then it became more common and there was no more talk of boycotting weddings. There's hardly a branch of my family without non-Jews.
Some of the young Jews have no idea that they are Jewish, considering that they've been raised as cristians. And some branches no longer have Jewish descendants, since male cousins' sons married non-Jews who didn't convert.
It's so sad for the Jewish People.
Jews, including religiously observant ones, suffer from depression and suicide attempts. This sort of thing doesn't skip communities.
ReplyDeleteBilly Joel impressed me a lot when he threw his famous fit in the USSR just before it fell. It seemed to me at the time -- and it was later corroborated -- that the reason he did so was to deflect attention from his audience, which was being filmed under bright lights, and some who looked like they were having too good a time were being forcibly removed from the auditorium. He was prepared to have the whole world think that he was a jerk in order to get the cameras off the people who had come to see him. That's pretty amazing in my book.
I wish Alexa Ray Joel a refuah shlemah and hope that she finds peace.
True, Rahel, and nothing you wrote contradicts my post.
ReplyDelete