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Euroasian Jewish News
Round Table Discussion "Mixed Marriages as Contemporary Jews' Problem".
07.04.2005
Moscow, Russia, March 29, 2005
Round Table Discussion "Mixed Marriages as Contemporary Jews' Problem" took place at the "Nickitsky" Jewish Cultural Center in Moscow on March 29, 2005. Vaad of Russia, which is part of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) and Union of Contemporary (Reform) Judaism Religious Communities in Russia organized the meeting.
In their speeches sociologists Mark Kupovetsky, Vladimir Sobkin and Elena Nosenko confirmed the fact that the topic discussed at the Round Table does present a serous problem. According to their data the percentage of mixed marriages among Russian Jews constantly increases. In his short but very emotional report another sociologist Alexander Sinelnikov emphasized that the number of "Jews by grandmother's blood", i.e. people having only a quarter of Jewish blood almost equals now to the number of "Jews by father's blood".
As EAJC Secretary General and Vaad of Russia President Michael Chlenov pointed it out, "In some 20-25 years the number of mixed marriages might in fact amount to 100%". In this connection he also noted that in 1976 already when together with other activists of the independent Jewish movement he conducted the first and at that time illegal survey among Soviet Jews around 10% of respondents were descendants of mixed marriages, who considered themselves as Jews.
At the same time there was a difference observed among "Jews by mother's blood" and "Jews by father's blood". The former, whose Jewish consciousness was based on home and family-life traditions preferred not to come forward and not to declare their Jewish origin, whereas the latter were willing to announce the Jewish background.
After that Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the State of Israel to the Russian Federation Arkady Mil-Man told the participants of the Round Table about the situation with mixed families in Israel.
According to Ambassador Mil-Man the status problem in Israel remains one of the most burning ones and it is mostly due to the fact that the status is established based on the religious principle. However as A. Mil-Man noted it the contemporary tension has arisen not at once.
When talking about the future Arkady Mil-Man said it is his personal belief that as long as the national system in Israel stays the same he sees no possibility to change the present situation. He also thinks that politicians are simply afraid to deal with this problem so that not to confront religious parties as such a confrontation is very likely to lead to the breakdown of the government.
Rabbi Viktor Rashkovsky who practices Reform Judaism and lives in the USA for more than 30 years already told in his turn how the biggest Jewish Community of the world regards mixed marriages. He noted that 90 % of students in the Jewish school he teaches come from mixed families. However, not everybody born in a mixed marriage can be considered a Jew. According to r. Rashkovsky together with the "blood issue" it is necessary for a child to receive Jewish education and go through the ceremony of Bar- or Bat-Mitzvah.
Rabbi Grigory Kotliar representing the OROSIR offered his view of the situation. He reminded that the principle of declaring somebody a Jew by mother's blood was adopted in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah for emergency cases in order to prevent assimilation of the Jewish people. Nowadays, the same case of emergency is observed in a completely different context; therefore, in order to preserve the very existence of the Jewish people it is necessary especially in the countries of the Diaspora to make it possible to declare Jews also by father's blood just as American Reform Jews do. The orientation exclusively on Halachic Jews makes the Russian Jewish community very little in number.
Reviewing the results of the discussion M. Chlenov admitted that the participants managed to define the problem and its main aspects. He summed up by saying that it is worthwhile to continue such discussions in future.
The EAJC Public Relations and Media Department
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