Thirty-six percent of Israelis would ‘not mind at all’ if one of their children were to marry a non-Jewish immigrant. It is enough that they are now Israeli, they said. (Read rest of article and be shocked!)
The survey, conducted by Ynet and the Gesher organization, found that 31 percent of Israelis would try to convince the future partner to convert, 28 percent would do anything to try to stop the wedding, and five percent said they would sit shiv’ah, as if the child were dead.
Among secular Israelis, 57 percent would have no problem with their son marrying a non-Jewish girl. Twenty-seven percent would try to persuade the bride to convert to Judaism and 16 percent would try to stop the wedding.
As for the Orthodox population, 57 percent would do whatever they could to prevent the couple from marrying, as would 71 percent of the Haredi public.
One surprising finding was that 13 percent of religious people said that they did not regard it as a problem, as long as the bride had Israeli citizenship.
There are 309,000 immigrants to Israel who are not Jewish according to the halachah, the Jewish religious law, living in Israel following the large wave of immigration from the Former Soviet Union.
Forty-one percent of secular Israelis said that if these non-Jewish immigrants were to assimilate into Jewish-Israeli society it would only make the Jewish nation stronger. Only 27 percent said it was a terrible mistake that would be evident in the next generation.
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18 Responses
If you listen to R. Amnon Yitzhak’s tapes, you won’t be so shocked ):
Why only 71% of Charedim?
I’ve conducted a survey in our workplace, and found that 100% Jews would do whatever they could to stop the wedding, do my 5 Jewish workmates represent all Jews in the world or only of our country?
As this Ynet survey was done jointly with Gesher, I would be skeptical. We know that the Israeli Chilonim are a problem and disappointment to us. However, in following up on mailings from Gesher with Torah Jews in Israel, I got the feeling that Gesher is part of the problem instead of the solution……..
Edited by Site Moderation Panel
It really is not such a shock. Globally, we have beome a very permissive society. Anyone who looks askance at people that act against Biblical prohibitions is called small minded and racist. It is a nebach.
I wonder what TorasChesed has to say about this shreklacha situation
This can’t be an accurate survey. 100% of charedim would have been against it. They must have been asked in a tricky way or something.
ChalabiJew:
I would bet that they counted only the Charedim who picked up the phone. If you did not answer the survey, you were not part of the 71%
Also, people can identify themselves as whatever they want when responding to surveys. The whole method is flawed even if the intentions of the survey were good, and in this case I have my doubts.
On the other hand, pose this question to residents of certain parts of Tel Aviv and its suburbs and you would get 40% or more responding that it is OK.
The survey’s not shocking — the results are.
Wait a minute!! Are these pollsters like the liberal pollsters in America? Maybe they polled our dear “MO-HELL-ET”.
I mean, which 13 percent “religious” people said such a dumb thing? Can these be “right wing” Zionists who believe so strongly in Israel that all you need is an Israeli citizenship and everything is hunky dory? GOODNESS GRACIOUS!
Cold,
You likely got it almost right: All Chareidim they dialed were included, bit only those who answered told them that they would do anything to stop their child intermarrying, chalilah.
Sad Sad but very likely true,
I asked some not-frum relatives this same question, the shocking answer was “if they are in love” why not?
This blatant “am-oratzis” is very common among secular israelis.
There is no pride by your avrage Tel Aviv couple in being a “Jew”. Forget about the ones in Haifa.
Being a jew with obvious jewish identity brings back stories they heard from the gettos, including antisemitism.
They dont wanna go back there.
They did a great job in wiping out “judiasim” in a vast part of the country.
Sad Sad
Polls are problematic. People often say what they think the poller wants to hear. People often identify themselves incorrectly.
I would say that its pretty sad, but I actually do not believe that this is true. Surprise!!! Neither do any of the talkbacks on the website where artcile orhinated. There is a catch to it somehow,
1) Maybe “religious” means something else, since it is IMPOSSIBLE that13% are OK with it.
2) 57% is very high for secular Israelis as well. Maybe they called random secular Israelis, including some or many of the 309,000 non Jewish Russians living in Israel??
Either way, this article smacks from AGENDA, do a search and see if the author is married to a non Jewish Ukrainian -:)
I fully believe it,, R’ Chaim Brisker said the whole tachlis of the medina is 2 shmad up as many ppl as possible…
R’ Chaim Brisker was Nifter in 1918, 30 yrs before there was a medina. Even before the Balfour Declaration from 1920. He may have been takling about the begining of Zionism.
unfortunately, zionflag, the taxi drivers from a shomer shabbos company in jerusalem DOING TIYULIM(bar illan ramot alon or romema) even if they are chilonim, do not represent the larger non religous community out there in israel – tel avivians, haifa, hetzliya, ramat gan to name a few. A HUGE PERCENTAGE OF ISRAELI CHILDREN (and adults) DO NOT KNOW SHEMA YISROEL!!!!!!!!!! so why , may i ask should they think of marrying someone jewish …. if they don’t know what it means to be jewish themselves!? WAKE UP ZIONFLAG…. AND ALL OF US…..BEFORE ITS TOO LATE!!!