This post continues the conversation with Yaacov begun here a few days ago. He has put up a follow-up post on Jewish assimilation and, as he notes, there is wide agreement between the two of us. I want to comment on this closing observation of his:
Finally, Norm tells that as he sees it, the Jews aren't about to disappear, and worrying about it isn't a priority. I agree that the entire group called the Jews aren't about to disappear, but I can see with my own eyes that large numbers of them are. My great grandparents left Russia as Jews at the start of the 20th century - so we sidestepped the Shoah. A century later, most of their youngest descendants are no longer Jews, and the trend will continue except in Israel. There's nothing particularly unusual in my family. Since being Jewish is extremely important to me, this saddens me.
Should one be sad, as a Jew, if some or many Jews are ceasing to be Jews through a process of assimilation? I have an intuition that tells me that, like Yaacov, I should be; but I also suspect that behind this intuition is a fear that the process might be terminal, leading either to the disappearance of the Jewish people or to the survival only of a tiny remnant of it without the magnitude or capacity to flourish. For reasons given in my previous post, however, I don't think this is a proximate danger, and Yaacov doesn't disagree. So, with this concern set aside, I repeat the question: should I be sad if Jews in some significant number are ceasing to be Jews?
(a) I've already accepted that the loss, through assimilation, of some Jews could be a cause of anguish to those closely related to them (though it needn't be). But leaving that aside in order to consider the question in its general aspect, I can see no reason for being sad that some people - a, b, c, d, e, etc - who, or whose parents, used to be Jewish no longer are. Think of it like this. Suppose the number of Jews in the world were stable, any decline through assimilation being made up for by a combination of Jewish births and conversions through marriage or just choice unrelated to marriage. Why need I be sad that these particular people - a, b, c, d, e - are no longer Jews? Or think of it like this. Here is a group of non-Jews - p, q, r, s, t, etc - whose grandparents were Jews. But they themselves have never been Jews. Why should I be sad about this? Must I want all non-Jews to be Jews? I don't, however, want this. I think it would be bad for the whole world to be composed of Jews - or of any other single ethnicity or faith. In which case, it's a matter of indifference to me whether p, q, r, s, t, in particular, are or are not Jews, just as it is a matter of indifference to me that u, v, w, x, y, all descendants of Italian Catholics, are not Jews.
(b) Having set aside the fear that the Jewish people might disappear altogether, what other reason can there be for worrying about how many Jews there are? Imagine that during the coming decades the total number of Jews in the world were to fluctuate around the Wikipedia figure of 13 million. It might go down for a while to 12 million, then recover and pass 14 million, subsequently dipping back to 13 million again, and so on. Should anyone lose sleep, and if so why? Those of us who are Jews and choose to remain Jews don't do so because of the number of Jews there are. Otherwise, we'd be going for a much larger population group to belong to - that's clear. Being Jewish matters to those of us who are, irrespective of fluctuations of this sort. So, again, unless the decline is terminal, we don't seem to have a reason to be sad about some Jews assimilating.
(c) Could it be, finally, that it's just better if there are more Jews in the world than if there are fewer Jews? Well, what would be the principle here? That, other things equal, it's better for a person to be Jewish than not to be Jewish? But I don't believe this - though I think it is a fine thing to be Jewish. More than this, I think it's the best thing for me to be, given my biography, given my beliefs, given my character, given who, through my history, I am. But there's no universalizable principle, such that for anyone it would be better to be Jewish. This isn't true; because each person has his or her own list of 'givens'. For most people to be Jewish would be to be someone different from who they are and want to remain. If one can't say it's better (for everyone) to be Jewish - and one can't, because one can't say it's better (for everyone) to be anything - then why should we be sad if some descendants of Jews are not Jews?