Hepps Shares Ideals With Racists

This letter is in response to Jews Should Only Marry Jews.

Tammy A. Hepps '00 (Letter, May 2) longs for a world in which Jews will be "terrified" at the thought that their children might be raised in a merely "half-Jewish" environment. Similar words are uttered by racists who loathe the thought that miscegenation will corrupt their group's purity. We assume that despite Hepps's inflammatory language, she does not believe that Jews are superior to other groups, but that she is merely expressing her fear that Jewish culture will be lost through intermarriage.

Hepps wants Judaism to continue to be practiced, but her letter raises two questions: (1) Does the culture "deserve" to be practiced if the only way to convince people to practice it is to engage in the type of brainwashing Hepps seems to advocate? (2) Is this brainwashing an effective means of preserving the culture?

The brainwashing to which we refer is the clannish, us-against-them mentality Hepps embraces. Witness her view of gentiles who would marry Jews: "How can [Alan] Dershowitz dare ask Jews to welcome those who are contributing...to their destruction?" If Hepps is so opposed to welcoming non-Jews, one can only imagine (and cringe at) the approach she would favor. At worst, Jews would teach their children that only other Jews are worthy of their love, respect, and admiration--that people who are different are unacceptable and must be excluded. Hepps's views could easily incite the kind of ignorant bigotry Jews have faced for millennia.

In our pluralist society, the value we place on cultural identity sometimes clashes with the value we place on tolerance, as Hepps's letter highlights. Her recommendation, though, is simplistic and counterproductive. In a society that correctly teaches us that our commonalities as human beings are more important than our differences, children are bound to see their parents' condemnation of intermarriage as thinly-veiled racism rather than a legitimate attempt to protect the culture.

Hepps's approach has resulted and will continue to result in Jewish children rebelling against and ultimately rejecting Judaism. Modern Jews must reject the doctrine of separatism Hepps advocates. Extremists notwithstanding, anti-Semitism is no longer a powerful force in the lives of American Jews. To continue to pretend that we must protect ourselves from destruction and encourage a rejection of outsiders is to invite condemnation from without and rebellion from within.

Judaism in America cannot survive the way Hepps wants it to. Its choices are to adapt or perish. Adapting means, as Dershowitz argues, emphasizing Jewish customs without condemning intermarriage. Hepps fears that this policy will lead to the gradual erosion of the Jewish culture. We disagree with her opinion, however, is that Hepps's ideas would, if implemented, contribute to the demise of Jewish culture and would ruin many lives along the way. --John Bronsteen '97 --Scott A. Chesin '98