At least 33-40 percent of people in America who present themselves as “Jewish” are in fact not Jewish, not eligible to be counted in minyan nor to be married by an Orthodox rabbi nor to have their children bar-mitzva’d or bat-mitzva’d at an Orthodox congregation, nor to be buried in an Orthodox congregation’s cemetery. This exceptional demographic chaos extends even to non-Jews who today are ordained reform rabbis. The demographic breach in Jewish unity is so severe that two separate “Jewish people” now exist in America.
How Did This Happen?
In March 1983 the Reform Movement officially adopted a new policy of “patrilineal descent,” defying and flying in the face of 3,000 years of Judaic practice and law that always has defined Jewish lineage authenticity solely by the birth mother’s religion. This policy deviation was adopted in the face of massive membership losses at Reform temples as the rate of Reform intermarriages in America with Christians has risen towards 80 percent, with more than half comprising Jewish men marrying non-Jewish women who then bear children who are non-Jewish by definition. Today “interfaith families are the majority of the movement,” meaning that more than half of all Reform temple members are intermarried to Christians. (See, e.g., public speech by Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of Union for Reform Judaism, in “Community,” the monthly Jewish newspaper of Louisville, Kentucky: November 23, 2018 — p.9 — Left column (¶ titled “Audacious Hospitality” = 4 paragraphs from bottom) https://jewishlouisville.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Community-112318-28-pages-web.pdf
Why Is This Fact Making the Headlines Today
The current government of Israel has a razor thin coalition majority due to the support of non-Jewish Russian immigrants (who are the backbone voters of Avigdor Liberman’s party) and the Muslim Brotherhood party, called Raam. The government is using its razor thin majority to push through conversion reforms, that carry the potential to swamp the Jewish people in Israel with fake Jews. Even the status quo is terrible, where the Chief Rabbinate is using poor standards to determine who is a sincere convert to Judaism. For those who understand Hebrew hear the interview with Rabbi Micha Halevi: https://www.93fm.co.il/radio/770516/?utm_source=site&utm_medium=burger-menu as evidence.
The new conversion reforms are intended to loosen the standards even more.
Currently the vast majority of Torah observant Rabbis, say they will not accept any further watering down of standards
And many of them, don’t accept even the lax standards of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate.