I have read in “JO” #12 (31) an interview with I. Levitas. His position on the assimilation issue has no logic explanation.
In the beginning he writes that burial places are not cleaned. Those who really need help do not receive it. The costs are spent on things absolutely useless for the community. God bless Mr. Levitas who purchases food and cleans the graves. But who will need all this if we simply vanish among title nations? One of the pages (about Khmelnitchina) tells that our ancestors preferred death to conversion to another faith. Meanwhile, Mr. Levitas says the assimilation is inevitable as solar eclipse.
If a Jewish leader has such an opinion, what can we say about other community members? Far from everybody is able to think about soul and behave morally without a religious feeling, as Mr. Levitas writes referring to Isaiah. Why to work for archives and research works of historians since even “when stars come out” there arises the question: who needs this and what for?
Evidently, it is impossible to completely overcome physical assimilation. But such a task should, at least, be put, otherwise our degradation and disappearance are inevitable.
Vladislav Shafranov Nizhniy Novgorod |