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Rabbi Lau spoke at the annual conference of the Rabbinical Center for Europe which took place earlier this week in Paris.Around 300 rabbis from across Europe and Israel attended the gathering.
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PARIS (EJP)---Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, former chief rabbi of Israel and currently chairman of Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, said assimilation "is today the biggest threat to the Jewish people."
Speaking during a gathering in Paris of around 300 rabbis from across Europe and Israel earlier this week, Lau said assimilation is a “bigger threat” than anti-Semitism and terrorism for the future of Jews.
Lau mentioned statistics from the United States showing that out of 100 Jews from the first generation only 3 are left as Jews in the fourth generation.
This was received as a shock by the rabbis who attended the annual conference organized by the Rabbinical Center of Europe (RCE) in the French capital.
“We knew that the problem is more acute in the US. Unfortunately for Europe we don’t have exact statistics, “ Asher Gold, the RCE’s spokesman, told EJP.
But in Britain, for example, Rabbi Yisroel Yaakov Lichtenstein, head of the Jewish court in the UK, spoke of around 50 % assimilation among Jews in this country.
“Young people are not interested in religion, they have no connection with Judaism,” said Asher Gold who regretted the disappearance of Jewish values and Jewish identity.
But this is also true among the Christians, he said.
Many rabbis confirmed to the RCE that there is large scale of assimilation amongst parts of European Jewry and that many communities are "disappearing" as a result.
According to Rabbi Lau, “there is no quick solution for this problem”. But he stressed that rabbis are the key to the solution because today they are the "real" Jewish leaders in each community. “We must invest in spreading more Torah and more Jewish education," he said.
Other topics discussed during the two-day conference were the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe, bio-ethics, family, couple therapy and relations with the Catholic Church in the light of the controversy with the Vatican around Holocaust-denying British bishop Richard Williamson.
On Wednesday, a delegation of rabbis met with French Interior Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie who hailed the values of Judaism of respect for human dignity.
Based in Brussels, Belgium, the RCE is an organization dedicated to assisting more than 600 rabbis as well as Jewish communities across Europe in their daily activities.