Trending Orthodox and the disappearing Yid

I'm a big fan of Hillel Halkin. Read his latest in the New York Sun on Jewish population trends in the US.

I'm one of those almost extinct ethnic Jews Halkin refers to. There are still a few of us left. If Halkin lived in the States, he'd be one too. Ethnic Jews can also be called 'Second Avenue Deli Jews', after the famous (and recently closed) Kosher deli on the Lower East Side that was open on Sabbaths but not on Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur or Passover.

Did I say I've always been a big admirer of Halkin's? I am. if (but not) only for his prodigious and varied output, beginning with 'Letters to an American Jewish Friend' written three decades ago, and through his ongoing flood of articles in Commentary, the Forward, as well as the Sun.

Even in the relatively insular and Jewish Lower East Side, I witness catastrophic assimilation at work. in the eighties, the rate of assimilation was said to be 50%. Well, its much steeper than that in the shtetl which is my hood. Any Jew who hasn't (in some combination) gone to an Orthodox Jewish school, been to Israel and/or isn't kosher at home, almost always (no hyperbole) intermarries. An informal playground count indicates that even in our oh-so very Jewish neighborhood, and excluding the orthodox, intermarriage is running at about, oh, 90%.

Some readers may wonder why NYapikores would care. Well, the only thing keeping us Ethnic Jews from extinction are...Orthodox Jews.