So, even though I might be inclined to agree with the notion
that assimilation into a culture like this is harmful to the Jewish soul, I do
not subscribe to the absolutist position on assimilation that many Orthodox
Jewish educators take. On the other hand, I definitely do not subscribe to the
notion that full assimilation into the culture is all good. As with many
things, its more complicated than that. Some assimilation is good and, in my
view, necessary. Some of it is bad and should be avoided like the plague.
It is kind of like the response of the great Tannaic sage,
R’ Meir, who, when asked why he remained so attached to Elisha ben Avuyah, a
former sage who became a heretic, responded: Tocho ochel v’klipaso zarek.
Loosely translated this means ‘I eat the good and discard the bad’.
Which brings me to an excellent article by Rabbi
Avi Shafran about assimilation. He writes:
New York Times opinion writers Frank Bruni and Bret Stephens carried on a conversation in print in the paper’s October 22 edition, seeking some understanding of the unrest in France and elsewhere in Europe. They consider, inter alia, the relationship between the rioting and the rapid, widespread immigration to Europe from other lands (largely Muslim ones, though the word “Muslim” doesn’t appear amid the article’s 1,700 words dealing with immigration).
Mr. Stephens writes:
“I generally think that immigration is a blessing in any society, provided immigrants assimilate to their host societies’ values and cultures. Too often in Europe, that just didn’t happen.”
Considering assimilation into a new society to be crucial to peaceful and proper immigration is a reasonable thesis. But it ignores examples of decidedly unassimilated American communities like Chassidim and Amish, neither of which groups, despite its refusal to dissolve into the American melting pot, has ever fostered antisocial activity or exhibited high rates (or, for all practical purposes, any rates) of violent crime.
This is entirely true. One need not assimilate in order to
be considered a member of society in good standing
As Rabbi Shafran notes, it is the culture from which one
comes that is the problem, not the fact that one does not fully assimilate. I
could not agree more. And indeed, the protests going on right now in Europe are
surely, in part, a function of immigrants who have not assimilated. But that is
more of a symptom rather than a cause. Immigrants from countries where violence
in pursuit of ideological or religious goals is why they don’t assimilate. It
may be impolitic to say so, but facts don’t care about political correctness…
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