Dear Matzav Inbox,
I read the recent piece about President Trump’s rabbinic guest list and the wake-up call it supposedly represents for the Litvish world. I thought it was a very interesting and thought-provoking article, and I appreciate the writer bringing the issue of demographics and marriage age to the forefront.
That being said, I think the writer is making a very significant mistake in the basic premise of the article.
The fact that President Trump invited five Chassidishe Rebbes and one Litvishe Rosh Yeshiva does not, by itself, tell us that the Chassidish world has grown because of no freezer……., or that the Litvish world has somehow shrunk because boys are getting married later.
There is a huge historical factor that cannot be ignored when comparing these two populations: the Holocaust.
Lithuanian Jewry was devastated almost beyond comprehension. Approximately 90% of Lithuanian Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, with the overwhelming majority of the killings taking place already in 1941 and 1942. The Lithuanian Jewish population was therefore almost completely wiped out before the postwar Torah world had a chance to rebuild.
Hungarian Jewry suffered terribly as well, and it is important not to minimize that for even a moment. But the timeline was dramatically different. Germany occupied Hungary only in March 1944. The mass deportations began in May 1944 and were halted in July. Approximately 250,000 Hungarian Jews survived the Holocaust.
That difference is enormous.
When the war ended, the different segments of European Jewry were therefore starting from radically different demographic positions. A disproportionately large remnant of Hungarian Jewry was still alive and able to rebuild their communities, while Lithuanian Jewry had been decimated.
That has to be taken into consideration when looking at the size of the respective communities in America today.
Of course, marriage age is a factor. Family size is a factor. Community structure is a factor. Immigration patterns and many other factors are factors as well. There is certainly room for an honest discussion about whether the Litvish community should reconsider aspects of its approach to shidduchim and marriage age.
But to look at the demographic picture today and essentially attribute it to “freezerism” is far too simplistic.
We have to remember that the communities we are comparing did not emerge from the Holocaust from anything close to the same starting point. Before we draw conclusions about what happened to the Litvish world over the past eighty years, we have to remember what happened to the Litvish world during those years of the Holocaust.
The writer may very well be correct that demographics deserve our attention. But I think the historical premise needs to be reconsidered very carefully.
We cannot explain the demographic differences of the postwar Torah world without first accounting for the radically different demographic destruction suffered by the Jewish communities of Europe.
Signed,
A Yid from Lita
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