Is It a Crime to Be a Non-Jew?

Question:

My girlfriend is Jewish.

I am not.

I just want to know what crime I have committed by being a non-Jew. All her friends and family are trying to convince her out of this relationship.

I think I am a nice guy. What do they have against me?

Answer:

Let me tell you a story that happened just last week.

My children were waiting to catch the school bus in the morning. But the bus never arrived. Apparently the bus driver missed a turn and didn’t go past my kids’ stop to pick them up. They are usually the last ones to get on the bus, but today he was going straight to school without them.

All the other school kids on the bus realized what was happening and started screaming at the bus driver. “You missed the turn! The Moss kids! You have to turn around! Go back and pick up the Moss kids!”

The driver, feeling somewhat helpless, called back to the busload of screaming kids, “I can’t turn back in this traffic. It will be an hour before we get to school. There’s nothing I can do.”

The school children were not satisfied. “But the Moss kids!” they shrieked. “You left them behind!”

One quick-thinking girl pulled out her phone and frantically called her mother. “Mom, the bus made a wrong turn and missed the Moss kids. Call their parents to tell them!” And so she did, which is how I heard the story.

My wife and I later reflected on what a special little episode this was. It showed what it means to belong to a community. People know who you are, and people care if you miss the bus. Within minutes of the wrong turn, we heard about it and were able to look after the situation. We felt very much cared for.

That bus represents the Jewish people. We are an extended family on a big bus of history that has been travelling along for four thousand years. And if a Jewish child might miss the bus, the whole nation starts screaming. We can’t allow even one Jewish soul to be lost to the Jewish family.

My friend, you have done nothing wrong, and no one has anything personal against you. But there are a lot of people out there who sincerely care for the future of the Jewish people. And for that future, every soul counts. Your girlfriend is a part of a community that spreads over the globe. She is the next link in a chain that spans generations. We can’t just stand by and let her miss the bus.

Since that incident, the bus driver has been extra careful to make the right turn and never leave behind a Jewish child. He had better be. He is driving bus number 613.

Please see The Judaism Website’s section on Jewish Intermarriage.