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Orthodoxy
by achester99

The author states that the increase in American Jews who keep kosher from 15 to 21 percent is largely a result of more Reform Jews keeping kosher but provides no evidence to back up this claim. What does exist is evidence that Orthodox Judaism has more than doubled in size in the United States in the last 20 years as a percentage of American Jewry. Thus, it is much more likely that the growth from 15 to 21 percent is a reflection of Orthodoxy's growth relative to American Jewry as a whole, and not because more Reform Jews are keeping kosher wine. (Furthermore, even if younger Reform Jews don't bring shellfish or pork into their homes, it is quite a stretch to extrapolate from that that many of them are purchasing kosher wines. Drinking kosher wine is only done by those who keep "strict" kashrut. In my entire life I have never met a single person who is kosher in the no-shellfish-and-pork sense who drinks kosher wines.)

I also found it troubling that the author was quite critical of Orthodox Judaism and yet he did not quote or cite a single Orthodox individual, though he did quote numerous Reform and Conservative rabbis (nearly all of whom agreed with him in demonizing Orthodox practice).

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