In recent years a number of American Jewish writers have returned to an ancient Jewish vocation: prophesying. Having seemingly exhausted all studies of the past and the present, they have turned to the future and the prediction of what it holds for the American Jewish community. With a certain glee, these prognosticators – including sociologists, historians, professors, and novelists (all non-traditional) – have prophesied the demise of Orthodox Judaism. Orthodoxy, they tell us, does not stand a chance. Its following will dwindle down to a few insignificant die-hards who will themselves sooner or later be assimilated by some form of “modernistic” Judaism. Torah and Tradition, they report, have no place in the future. One ought not be dismayed by such reports from non-Orthodox circles. Without a commitment to Torah one cannot, after all, truly know its inner vitality and its uncanny capacity for attracting the hearts of Jews and surviving in all environments. What is disturbing is the underlying pessimism one sometimes detects in some – by no means all – observant and loyal Jews. Are we indeed a vanishing race? Is Israel doomed to remain an alman, deprived of the company of Torah? The question is one of great importance. First, it affects a principal tenet of our faith: the eternal loyalty of Israel to God. Second, there is the question of morale. No one wants to be identified with a lost cause. Third, the answer to that question will determine the policy of Orthodox Jews vis-à-vis the general Jewish community. Our answer to the question is a resounding “No.” Orthodox Judaism is here to stay, and it can and will survive even in the free and democratic atmosphere of modern America. We say not only Ha-shem melekh (the Lord reigns) and Ha-shem malakh (the Lord reigned) but Ha-shem yimlokh (the Lord will reign). It is our sacred duty to believe, and act upon the basis of the belief, that the Torah which survived the persecutions of Hadrian, the interdictions of Antioch…

A real pity that Jews have to wait for a crisis to remind them that they are Jews. But it's better than nothing. Because maybe all of life is a crisis. And during all of life we need our Jewish identity, our Jewish commitments to God, to Israel, to Torah. The Arabs, with the connivance of the Russians, struck on Yom Kippur. They thought they caught us unaware. Militarily, maybe. But in other ways, no. Yom Kippur teaches us that we can survive without eating and drinking. Without bathing. Without shoes. Without sex. But not without God. Not without a word of prayer. Not without a thought of Torah. Not without each other.Israel is going to win, if only because it can't afford to lose. Of course, we are all going to help to the limits of our ability. But we have got to win the other war too, the one that will continue long afterwards: the war against our self-expression as Jews. The attack against the dignity that allows us to observe our Judaism without embarrassment. The battle against our pride - not arrogance - in our tefillin, kippah, kashrut, Shabbat. The war of attrition by a phoney liberalism-humanism-internationalism that tells us that the only way to save the world is for the Jews to give up being Jewish. It's phoney because only by being themselves can Jews be of service to others. Because only by loving Israel can Jews learn to love mankind. Because only by being truly Jewish do we become genuinely humanitarian. Be-cause only by serving the God of Israel do we come to know the God who created and loves all men and all nations.What can you do? Go to Israel as a civilian volunteer. Contribute to U.J.A.. Buy a bond. Attend a demonstration for Israel or Soviet Jewry. Wear a kippah proudly as a symbol of your Jewishness. Attend services - and walk, don't ride. Seek out an observant Jew and ask him to help you put on the tefillin. Even just once. Or ask him to invite you to his home for a Shabbat meal. Above all - read, study, learn. The shooting may be over soo…