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Rabbi Weber wants to encourage Jews to marry Jews.

Rabbi Donald Weber is far from the first rabbi to call for single Jews in his congregation to marry other Jews.Such pulpit calls have become commonplace in an age of high Jewish intermarriage rates and fears the Jewish population will fall sharply in coming generations. But the Reform rabbi’s recent appeal came with a novel twist.

Six weeks ago, in his Yom Kippur sermon at Temple Rodeph Torah, Weber offered to personally pay for six-month memberships to JDate, the popular Jewish online dating service, for any singles in the congregation who asked.

What concerned Rabbi Weber was this:

The need is there, he said, be cause the American Jewish population has declined in recent decades, with about half of American Jews marrying outside the religion, according to widely reported national surveys. Weber punctuated his sermon by citing a recent study from the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion indicating that fewer than 10% of grandchildren of intermarried parents identify as Jews.

Despite the fact that this puts Rabbi Weber in opposition to some of his congregants – Reform Temples accept non-Jewish spouses as full members – he is persisting.

I’m impressed.

(h/t Mrs. Soccer Dad)

Crossposted at Soccer Dad.