In a recent bloggingheads.tv episode, Reihan Salam cited a fascinating article from the NY Times Magazine from a few months ago about the Syrian Jewish community. I have been meaning to comment on it since it came out, as it contains numerous points that are worth expounding. In no particular order:

1) The "Edict" is, in some ways, merely a more explicit version of the traditional Orthodox position on conversion. Conversions for external motives are generally not accepted (and, to massively oversimplify, doing so for marriage can be deemed an invalid "external" motive). And traditionally, families would mourn an intermarried party as if he or she had died. The SY Edict parts ways with normative practice, though, in wholly rejecting even the possibility of conversion. And - as the quotes from the article demonstrate - the motivation is based on blood-essentialism. Any religion passed down by birthright must by definition have a heavy blood and clan component, but the possibility of conversion and voluntary acceptance of the "yoke of the commandments" balances that out, keeping the focus on the ideals. The SY Edict decisively tips the balance all the way towards the tribal.

2) And this leads to another trait of the SY community, which is described obliquely in the article: by focusing on blood, other traditional elements of the religious community - such as observance itself - take a backseat in determining identity. For example - as hinted in the article - the SY community famously does not put the same stresses on Torah study for its own sake as the Ashkenazim have done in recent centuries. Nor is there any indication that other traditional demarcations of comunal identity - such as Sabbath observance - have that level of importance in delineating SY boundaries. If the ultimate expression of American Jewish identity is "It's complicated" - a maxim that has launched thousands of books and media careers, as well as paying the college tuitions for the children of a thousand therapists - SY communal identity is as uncomplicated as it gets.

3) Speaking of Torah study, the anecdote about Rabbi Ovadya Yosef is an amazing one. Imagine the Pope coming to a small American Catholic ommunity to vouch for someone, and further imagine that community blithely ignoring his verdict. There are very few examples where that Catholic analogy would work well in a Jewish concept. This is one of them.

4) Despite the universal prohibition of intermarriage, I think that few segments of the American Orthodox population (outside of the most chareidi) would truly cut off all personal contact with an intermarried family member for decades on end (and yes, this likely does contribute to the increase in intermarriage). In order for the SY Edict to work, parents have to be willing to buy into it enough to impose the consequences on their children. And they are. (The carrots of the elaborate communal welfare state help they buy-in.)