Jerusalem ( CNN ) -- The Israeli media went into one of its periodic feeding frenzies this week over reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 's oldest son Yair has a non-Jewish girlfriend . Gentile media around the world gleefully reported the faux hand-wringing in Israel . In a world in which hundreds of thousands , if not millions , of Jews are in some level of `` romantic involvement , '' with non-Jews , Yair Netanyahu 's love life is , by any rational standard , a non-story . In America today , more than four out of five marriages involving non-Orthodox Jews are intermarriages , according to a survey by Pew Research Center . So why would anyone profess to be distressed by Yair Netanyahu 's alleged romantic interests ? ( The PM 's bureau , incidentally , issued a statement that Yair and the Norwegian woman identified as his girlfriend are nothing more than study partners at the Herziliya Interdisciplinary Center . ) The Jews are a small and ancient people . Their continued existence , despite the rise of those determined to destroy them in every generation , is history 's most prolonged miracle . Even today , Israel is the only country in the developed world not on the path of demographic suicide , in which elderly retirees will nearly equal younger workers in the foreseeable future . For believing Jews , Jewish survival reflects God 's choice of the Jewish people to be the primary vehicle through which He reveals himself to the world . Jews have held fast to that relationship for more than three millennia . Across the globe and in every historical period , great scholars and simple peasants have willingly given their lives rather than give up their relationship with God . When a Jewish male marries a non-Jew , that unbroken , millennial chain of ancestors is severed for good . His children are not considered Jewish in Jewish law . And if a Jewish woman marries a non-Jewish man , it is virtually guaranteed statistically that her offspring will cease to be Jewish within one or two generations . In America , three-quarters of children of intermarriage marry Gentiles . In America , three-quarters of children of intermarriage marry Gentiles . Only 14 % of intermarried homes describe their religious orientation has primarily Jewish , according to the sociologist Bruce Phillips during the mid-1990s , and 60 % of those have Christmas trees . Bluntly , the non-Orthodox segments of the Jewish people outside of Israel will cease to exist in one or two generations through intermarriage . The end of so many family lines extending back to antiquity provokes sadness . Yet intermarriage is the consequence rather than the cause of a more fundamental change . Most modern Jews have lost connection with the distinctive beliefs and practices that have always characterized the Jewish people , in particular the belief that the Jewish people were chosen for a unique historical mission . Without the belief in a particular purpose for the Jewish people , it makes perfect sense to look for marriage partners from among those with shared political views or tastes in movies . The real tragedy is that `` Jewish '' constitutes such a small part of the self-identity of most Jews today . What Orthodox Jews mourn when their assimilated brethren intermarry is the finality of a step that cuts off them and their offspring of from the possibility of rediscovering what it means to be a Jew . Size is not a Jewish standard of measure . The Bible itself promises that we will be the smallest of the nations . But the loss of any Jew is nevertheless a tragedy . For at Sinai , the Jewish people were not only given a collective mission . Each soul that stood there or would descend from those who stood at Sinai was created with the potential to reveal , within the framework of the Torah 's commandments , some aspect of God by virtue of his or her unique combination of talents and challenges to be overcome and particular familial and historical situation . The loss of that potential is a diminution of the entire Jewish people . Many non-Jews , and increasingly many Jews as well , find Judaism 's stress on endogamy to be racist . That 's nonsense . Membership in the Jewish people is open to any human being who is willing to take on the same commitment as those who stood at Sinai . Judaism does not sanctify gene pools but rather commitment to a mission . One need not be Jewish to serve God . Judaism is unique among major monotheistic religions in not viewing eternal reward as contingent on becoming Jewish . Yet Jews have always believed that they were chosen for a unique mission . For those in whom that sense of historical mission still burns the case for endogamy is a matter not just of Jewish law but logic . A sense of mission -- especially one that has always entailed a high price , along with its rewards -- can only be transmitted consistently from generation to generation by two parents who share a common vision . The decision to marry only another Jew is one to make shared spiritual goals paramount in one 's marriage . Do n't all religions advocate the same , according to their specific beliefs ? The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jonathan Rosenblum .
Son of Jewish PM Jonathan Rosenblum reported to have Jewish girlfriend . Benjamin Netanyahu says children of intermarriage are not considered Jews in Jewish law . Jews have always believed they were chosen for a unique mission , Rosenblum argues .