An Israeli leader of an anti-assimilation group sent a letter to Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, objecting to his marriage to a non-Jewish woman, an Israeli newspaper reported on Friday.
Zuckerberg, who finally tied the knot to his longtime girlfriend, Chinese American, Priscilla Chan, is a self-proclaimed atheist for years but hails from a Jewish background.
Zuckerberg and Chan received over 1.5 million congratulatory messages on Facebook.
However, Benzi Gopstein, head of the Lehava Organization for the Prevention of Assimilation in Jerusalem, sternly objected.
“I don’t know you, nor did I give you a ‘like’ on the occasion of your wedding; to be precise, if Facebook had a ‘dislike’ button I would have given you a big ‘dislike,’” Israel National News reported Gopstein as writing to Zuckerberg on Friday.
“I’m writing to you not for my sake, but on behalf of the Jewish people of every generation, being that you are part of this people, like it or not,” he added.
“True, you did well in the stock market, but just to remind you, money isn’t everything in life. You chose to marry a non-Jewish woman and by doing so, you disconnected yourself from the Jewish people, and your children will not be Jewish, even though their last name will be Zuckerberg; even if they’re cute and get a lot of ‘likes’, they will remain non-Jews in every respect.
“I believe that you won’t pay any attention to this letter, but I’m writing anyway, not only to you, but through you to many more Jewish men and women who don’t see anything wrong with assimilation, to those Jews and Israelis who gave a ‘like’ to the wedding, to the media who got all excited. I’m here, on behalf of the Jewish people, to spoil the party.
“Golda Meir, who was Israel’s Prime Minister, said that any Jew who assimilates is essentially a partner to the Nazis’ work, since through assimilation you yourself are exterminating the continuation of the Jewish people. Assimilation is bringing the extermination of the Jews to the seventh million!
“Unfortunately, you are not alone. The Jewish people are losing themselves in the Exile through assimilation. At the current rate, in the not-so-distant future there will be no more Jews remaining in the Exile.
“In Israel, too, assimilation is hitting us quite a bit because of your Facebook, where every Mohammed is ‘CitySlicker’ and every Yusuf calls himself ‘Prince Charming,’” said Gopstein.
Referring to Zuckerberg by his Hebrew name Mordechai, Gopstein concludes by saying that “as long as the candle burns, you can correct yourself. Separate from the non-Jewish woman and find a good Jewish one, and to make up for your mistake, go on a major campaign on Facebook against assimilation.”
