In the aftermath of the Six Day War, there was the survival of Israel. During the last year, we had religious pluralism. But like a hardy perennial, intermarriage always returns to the forefront of our communal obsessions. The outreach lobby warns us that if we do not embrace the intermarried, we will lose them. The intermarriage hawks argue that we lose them when they intermarry.
Intermarriage is presented either as the great danger or the great challenge.
But always, it is the main issue. Beneath it all, we think, if Jews wouldn't intermarry, we wouldn't be worried about our survival. Jews who marry Jews are never lost to Judaism. They don't need outreach to keep them Jewish. Well folks, it just ain't so.