American Jews have become a collection of fourth sons, the character in the Passover narrative who is not even able to ask a question about the holiday. Many of us are as clueless as the slaves of Egypt about what it means to be a Jew. It took Moses, the greatest of teachers and prophets, to teach those slaves the meaning of freedom.

But we must teach ourselves again to choose to be Jews.

I agree wholeheartedly. There are too many American Jews (non-Orthodox of course) that feel it is enough to be proud that they're Jewish as if an accident of birth is something to be proud of. There is nothing to be proud about until a Jew starts learning about what ot means to be a Jew and then begins living according to the tenets of the Jewish faith.

Just because your parents were Jewish and were good people, and they raised you to be a good person, that doesn't make you a good Jew. It makes you a good person - without much to distinguish you from a good gentile. Judaism is a religion based on books and laws which cannot simply be absorbed by osmosis, no matter which branch of the religion you follow.

I myself do not claim to be adequately educated in Jewish subjects, just better educated than most. That in and of itself is pretty sad.