In a recent op-ed (Jewish Light, Sept. 25), Rabbi Ze’ev Smason correctly notes that younger American Jews are drifting from the support of Israel. There are many reasons. The first that comes to my mind is that fewer Americans believe in the foundation myths of the religion in which they grew up.

I have few friends who believe the stories in Exodus yet alone the ones in Genesis. On the other hand, as an 11 time visitor to Israel starting in 1961, I am a proud Jew who recognizes the success of our tribe against all odds for hundreds of years.

There are many reasons young Jews turn away from Israel and so-called Jewish tradition. Included in that list are practices of some ultra-Orthodox who believe in arranged marriages, metizah b’peh during circumcisions, kosher practices that are a stretch from the few passages in Leviticus and customs such as the eruv.

Rabbi Smason would do well to ask himself what he could do to make our young people realize that they are part of a family like my ancestors in Poland and Germany who, from what I can determine, never belonged to a shul.

Norman Pressman, Clayton