The Jewish people in the Diaspora is falling in numbers, while in Israel it has succeeded in growing. The demographer Sergio Della Pergola, from the Hebrew University's The Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, says that this year Israel's Jewish population grew 1.7% while the Diaspora lost 0.2%. The political organization makes all the difference. In the Galut we are powerless, in our land we achieve the impossible.
8 comments:
You deserve to survive, since your leadership is actually on your side.
Can you imagine if a proposal was made that Harvard, or Oxford, host a "White People Policy Planning Institute"??
Anon.
In the current environment, I cant imagine an institute with that name.
Della Pergola is an oddball. From the looks of him, he could have been an Italian cinema star, but somehow became the world's most depressed demographer instead.
Perhaps the difference is inter-marriage? I never read it but I recall a book twenty years ago called "The Disappearing American Jew" that suggested America was too nice a place and too easy to assimilate into. What if the island of Manhattan were an independent country, would the Jews there show a similar trend to those in Israel?
"while in Israel it has succeeded in growing."
Yes but who will pay the bills and grow the food of the quick-breeding Haredi when the USA collapses and cannot send money anymore?
Dont worry Anonymous.
I think the book was called The Vanishing American Jew by Alan Dershowitz.
Alas, I too did not read the book either.
"who will pay the bills and grow the food of the quick-breeding Haredi when the USA collapses and cannot send money anymore?"
Seconded. J frequently neglects that it is the backward, uneducated haredim/hasidim who are breeding. They're more fanatical than were our bearded distant ancestors,and they keep a much tighter rein on their youth today (religious brainwashing, near total separation from the secular world, limited secular education so that those who defect can't survive in the secular world). Also, Israel is remote and has a smaller secular pool into which to defect than Europe or the U.S. For these reasons, no matter how much genetic potential they might have, I doubt most will ever show it. Meanwhile, they'll display all the charm of the mullahs or the Taliban if they ever take control.
It is only a partial truth that the number of Jews is declining in the diaspora. Paternal half-Jews have significant Jewish ancestry, and some either practice the religion or identify as Jews in the U.S. Della Pergola, coming from an Isreli background is almost certainly basing his assessment on a decline in the number of full Jews + maternal half-Jews. Most Jews in the U.S. aren't religious, so why should we accept the orthodox religious definition of Jewishness rather than moving to a more ethnicity-based definition instead? The populations genetics data would certainly support doing such a move.
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