After the emptying of Jews of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, there seemed to remain no more important Jewish populations in the Diaspora. American Jews, apparently, were dwindling and intermarrying, and they were so prosperous that they would never consider aliyah ("ascent to Israel"). Many political analysts wrote that Israel has lost the demographic race and it is condemned to Arab majority. They were all wrong.
Firstly, Jewish natural increase is growing. Today it is higher than any Western country and approaching our enemies. In addition, it was discovered that some ten million Jews were living in the United States and they were not all wealthy and prosperous. If only 10% of them came to Israel, they would change Israel's character.
According a recent study,
in addition non-Jewish adults living in households with Core Jewish or Jewish origin individuals number around 2.2 million. The “Extended Jewish population” in the U.S.—the number of eligible Americans under the State of Israel’s “Law of Return”—which was estimated at 8 million people in 1990, is currently estimated to number more than 10 million persons.American Jews Welcome.
24 comments:
Your link is defective.
The number of 10m is surprising, but is somewhat understandable considering Israel's Law of Return.
An anonymous Jew on Steve Sailer's blog claimed that as much as 15% of the American population may be partly Jewish. I don't get out very often, so I have no way of confirming or disproving anonyjew's claim, but 15% seems awfully high.
If ... if .. if 10% of America's "Jewish" population moved to Israel. If my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a trolley car (according to the old Yiddish saying). Not even 1% has any serious intention of making aliyah. This could change someday, but for now, don't expect any massive influx - there is just nothing here (at the moment) to drive such major life decisions. Wishing does not make it so. Think of what you have told about your Hungarian relatives before WWII (can't possibly live elsewhere - don't know the language, can't get familiar foods, blah, blah) and multiply that x 10 because the Jews of America fees 10x more secure and rooted in America than the Jews of Hungary ever did (Hungarian anti-Semitism was always near the surface and sometimes well above the surface, anti-Semitism in America is so far submerged that it is nearly invisible).
Natural increase is another matter. For centuries, the Jews of E. Europe had an extraordinary birth rate. If you read the history of any town in Poland, the Jewish community went from tiny or non-existent before the 18th century to a major % of the population (in many towns a majority) in 1939. It was quite common, indeed expected, that every Jewish woman have 8 or 10 children or sometimes more, just as we see in today's Hasidim, and this went on for 200+ years, so a starting population of a few thousand (if that) became millions.
K
Dear K,
How wrong are you regarding Hungarian Jews! There were no more patriotic Hungarians than the Jews. They felt so secure and rooted in Hungary that nothing could move them: during the Nazi occupation, when a strong antisemitic government campaign was started, the central Jewish organization published all over the country a manifest: Jewish brothers, close your mouths and work for the victory of our fatherland. That was weeks before the deportations. They tought if they ignore the accusations (of parasitism, of not working in productive jobs, etc.) - they will survive the bad times as did in the past.
Regarding America, you meet the people who is there and dont move; I meet here the American Jews who did move. Many young people come with the specific idea of establishing a family here.
Sorry for the link, it was a Baltimore Jewish paper, I cant find it again.
As an American WASP who's married to a half-jew (on her father's side). What would be your feelings if my marginally jewish children decided to move to Israel and continued their secular, non-jewish lifestyle there?
My morning copy of Haaretz carries an article on a new book by Robert Wistrich, on anti-Semitism in Britain; the article is entitled "Start worrying", and is positioned next to another article on the rise of anti-Semitic attacks in W Europe.
Perhaps this is the best source of potential new immigrants for you.
I don't know if these 2 articles are unduly alarmist, and of course it is Holocaust Remembrance Day. It was very impressive how the whole country seemed to come to a complete standstill for a minute, when the siren sounded at 10:00am.
Anon.
J - Your knowledge of matters Ungarisch is infinitely greater than mine, so I won't argue with you. But what you say only proves my point. Let us say then, that the Jews of America feel equally (or almost) as secure as those of Hungary once felt. They will therefore take no more action to save themselves by making aliyah than the Jews of Hungary did to save themselves. Of course a few have and will make aliyah, just as a few Hungarian Jews left before the war, but nowhere near 10% (unless the situation changes drastically). But most will stay as long as possible, even if conditions deteriorate. As someone else mentioned, if conditions become bad in the US for the Jews it will probably not be the result of specific anti-Jewish measures but just due to the overall decline of the country and of the position of the future white minority in it.
(PS the warning signs for the Hungarian Jews were ample. The Nyilaskeresztes did not exactly make a secret of their views toward the Jews - if the Jews did not see, it was because they were in extreme denial - however an understandable (though ineffective) defense mechanism when you have no real alternative but to hope for the best).
K
J, you appended blogger.com to the start of the web address. If you remove the blogger part the address works just fine. Here is the corrected URL:
http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/news/jt/national_news/surprises_in_new_jewish_religion_survey/
K-
I take it you aren't much of a believer in the efficacy of Holocaust Museums?
As an American WASP who's married to a half-jew (on her father's side). What would be your feelings if my marginally jewish children decided to move to Israel and continued their secular, non-jewish lifestyle there?
It is not clear to me what you mean by non-Jewish lifestyle. If you convert to Judaism and your children go to regular schools here and the Army and so on welcome. You will have difficulties with the Rabbinate, they dont believe in secular Jews. However, most of Israelis are rather secular, that is, non practicing. If you want to follow a Christian way of life, there is no point to coming to Israel.
K,
Hungarian Jews were in deep, sick denial. The Fatherland they were fighting for (my Father was in the Ukranian front with the Hungarian Army) was a fascist ally of Nazi Germany. I could never understand it.
Hindsight is 20/20 and in retrospect we are all in deep denial. If, God forbid, the Southern Hunger Artists (or whatever there name is) are right that the US is brimming with Nazi Jew killers just waiting for the right opportunity to slit our throats or it turns out that Iran is crazy enough (and gains the ability) to nuke Tel Aviv, then future generations (or our grandchildren, if God willing they are lucky enough to escape the conflagration, will someday write about our deep sick denial which they could never understand.
In the case of the Hungarian Jews I think there was an additional element of helplessness. At some point, they must have known that things were not ideal (to say the least) but they had no real alternatives(especially not the capitalist class for whom Bolshevism was just as bad an alternative as Fascism). Even in the US in the 1920s, top universities had a (secret) numerus clausus limiting the # of Jews. Not really until 1938 did things get seriously bad with the passage of anti-Jewish laws. By then, there was nowhere to escape to, especially not to a place where they could expect to maintain their lifestyle, no weapons to mount a resistance, nothing. So their best hope really was to put their heads down and hope that they could outlast the Fascists. Up until the German occupation the Jews were not physically harmed for the most part. Even the anti-Jewish laws were fairly toothless. Horthy understood that any attempt to shift control of the economy away from Jews overnight would harm Hungarians much more than Jews - if you took away Mr. Pick's salami factory, then hundreds of Hungarian workers would lose their jobs when the factory failed due to incompetent management. Officials could be bribed to look the other way. "Paper" arrangements to evade the laws could be made that were not followed in reality. The Jewish strategy almost worked given that the end of the war was only a year before the German deportations began. Almost - what a heartbreaking word.
K
For about a third of the Jews it did work: The ghetto of Budapest outlasted Eichman and was not deported, and also the mass killings in Auschwitz were stopped in 1945 so there were a few survivors.
I think 10% moving to Israel in say 15 years is a goal achievable. Many will go back, of course. One million American Jews could make a large difference in Israel.
I believe they may come.
I hope you are right but honestly I don't think it will happen.
K
Even 1% is 100,000 people. They will come.
I was amazed, even horrified, at the price of property in both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem when I toured recently.
How can young couiples afford to start a family?
Anon.
100,000 over 15 years (6,000/year) sounds more realistic. I would buy that # as attainable. But our fortune telling abilities stink. In 1985, who could have predicted that the Cold War would be over and the West victorious only 5 years later?
K
J, this reminds me of an article I saw on Jewish poverty in America. I just tried googling for the article and I didn't find it, but I did find other articles on Jewish poverty.
Haaretz
Zionist propaganda from the leftist newspaper your wife reads, who knew?
Forward
Israel Today
This article claims that some of the poor Jews in NYC are actually immigrants from Israel, some of them illegal.
Commentary Magazine
This last article seems to overstate the cost of raising Jewish children, but I could be wrong.
About starting a family and apartment prices in Israel.
If two young people works, they can afford renting an apartment. After saving a few years, they can have a 20 year State-subsidized mortgage and keep paying about the same amount as renting. After 20 years, they have an apartment.
The State is making great effort to disperse the population. If you are ready to move 40km from Tel Aviv to Kyriat Gat (where two large INtel factories are crying for workers) you can buy an apartment for half price. If you go to a development town, say Migdal HaEmek, you get free a project apartment (like British council flats). Couples with children get more or less free apartments in development towns. The religious people receive in religious towns like Modiin Ilit, Beyt Shemesh, etc. Once every six seven years the State offers to sell the "council flats" to its tenants for no money, in order to make everybody a property owner in Israel. Then they start moving up and closer to the center. When you are 45 you have your property and start to save for the children as we do.
Thanks for this.
I was quite tempted to invest in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem property as a "spec" buy, but I have come to understand that this is usually an internal warning sign that there is a bubble building up. Usually, but not always.
Still a thought , however, as the tenants are likely to be responsible and honest, which is not always the case around the world.
I enjoyed my visit, anyway, and the old town of Jaffa as well.
Anon.
Next time tell me you are coming and we go sightseeing.
I think investing in Israeli real estate is good business because the population is growing and the economy is growing, and they are making no more land, as they say. About a third of the Holyland project was bought by foreigners and they are renting it out. The rent is about 3-5% net which is not really attractive, but the property tends to conserve its value and slowly grow. I have banker friend who 20 years ago bought land in the Natania area, and hit the jackpot. His reasoning (then) was that Natania is Israel's bottleneck, and the scarcity of land will be felt more acutely there. He was right.
Tx, I might take you up on your offer.
Anon.
The story of the rebirth of Israel is so very incredible that I concluded we are living in biblical times.
The American community will go to Israel. How we do not know. Trying to imagine how is I believe an exercise of futility.
How/why did the european/russian communities go to israel?
The south african or argentinian ones?
The only constant factor I noticed is that the host usually goes through a lot of pain. In what form the US is going to be made to suffer by God in order for the People to live might be an interesting subject anyway I recognize.
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